Letters of a Lunatic

Academic freedom and personal reputation are at stake in G. J. Adler's account of his university life during 1853 and 1854. A professor of German literature in New York, Adler publishes letters to defend his standing and bring grievances before the public after seeking private redress. His correspondents include the university's head and the city's mayor. He describes disputed encounters, interruptions to his teaching, and tensions surrounding his residence in the university building on Washington Square.

The letters present these events through Adler's own urgent and combative perspective. His defense of independent study draws on his allegiance to German writers and philosophers, while the subjects extend to psychiatric confinement and the rights of the individual. Readers interested in the history of higher education or personal accounts of institutional authority will find a record of how one scholar argued for his dignity, livelihood, and freedom of thought.