Position IV
Sir:
In describing Igor Stravinsky at the triumphant premiere of his new ballet Orpheus . . . you say that the greatest living composer of ballet scores "took his bows onstage with the dancers, his feet crossed in his best Position III" [TIME, May 10].
Mr. Stravinsky, who has been writing ballets since 1909 . . . knows very well the logical anatomical basis of the Five Absolute Ballet Positions. In the Third Position (the heel of one foot locked against the instep of the other, weight equally distributed, with complete turnout), Mr. Stravinsky would have found it awkward to execute the traditional stage bow derived from the imperial Russian theater. He took it in Fourth Position (with weight equally divided, the fore foot is twelve inches in advance of the back).
LINCOLN KIRSTEIN
New York City
P: TIME'S admiration for 65-year-old Composer Stravinsky grows by leaps & bounds.--ED.
Vive le Roi!
Sir:
I protest strongly the way in which you speak of our beloved King Leopold III of Belgium, when you say "Better to perish in beauty" [TIME, May 10]. The Belgians wish that His Majesty should continue in beauty as was his whole life, faultless and above reproach in the service of his people. Mr. Spaak himself has recognized publicly that the King's conduct has been wholly above reproach . . .
COUNT ARNOUL DE BRIEY
Veteran of the Belgian Underground
New York City
Sir:
... It is cynical to say that His Majesty had better perish in beauty, when his whole life has been beautiful.
You may be assured that the Belgians wish ardently that their King should resume his place on the throne . . .
If you study the problem you'll see that in Belgium, as in so many other countries, Moscow would like to destroy us to our foundations. You know their formula: "Divide to master."
Leopold III will return, for the Belgians are losing patience with those who would destroy that which unites them, that which makes a Belgium, the King.
The royal question is not back on the shelf.
BARONESS DE LANDIERS
New York City
Immortal Expletive
Sir:
The bon mot is always welcome, particularly when it is appropriate, and a modicum of merde when skillfully handled imparts a zest to TIME'S fine flavor. However, it seems improbable that Jean Boewet [TIME, May 10], contemplating the "experts with briefcases," could have employed the immortal expletive of Cambronne.
On the other hand, he undoubtedly would have used it routinely in conjunction with dors, had one of the Waterloo skeletons bitten him, especially one wearing Prussian buttons.
ALBERT M. JACKSON
Becket, Mass.
Sir:
. . . Le mot de Cambronne . . . was not a "defiant vulgarism as a reply to a British demand for surrender" . . .
At Waterloo, seated on his great white horse, General Cambronne watched the tide of battle. When the elite of the French army, the Old Guard, smashed itself on British bayonets and was routed; when Napoleon exclaimed, "All is lost!" and fled; and finally, when Bluecher's Prussians [supposedly immobilized] appeared on the field of battle--then it was that Cambronne uttered the word.
In its Anglo-Saxon variant it is a word used by generals, small children and even high-born ladies in their cups when the ultimate in hopelessness is revealed . . .
CARL APPONYI Los Angeles, Calif.
P: Like all other versions (including TIME'S), Reader Apponyi's is apparently apocryphal. -- ED.
Ohahogan
Sir:
Your otherwise accurate magahogan [on Disc Jockey Jim Hawthorne] is far afield in its translation of the name of the home of Hoganites. It is Pasahogan, not Pasadena-hogan as reported in your May 10 issue.
NEELY PLUMB
North Hollywood, Calif.
Sir:
... I BELIEVE THE WORD "SCATTYBOO" WHICH TIME USED WILL ALMOST ECLIPSE THE WORD HOGAN AMONG MY FOLLOWERS. IN FACT, THE NEW HOGANSLOGAN IN THESE PARTS IS "SCATTYBOO AND HOGAN TOO. . ."
HAWTHORNE
Los Angeles, Calif.
Jeers, Cheers & Muscle
Sir:
TIME'S review of Horace McCoy's Kiss Tomorrow Good-Bye [TIME, May 10] was as insensitive as the review claimed Mr. McCoy's book to be ... No book can be this bad, even if it were transcribed from "the literature of men's-room walls."
