The envelopes, personally addressed to the students with typed labels, were postmarked from Boston, and the author provided a Cambridge post office box for return mail.

"But don't write back to tell me you disgree with my letter," the author wrote. "I've had enough of that."

Claiming he plans to send the letter to several other top institutions, the author described himself as an expert on Nietzsche who enjoys reading J.D. Salinger and listening to Bach and "some sappy rock songs."

Reaction on the Williams campus was as varied as it was at Harvard two years ago.

"The letter said he wanted a manly man," said Chris M. Nelson, a Williams senior. "The guys he's met have been fruity and sensitive, like women.... We get a lot of shit in the mail, but nothing this weird."

"I wouldn't be surprised if the letter came from within the school," Nelson said. "There are so many gay and lesbian clubs."

One Williams sophomore, who asked to remain anonymous, said there was speculation on campus that the letter was part of a psychology experiment created to measure response among the student body.

Greg W. Albert, another Williams sophomore, said, "I get a lot of junk mail, but this was more unusual than any of the mail I ever got."

Most Williams students interviewed agreed that the letter was a strange experience for the entire student body.

One Harvard senior who received the virtually identical letter in 1995 and spoke on condition of anonymity said yesterday, "I thought it was a disturbing and sad thing--a cry for help.