ROSCOE POUND - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 02/09/1940 - HFSID 322789

ROSCOE POUND
On his letterhead as Dean of Harvard Law School, Pound signs a short typed letter regarding a book he's been asked to review. Accompanied by unsigned photo of the scholar.
Typed letter signed: "Roscoe Pound", 1 page, 8x10½. Cambridge, Massachusetts, 9 February 1940. On letterhead as Dean of Harvard Law School, To "Mr. John Macrae, Jr." New York City, in full: "Dear Mr. Macrae: Your letter of January 31 came while I was away from Cambridge, and I have only just seen it. When Mr. Jackson's book comes I will look at it at the first opportunity. But you must not ask me to be very prompt about it as I am very much pressed with work for some weeks to come and cannot do any thorough reading of anything until I get accumulated arrears cleaned up. Yours very truly." Accompanied by unsigned, b/w, 4x6 photo. Legal scholar Roscoe Pound (1870-1964), who graduated with a Botany degree from the University of Nebraska, never attended law school. Nevertheless, he became Dean of the Nebraska law school in 1903, a law professor at Harvard in 1910, and Dean of Harvard Law School (1916-1936). During his strict tenure, Harvard Law School registrations doubled, but one-third of the students there failed to graduate. Pound was one of the most often cited legal scholars of the 20th century. Initially, Pound espoused "legal realism," believing that judges should make decisions with the public interest in mind. He was highly critical of the "legal formalism" of the US Supreme Court's majority during the early New Deal. In 1937, however, Pound broke with President Roosevelt and condemned the "legal realism" he had previously espoused. Pound remained on the Harvard Law School faculty after resigning from the deanship. Normal mailing folds. Lightly creased. Otherwise, fine condition.