Hail to the Hero

Sir: I was gratified and delighted to see on your cover the picture of the most revered author of my youth, Vladimir Nabokov [May 23].

Many years ago, when I was 17 or 18, living in China, my father introduced me to books of Vladimir Sirin, which was Nabokov's pseudonym at that time. The first books that I read were The Luzhin Defence; King, Queen, Knave; Invitation to an Execution and some delightful short stories written in Russian. I kept all of his books for years, reading them over and over until they resembled worn-out library books; unfortunately, I lost them in a fire during the war in Manila.

To my delight the literary hero of my youth is now recognized as a genius.

SOPHIA A. GUINKH Doylestown, Pa.

Sir: It was a pleasure to read your long and richly appreciative article on Nabokov. I feel honored that you should credit me with some incidental part in the American recognition of his work. But full credit for the earliest sponsorship of his English writing should go to his first publisher in this country, James Laughlin IV, of New Directions. While enjoying the vogue that culminates in your story, let us not forget the special insight and the generous risks that this small firm has exercised on behalf of unrecognized talent.

HARRY LEVIN Irving Babbitt Professor of Comparative Literature

Harvard University Cambridge

Sir; Playboy has had the privilege, over the years, of publishing three works by Vladimir Nabokov, in whole or in part, before they became books. The most recent was Ada and, as TIME noted in quoting the author, he was less than pleased with the accompanying illustrations. You implied, I believe, that he went so far as to compose a critical cable, which he did not send. In fact, we did get a cable from him reading as follows: "Ada fragments beautifully printed but goodness what illustrations! That improbable young mammal and two revolting frogs."

A. C. SPECTORSKY Associate Publisher and Editorial Director

Playboy Magazine Chicago

Sir: The article and the box on Nabokov were positively brilliant. They had all the best features of writing. They were condensed, informative, amusing and so forth but they were something more: eloquent. The erudition, laughter and whimsy of Nabokov himself seems to have rubbed off on your reporters and writers.

HEIDI FISKE Manhattan

Sir: Everyone agrees that Nabokov is brilliant. However, to this admirer of his style, his novels are merely the best told dirty jokes the world has ever known.

SAMUEL DELONG Jamaica, N.Y.

Sir: It's always a relief to see on your cover the face of a man unrelated to current events. It means that there is no crisis, and the republic will survive another week.

ALEX PETROFF La Jolla, Calif.

Justice or Pretense?

Sir: I was horrified by the incident at the People's Park [May 23]. The picture you published of the student with a stomach full of bullets will probably cause few of your readers the grief it deserves, and the casual tone of your reporting exemplifies the attitude with which many Americans will view this event. It is hard to believe that people will accept the maiming and possible murder of youth under the pretense of justice; certainly the students could have committed no crime equal to this.

I begin to think that the law protects only the passive.

DEBORAH BLACKWELL Providence

Sir: Let's face it--one of the first rules in life that a child learns is that you don't take something that isn't yours. This property was paid for and owned by someone else. What the hippies did with the property was a very gentle thing, but it still was not theirs. I would like to take possession of the Wilshire area to develop into a lovely park but it's not mine.

These people should have made a down payment with their $1,000 on a vacant lot and then there wouldn't have been any of this to begin with.

DEANIE MARQUIS Covina, Calif.

Sir: Perhaps it is that I am only 19, but the story of the ill-fated People's Park moved me to tears. It showed creativity and originality on one side, and blind obstinacy on the other. Perhaps Mark Twain explained it better:

"In the first place God made idiots; this was for practice; then He made School [college?] Boards."

NANCY STEPHENS San Antonio

That'll Be the Day

Sir: Many of us here in Viet Nam have been following the stories about unrest on the nation's campuses with subdued anger. It is demoralizing to read about pur underprivileged counterparts vandalizing campus buildings, manhandling institution leaders and generally making asses of themselves. It is painful to the thousands of less-pampered "students" here who take their lessons from instructors in black pajamas and sandals; where classrooms are sandbagged, sweaty jungle clearings; where a drink is four tablets in a canteen of warm muddy water; where the Saturday night date is a cold beer and a letter from home; and where the grades are not As, Bs and Cs, but sudden death, crippling wounds or, maybe, victory.

But we don't expect you people back in the world to be concerned. You did your share back in '44, or was it '54, and now you're top tired to do more than mutter "What's this world coming to?"

Well, don't worry, people, because someday this war is going to be over, and half a million angry men are going to descend on the 50 states with dreams of homes and families and education and jobs. And when they hit the campuses, I sincerely hope that someone tries to stop a Marine "leg" from going to class, or that some sorry, smelly, social reject tries to plant a Viet Cong cross next to the artificial leg of a Seabee, or spits in the burned face of an Army medic. I guarantee that it will only happen once.

T. CONNER, U.S.A.

A.P.O. San Francisco

Legal Advice

Sir: I didn't "announce to the world," or anyone else, that I was going to take Sirhan's case, and I wasn't "chasing" it as you made it appear [May 23].

Sirhan's family has been contacting me repeatedly for the last month to "take over" his case. I have been very particular not to "announce" that I was to become Sirhan's lawyer because I have presently a conflict of interest and I fully advised the family of this on their first visit. I haven't talked with Sirhan, and if I were to represent him, this I would have to do unless I were to write an amicus curiae brief for the family solely.

When the facts of my "conflict of interest" presently with Sirhan are fully reported, I think you will see how concerned I am that you misinterpreted my communications with the Sirhan family.

MELVIN M. BELLI San Francisco

Far Afield

Sir: Your article "Scourge of the Conglomerates" [May 23] has left me befuddled about the reasons for Assistant Attorney General McLaren's rampage against conglomerates.

Who has conclusively shown that conglomerates don't compete? When Mr. McLaren speaks of mergers forcing "a radical restructuring of the economy" and of the restructuring not being based on valid economic grounds, he is going too far afield. Since when does an Assistant Attorney General judge the validity of economic grounds? Law and economics are independent of each other, and independent of both is our nation's constantly evolving economic structure. There is no reason to litigate against an economic phenomenon for the sole reason that it is nascent. Let's give the conglomerates a chance to show their worth before they are pulled into the nebulous vortex of antitrust litigation.

CARL I. UTRATA Cleveland Heights, Ohio

Verbiage

Sir: So now some semanticists have discovered that if we were to drop the verb "to be" from our language we would become more honest and less dogmatic [May 23]. Very interesting. The Russians are getting along almost entirely without "to be," but this does not seem to have brought about a notable increase in honesty and open-mindedness.

HANS GEORGE CLASSEN Ottawa, Ontario

Sir: Mr. Bourland's substitute word "remains" merely means "to be as it has been." As long as these two words mean the same, there is no point in the substitution. Bourland has probably succeeded in inventing something as precise and as useful as determining the number of cars by counting the wheels and dividing by four, and I would wager that he speaks Jabberwocky better than anyone.

DONALD WARD Manhattan

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