DearTIME-Reader:

AS often happens with TIME stories, ^our interest in France's Pierre Poujade (see cover) began even before the press of his own country took him up. Late in 1954 Paris Bureau Chief Frank White heard that some government officials were worried about an antitax rumbling in the provinces. White sent Correspondent Stanley Karnow, whose report on French youth (TIME, May 30) provoked a sensation in France, into the provinces to investigate. Karnow found Poujade haranguing a crowd in a Tours ballroom. Afterward, when Karnow suggested a drink and a talk, a Poujade lieutenant advised: "Don't waste your time, Pierre." Poujade brushed him aside with the perceptive observation: "When TIME writes about us, then the French press will be forced to follow. They'll have to recognize us."

Since then our Paris bureau has kept close tabs on Poujade, and so has the French press. Ex-Bookseller Poujade fumed whenever TIME referred to his following of small shopkeepers and craftsmen as tax dodgers. But he was still eager when Correspondent George de Carvalho, who was his shadow all through the December election campaign, told him that TIME planned a cover story about him. "Well, let's get it over with," said Poujade. "What do you want to know?" Replied De Carvalho: "Everything." Poujade chuckled and nodded: "Go ahead."

The chuckle soon turned to a growl. Poujade complained: "Usually reporters are happy to get a 20-minute interview. You've been haunting me night and day, and you're still not satisfied." Before long he was unwilling to talk at all to TIME. When Correspondent De Carvalho protested, a Poujadist cracked: "Maybe you have millions of American readers, but they don't vote in France." Said De Carvalho: "No, but French voters read, too."

WHEN NBC decided to add medical news to Dave Garroway's morning television show Today, it discovered that TIME was a ready source of authentic material. For a report on dysautonomia, a little known affliction, a symptom of which is weeping without tears, NBC used Medicine Editor Gilbert Cant's story (TIME, June 7, 1954) for script background. Later Today planned to review the treatment of mental ills with new drugs and learned the authoritative work was a booklet by Cant, based on the story Pills for the Mind (TIME, March 7, 1955).

After that the logical move was to get Cant himself on the show. Now TIME'S medicine editor is appearing each Thursday morning on Garroway's nationwide program. Last week Cant reported on the drug treatment of tuberculosis. His subject this week: the discovery of an antidote against nerve gases (see MEDICINE).

Cordially yours,

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