ROSCOE POUND - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 08/24/1962 - HFSID 322790

ROSCOE POUND
On his letterhead as the Dean of Harvard Law School, Pound responds late to a friend. Accompanied by unsigned original mailing envelope.
Typed letter signed: "Roscoe Pound", 1 page, 8x10½. Cambridge, Massachusetts, 24 August 1962. On letterhead as Dean of Harvard Law School, To "Jacob Bacal, Esq." New York City, in full: "Dear Bacal: Your letter came during my absence and I have only just seen it. I appreciate it very much indeed. With all good wishes, Yours very truly." Accompanied by unsigned, original mailing envelope, postmarked Cambridge, Massachusetts, August 24, 1962. 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.