Former Harvard President Nathan M. Pusey '28 said yesterday he will return here in the fall to work on a book about American higher education.

Pusey, who retired from the presidency of the Andrew Mellon foundation in June, said he will have no official position here but "just the privilege of using the library."

He said he will spend most of his time reading papers in the University Archives about the development of higher education during the 1950s and '60s.

Important Period

"I was president of Lawrence College [in Appleton. Wis] for nine years, and of Harvard for 18," he said. "That period is something very interesting. It's one of the most important in the history of education in the United States."

Pusey left Harvard's presidency in 1971, a year before he reached retirement age, and took the Mellon Foundation job in New York City. Since he left the Mellon Foundation Pusey has been living in Seal Harbor, Maine.

Dr. Chase N. Peterson '52, vice president for alumni affairs and development and Harvard's chief fundraiser, said yesterday he has asked Pusey to take a job as a fundraiser here.

Informal Invitation

Peterson, who was dean of admissions and financial aid under Pusey, said his requests to the former president have been "invitations" rather than formal job offers.

"I told him it would be awfully nice if he could come back." Peterson said.

He said he has not gotten "a firm yes or no" from Pusey, but that he is "still hopeful we will get some help" from him.

"I think he will fundraise for us on occasion," Peterson said. He said the last four presidents of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have become full time fundraisers for the school after their retirement.

Pusey apparently made the decision to return on his own; both Peterson and William Bentinck-Smith '37, Pusey's former assistant here, said yesterday they had heard nothing about it.

While he was president of Harvard. Pusey had a reputation as a very effective fundraiser.

During last few years here, however. Pusey came under attack from radical students and, later, from liberal students and faculty for the way he handled radical. In particular, his decision in April 1969 to call in police from Cambridge and other towns to forcibly evict students occupying University Hall was widely criticized