DearTIME-Reader:

THIS week, I want to tell you about -- TIME-Reader Liza Bales Moore, pretty 15-year-old neighbor of TIME Advertising Salesman Wallace Lawder in Winnetka, a pleasant suburb of Chicago. Liza has two sisters, Molly, 12, and Nora, 8, and two nine-year-old Siamese cats named King and Caliph.

When she was twelve, Liza did so poorly in her Current Events class that her father, M. De Witt Moore, an industrial engineer, and her mother, both thorough readers of TIME all the 23 years of their marriage, were somewhat embarrassed. "In Current Events," said Mrs. Moore, "Liza was practically illiterate." So Mrs. Moore started Liza reading TIME stories aloud (sometimes helping with the hard words). To whet her daughter's interest, Mrs. Moore suggested a hobby: Liza would read the cover stories, compose a letter and send it with the cover picture to the subject for an autograph. Now, three years later, Liza has just about the finest collection of autographed TIME covers extant. Statesmen, churchmen, industrialists, movie stars and even the famous face horse, Native Dancer (according to Owner Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt), were charmed by Liza's newsy letters about the busy Moore family of Winnetka.

Wrote Senator Clifford Case (TIME, Oct. 18, 1954): "May I tell you how much I enjoyed reading your letter and hearing about your very nice family, as well as about King and Caliph?" Heinz Nordhoff (TIME, Feb. 15, 1954) sent Liza plastic models of his Volkswagen cars and a big picture book on Germany with his autograph. "And he sent it all air mail, too," Liza exclaimed. "It cost him $8!" One of Liza's favorites is the golden signature of Queen Frederika of Greece (TIME, Oct. 26, 1953). "I think it is neat that I got a real Queen!" says Liza happily.

As a result of her TIME reading, Liza, currently a tenth-grader, is one of the best-informed students at New Trier High School. Proudly her mother says: "Liza is so well educated now that it's amazing. Not that I'd take anything away from her teachers and the schools, but TIME did a better job of making things interesting as well as informative."

Cordially yours,

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.