Steven Brown of Kent State University brought these letters to our attention in July, 2002. Professor Brown said:

“James Good of the University of Durham, UK, is in the finishing stages of completing fact-gathering prior to writing a book-length biography of William Stephenson, and among the items which he has recently unearthed are two letters from Egon Brunswik, one of three pages to Stephenson (“Dear Stevie”!, 26 May 1952) in which he praises Stephenson’s book manuscript on Q (“… your stupendous manuscript…”); and the second (20 May 1952), also three pages in length, to Alexander Morin, Associate Editor of the University of Chicago Press, in which he gives his evaluation of the Stephenson manuscript. So, Brunswik turns out to have been a reader, and an enthusiastic one, of what eventually became The Study of Behavior: Q-technique and Its Methodology (University of Chicago Press, 1953). (We also have Morin’s recommendations to Stephenson, incorporating Brunswik’s views.)”

The original letters are located with Stephenson’s papers at the Western Historical Manuscript Collection at the University of Missouri, which has kindly given permission to post them here.

We are extremely grateful to Professors Brown and Good for bringing these letters to our attention.

For more information on Stephenson and the Q-technique, see the Q group website (www.qmethod.org).

Letter from Brunswik to William Stephenson, May 26, 1952