Winchester, Massachusetts,
November 7, 1915.
Mr. Kempton Taylor,
Philadelphia.
My dear Taylor:-
1. I have found a man who I am sure can write an excellent biography of your father, and write it in the way that will at the same time do much good by showing others the usefulness and soundness of scientific management. Taylor's life was itself an example of the correct principles he stated, as I showed in my last letter; consequently, the human book which this man can write would make scientific management a living thing in the eyes of people, instead of an arbitrary and elaborate set of rules as some kind of the blind seem to think it is.
2. This man is C. Hanford Henderson:--address Dr. Hanford Henderson, Marienfeld Plantation, Samarcand, North Carolina. In order not to waste your time by making useless suggestions, I wrote him, telling him that you had been looking for a biographer and asking him if he would consider the matter if you still had not found one, and if he suited you and your family. He said he would be glad to do it; in fact, his enthusiasm over the opportunity he thought it might give him further to develop himself by studying a man like your father qualifies him as a biographer even more than I had at first thought. So I shall tell you about his qualifications for doing the biography, and give you the conditions under which he will take the job. Those conditions are the same as would be asked by any competent man, and are a good bit easier than would be asked by the large number who suffer a little from self-conceit.
3. I think Henderson's prime qualifications, apart from his enthusiasm over the possibility of studying Taylor, are these:- (1) He has had a scientific education, and he learned science,--did not merely stuff himself with dry memories of texts; he is a Ph.D. of Zurich, specializing at the time in geology, I think he told me. (2) He has an unusually pleasing literary style. (3) Like your father, he is boyish while still having a keen, but not over-serious, sense of responsibility; or, putting it another way, he is a man who knows human nature and can make your father's work appear what it is:- very human. I shall expand these statement a little.
4. Henderson has written several books, including a textbook on physics. I have as yet read only two of his books,--his last, and I think his next to last. Those two are Education and the Larger Life, and What Is It to be Educated? And both of them are excellent, not only in the soundness of the argument (which is really the use of the same principles as those used by your father, applied to what is formally known as 'education'), but also in clearness, conciseness, and pleasing simplicity of style. The Larger Life has had several editions; the other book has only recently been published. Henderson, for I think about two years, has been an editor on the Scientific American. He has for years been engaged in novel educational venture (showing his initiative and open-mindedness), which have not only been successful in a financial way, but have been approved as sound by the best educational authorities. He is a "mixer" in the best sense of that word, being a welcome companion to all classes from mischievous boys to college presidents, and having so far as I could perceive in
Winchester, Massachusetts,
November 7, 1915.
Mr. Kempton Taylor,
Philadelphia.
My dear Taylor:-
1. I have found a man who I am sure can write an excellent biography of your father, and write it in the way that will at the same time do much good by showing others the usefulness and soundness of scientific management. Taylor's life was itself an example of the correct principles he stated, as I showed in my last letter; consequently, the human book which this man can write would make scientific management a living thing in the eyes of people, instead of an arbitrary and elaborate set of rules as some kind of the blind seem to think it is.
2. This man is C. Hanford Henderson:--address Dr. Hanford Henderson, Marienfeld Plantation, Samarcand, North Carolina. In order not to waste your time by making useless suggestions, I wrote him, telling him that you had been looking for a biographer and asking him if he would consider the matter if you still had not found one, and if he suited you and your family. He said he would be glad to do it; in fact, his enthusiasm over the opportunity he thought it might give him further to develop himself by studying a man like your father qualifies him as a biographer even more than I had at first thought. So I shall tell you about his qualifications for doing the biography, and give you the conditions under which he will take the job. Those conditions are the same as would be asked by any competent man, and are a good bit easier than would be asked by the large number who suffer a little from self-conceit.
3. I think Henderson's prime qualifications, apart from his enthusiasm over the possibility of studying Taylor, are these:- (1) He has had a scientific education, and he learned science,--did not merely stuff himself with dry memories of texts; he is a Ph.D. of Zurich, specializing at the time in geology, I think he told me. (2) He has an unusually pleasing literary style. (3) Like your father, he is boyish while still having a keen, but not over-serious, sense of responsibility; or, putting it another way, he is a man who knows human nature and can make your father's work appear what it is:- very human. I shall expand these statement a little.
4. Henderson has written several books, including a textbook on physics. I have as yet read only two of his books,--his last, and I think his next to last. Those two are Education and the Larger Life, and What Is It to be Educated? And both of them are excellent, not only in the soundness of the argument (which is really the use of the same principles as those used by your father, applied to what is formally known as 'education'), but also in clearness, conciseness, and pleasing simplicity of style. The Larger Life has had several editions; the other book has only recently been published. Henderson, for I think about two years, has been an editor on the Scientific American. He has for years been engaged in novel educational venture (showing his initiative and open-mindedness), which have not only been successful in a financial way, but have been approved as sound by the best educational authorities. He is a "mixer" in the best sense of that word, being a welcome companion to all classes from mischievous boys to college presidents, and having so far as I could perceive in
