Sir:
Theater Critic Kalem's cover piece on Tennessee Williams was refreshing, especially in view of the bandwagoning upper-middlebrow critical sniping at the man's plays widespread the past five, six years.
EDWARD ALBEE New York City
SIR: SUITABLE QUOTATION WOULD BE LAST LINE OF BLANCHE.* ALL FRIENDS ARE DELIGHTED. IT'S A TRULY KIND PIECE.
TENNESSEE WILLIAMS NEW ORLEANS
Sir:
When an author lets loose the sewer of his mind isn't it about time the critics cried "Foul"?
JOHN E. ELIASON Greensboro, N.C.
Sir: Having seen Iguana, I can see that Williams must suffer--if only from hearing the audience bray with laughter at what is not meant to be funny.
MARY CALLAND Bronxville, N.Y.
SIR:
ALL OF US CONCERNED WITH THE NIGHT OF THE IGUANA WOULD LIKE TO EXTEND OUR HEARTIEST CONGRATULATIONS FOR YOUR EXTRAORDINARILY PERCEPTIVE PIECE ON TENNESSEE WILLIAMS.
CHARLES BOWDEN
PRODUCER NEW YORK CITY
Sir: Your fine cover story on Tennessee Williams reminds me of that old story about his next play. In the first act the hero has an affair with his father, in the second act an affair with his mother, and in the third act he has an affair with his brother--after which he learns he's adopted, so he commits suicide.
FRED FISHER Camden, N.J.
Sir: News for Tennessee, who nevermore comes to St. Louis. The house where Hazel Kramer lived was torn down last year, and a medical center now stands in its place. Dakin pointed the house out to me once saying: "That used to be the home of the only girl my brother ever loved." Dakin knows most of his brother's lines by heart and needs no prodding to act them out. He takes great pride in his brother's achievements.
BENJAMIN LLAMZON St. Louis
Moving with the Muse
Sir: As a bush leaguer among modern poets, I'd like to thank TIME for its article on poetry [Mar. 9]. The quotations are wonderful. Your final paragraph implies that poets have deliberately exiled themselves from the human race. If schoolteachers--who give most Americans their one and only experience of poetry--could be persuaded to ignore the 19th century with its artificial diction and clumsy constructions--and give their classes the poetry of today the human race could rejoin the poets.
JOSEPH HANSEN Los Angeles, Calif.
Sir:
Your review, which comprehensively skimmed the subject from Auden to Zen (though how come no Stanley Kunitz, Pulitzer Prize Poet of 1959 and best of the bunch?) moves me to the muse. To all poets, published and unpublished (or nine-tenths of the human race) I say:
Despite our oratorical bravado We're, all of us, so . . . incommunicado. GENE GRAMM New York City
Sir:
Perhaps if your critic spent less time rattling the dry, dirty bones of a dead beat, we might hear more of the quiet, honest, powerful "substance in us that prevails": John Holmes, Rolfe Humphries, John Ciardi, Paul Roche, William Carlos Williams.
M. H. KNOWLTON Winchester, Mass.
Sir:
Now that my own personal poet has been put in his rightful place I would like to comment.
In your own inimitable style you quote Stefan George about the "indignity of being understood." It seems to me that you often do this sort of thing to lure on your readers in the complacent knowledge that you are not going to take them to task for lack of understanding. The blame will be most assuredly leveled at the poets.
When in referring to the poets and the war you say, "At first the horror of it all, seemed to numb them . . ." you mean, I suppose, that the rest of us more "worldly" creatures were unmoved. I underlined "of it all" because it's the tone of such phrases that makes me doubt that the poets are the ones who are in a "self-sealing vacuum." It may just be possible that TIME Magazine is living in a dream world. That ivory tower of yours is being engulfed by a "self-sealing vacuum," you'd better watch out. The poets may have to rescue you.
ELIZABETH EBERHART Hanover, N.H.
>Reader Eberhart is wife of often-laureled Poet Richard Eberhart.--ED.
Our Man in Space Sir: Thank you for your excellent coverage of John Glenn's orbital flight [March 2]. I intend to save this issue for my young sons in the hope that they will benefit more by reading it than by learning of it in a history book.
MRS. LEE A. DIACK Levittown, N.J.
Sir: I am sure that the University of Pennsylvania's George Ruff doesn't give a Rapp, but isn't he the Project Mercury psychiatrist who asked: "What did the little particles say, John?" J. C. SCHAEFER Philadelphia > That was a Ruff question.--ED.
Sir: Thank God, thank Glenn. Thank you.
MARION PORTER Cleveland
Urban Affairs
Sir:
I'm sure glad there are people left who can laugh. The killing of the Urban Affairs bill [March 2] seemed to me to be a pretty gloomy event. I thought it was needed; I thought large numbers of U.S. cities needed help in slum clearance, sanitation, unemployment, and welfare problems. But, as TIME gaily pointed out, it was probably all a cheap Administration political maneuver.
GARY R. BURDICK Oxford, Ohio
Sir:
The defeat of the Administration's Urban Affairs proposal reflects not only inept politics, but also the revolt of the voters against more and bigger Government. We're just damned tired of attempts by the Executive to control everything from Washington; we Hoosiers think Kennedy is power mad and that he and his Administration are a genuine danger to our country.
J. M. JEWELL Columbus, Ind.
Romney's Fast
Sir:
When Gus Scholle, president of Michigan's A.F.L.-C.I.O., regarded George Romney's fasting and prayer as a "phony (political) stunt," he not only disrobed his own character, but left one wondering what office Critic Scholle believes Jesus was seeking when he used the same "phony stunt."
KENDALL P. HATCH Salt Lake City
Sir:
How come Mormon George Romney had to fast and pray for 24 hours for divine guidance before deciding whether to run for Governor of Michigan when he already has decided to run for President ?
PETER F. CLARKE
St. Benedict, Ore.
Sir:
You have written an outstanding article on Romney. You could have placed this subject in a derogatory light, but it is written fairly, accurately and, most important, with understanding.
PAUL A. TENNEY San Diego
A Lot of Corn
Sir:
In your article on Poland [Feb. 23] you stated that that country's corn yield reached 449 bu. per acre in 1961. Such an astronomical figure must surely have made many a Midwestern farmer wince in utter astonishment.
It would be interesting to know the actual figure.
DON STRAUB
Susanville, Calif.
> A less astronomical 44.9.--ED.
Whither the Catholic Intellectual?
Sir:
Your reader's letter [March 2] "No Einsteins, but also no Rosenbergs" obviously carries the inference that "half of them may be Einsteins, but the other half are Rosenbergs." By the same logic, "No George Washingtons, but no Benedict Arnolds"; "No Winston Churchills, but no Roger Casements."
AARON ELMORE
Beverly Hills, Calif.
Sir: Surely a Jew such as I--who can raise her head with pride at the mention of names such as Salk, Einstein, Oppenheimer--can certainly bear the shame of the Rosenbergs.
SHEILA E. SEIDMON Chicago Faith Abstracted
Sir:
I am encouraged to see abstract art go religious via William Congdon [March 2]. A religious theme gives it purpose, and art can still illuminate religion, as it has done so worthily in the past.
MRS. J. R. GILLIS San Gabriel, Calif.
Sir: The photograph of Congdon's Crucifix No. 2 seems to show that the hard-won visual knowledge leading up to the faithless cliches of abstract expressionism has also served him well--although perhaps it is unfair to judge on so little.
ROSLYN AND GLENN ROBLES Paris
-- Blanche: "Whoever you are--I have always depended on the kindness of strangers."
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