To Daniel MacGhie Cory
Hotel Bristol
Rome. June 9, 1937
At first blush what you say about S. not having “yet” written “his letter” to Harvard is astonishing. I had supposed that you were named in the bequest itself, as an obligatory first holder of the Fellowship. Perhaps this was found irregular by the lawyers, and a letter of recommendation substituted, and not written! On reflection, however, the thing seems less alarming. Even if S. didn’t write the letter－(and I expect he will) you are now a recognized free lance in philosophy, as all philosophers ought to be, and just the sort of person indicated in S’s bequest, and also in mine; and I (if living) and other persons might exert some influence, if the Harvard authorities didn’t think of you of their own accord. Pity S. didn’t leave his Fellowship to Columbia, where he was professor and where you have friends. And more the pity that he didn’t leave the income of the money to you for life, and then the capital to some damned University. Besides, who knows if by that time Capitalism may have disappeared, with all Fellowships and endowed Universities? We know how our plans begin, but not how they will end.
From The Letters of George Santayana: Book Six, 1937-1940. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2004.
Location of manuscript: Butler Library, Columbia University, New York NY.