William H. Kilpatrick is worldwide known as "Mr. Project Method." But the origin of his celebrated paper of 1918 has never been explored. The discovery of a hitherto unknown letter reveals that Kilpatrick was an educational entrepreneur who, without regard for language and tradition, adopted the term "project" and used it in a provocative new way to become famous and to be not only remembered as a genial teacher but as an "originator" as well. His paper evoked fierce criticism from friend and foe, including Ernest Horn, Guy M. Wilson, Boyd H. Bode, and John Dewey. In the late 1920s, realizing that he had gotten himself in an indefensible situation, he silently gave up the term and spoke of "activities" when the students carried out their own plans and ideas "heartily" and "purposefully." Contrary to the established view Kilpatrick is not the classic of the project method, but rather the classical outsider. (Contains 7 footnotes.)