Capt. Alfred G. Etter
22 S. Hartnett Street
Ferguson, Missouri
January 14, 1946
Dr. Aldo Leopold
Department of Wild Life Management
University of Wisconsin
Dear Sir:
Almost six months ago I inquired as to courses of instruction offer-
ed by your department. I still have the prospectus which you sent, and also
the Department of Agriculture leaflet. In addition, I now have your more
recent circular letter concerning changes which have occurred due to increas-
ed enrollments. For several weeks I have been in the process of combining
the information contained therein with my personal desires and my military
probabilities. I have come to certain conclusions, the most important of
which is that I desire above all else to work for a graduate degree in your
department. This, I know, is probably not the reaction you more or less in-
tended that your recent letter should have, but as far as I was concerned I
felt more encouraged after reading about the personal requirements which you
desire than I had before.
I appreciate the great seriousness you attach to attracting only
the most capable individuals into the field of wild life management, and par-
ticularly into your department. I should not consider applying for admission
were I hesitant in my enthusiasm for the work or doubtful of my ability to
contribute something. I have come to feel, on the contrary, that there is much
that I can do, in fact must do, whether I am able to make all the most desir-
able arrangemets in next few years or not. I have already begun, in the limit-
ed manner that army life allows, to direct my time, my efforts, and resources
in the direction of achieving something beyond a pair of slippers and an indiff-
erent smile.
For the last two years I have slowly accumulated sufficient movie
equipment to allow me to work with considerable freedom of action. I have a
16 mm. Bolex Camera, with 1/2" 1" 2" 3" 4" and 6" lenses, and in addition a
projector, screen, and editor. While acauiring this equipment I have been
gaining experience in its use. I have taken perhaps 3000 feet of color film
and feel somehow that I have found a method of expressing to other people the
feelings and satisfaction that come over me in the contemplation of natural
scenes and wild animals. Much of my interest lies, I will admit, with birds,
but I can never study them to the exclusion of everything else. It is primar-
ily for this reason that I decided against the study of straight Ornithology.
The most capable ornithologist, I suspect, is the one who knows the most about
interrelated biological problems. The ancient "Harmonies of Nature" as suggest-
ed by Bernardin de Saint Pierre in his "Studies of Nature," and their modern