TIME, in its impetuous desire to display satirical muscles, neglected to note McCoy's adroit use of symbolism, the uncanny fluency and nearness of his dialogue, and the influence (for good or bad) of Henry Miller upon his writing. I predict that TIME will shortly be forced to eat the cynicism and satire that was so flippantly fired from the side of its mouth . . .
To me, Kiss Tomorrow Good-Bye is superior to both Cain and Hemingway . . .
BRUCE MILLAR JR.
Georgetown, Conn.
Sir:
Dizzy Dean was credited with saying that on the pitcher's mound he couldn't tell the difference between jeers and cheers. They both sounded good. Perhaps authors feel the same way about having their books reviewed in TIME? . . .
EVELYN S. GARDNER
Thiensville, Wis.
P: Perhaps (see below). -- ED.
Sir:
HELP ! HELP ! HELP ! HELP ! HELP ! HELP ! HELP ! HELP ! HELP ! HELP !
HORACE McCoY
New York City
History's Hirelings (Cont'd)
Sir:
One of your readers opposes U.S. Army recruiting of volunteers in Europe, compares these volunteers to Persian slaves, Carthaginian back-stabbing hirelings and mercenaries, and concludes: "When we are reduced to having others fight for our freedom, we shall not deserve to have any" [TIME, May 3].
Millions of Americans would have been maimed or killed in battle and the remainder enslaved or gassed, if they had permitted such blind prejudice against "others" to sway their judgment to the point of refusing those "others" (from Britain, Canada, Australia, Continental Europe and elsewhere) the right to volunteer to save the lives of these Americans and of those dear to them--in the big fight against the Axis.
The letter I refer to has hurt the feelings of more people than you can possibly imagine.
S. D. ABRAMOFF Rotterdam, Holland
Growing Pains
Sir:
Your "What Is an American?" [TIME, May 10], after conjuring up the impressive shades of the British and Roman empires, reminds us that we are now "the greatest power on earth," to which the world looks "for hope and leadership." You then assure us that the U.S. citizen is "least of all a spokesman of imperialism."
You might have added that we seem "least of all" equipped to revive.the economies of the more than 100 million people in Japan, Korea, Germany and Austria, now subject to our rule . . .
GLENN E. HOOVER Oakland, Calif.
Sir:
I must be getting to be a maudlin old so'n so. At any rate, "What Is an American?" had me shaking with emotion . . .
HUGH JOSEPH MAGUIRE Philadelphia, Pa.
Sir:
We are quite content that you should "own" the atomic bomb, kill the ump, boo the Dodgers and eat more steak than the unfortunates without your borders, but your mode of posing it in international magazines is (we think) not the very best way to win friends and influence people . . .
I eat steak and kill the ump,
And wave the atomic bomb. I am the great American,
Bursting with aplomb . . .
J. D. MACGREGOR Toronto, Ont.
Cole's Capers
Sir:
I was interested in a footnote [TIME, May 10] about one of the undergraduate activities of the late William Horace de Vere Cole (see cut), brother-in-law of former Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. An English friend of mine . . . told me of a couple of other exploits carried out by Cole while still an undergraduate at Cambridge.
While posing as the Sultan of Zanzibar, he reviewed a unit of the British fleet at Portsmouth, England. With his "suite,"* Cole rode down on a special train for the review, and he noticed that the dining-car attendants were without white gloves. He had the train stopped and white gloves were procured from the next town, as "His Royal Highness" was unused to being served by ungloved attendants. The actual review of the fleet was carried out successfully . . .
On another occasion . . . Cole went to the British Museum and somehow procured some ancient ecclesiastical vestments. Dressed in these robes, and taking the title of the Anglican Bishop of Madras, Cole appeared at one of the better known English public schools, and confirmed several of the schoolboys in the chapel. Why his archaic vestments did not give him away at the time, I cannot imagine, but perhaps as Bishop of faraway Madras, the age and condition of his robes did not matter.
BERNARD S. CARTER JR. New York City
*Including Virginia Woolf (then Stephen) ; TIME, April 12, 1937.
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