Many people are responding with the JFA reference.
This one is sent out because of its extra information.
(I, too, think highly of Baez's paper.).......DMD
_______________________________________

Subject: Letter from E8
Date: Tue, 16 Apr 2002 09:44:21 -0500 (CDT)
From: Peter May <may@math.uchicago.edu>

The letter from E8, which defends it from unjust
aspersions on its character, is to be found in

J.F. Adams
Finite H-spaces and Lie groups
J. Pure and Applied Algebra 19(1980), 1-8.

(Reprinted pages 235-242 of the second volume
of ``The selected works of J. Frank Adams".)

Incidentally, for those fond of exceptional Lie
groups, John Baez's article ``Octonions" in this
month's Bulletin of the AMS is highly recommended.

And for those in search of further amusement,
Adams' letter from E8 was inspired by a letter
from beyond the  grave that is to be found in
``Correspondence", Annals of Math. 69(1959), 247-251.