Inaugural Preview
Sir:
I was amazed to notice how closely this year's official Inaugural Medal resembles TIME'S Nov. 12 cover. I wonder if there is any connection between the two.
MICHAEL GRADY Chestnut Hill, Mass.
P: None. President Eisenhower decided on this year's medal before TIME'S Nov. 12 cover appeared, the second time in history that the medal has shown two profiles (the first: Taft and James S. Sherman in 1909). For the resemblance noted by Reader Grady, see cuts.--ED.
Man of the Year
Sir:
Congratulations on naming the Hungarian Freedom Fighter. Since the embattled American farmers stood at Concord in 1775, there has been no greater and finer and braver blow struck for human liberty and freedom than that by these modern sons of Thaddeus Kosciusko.
CYRIL CLEMENS St. Louis
Sir:
I don't think you could have chosen better. A wonderful choice!
GEORGE LOOMIS
Cambridge, Mass.
Room in the House
Sir:
May I suggest we open our hearts and pocketbooks to the homeless starving Arabs as well as the brave Hungarians ?
GRANT C. BUTLER Pacific Palisades, Calif.
Sir:
Why all the fuss and noise about freedom for the Hungarians? Let's first give freedom to the millions of Negroes in the South, and show the rest of the world that we believe in freedom for all peoples--not just for the whites.
W. R. WILSON
Los Angeles
Sir:
We call the able-bodied refugees "heroes." I should think the heroes are those who have remained in Hungary to fight. If we in this country were oppressed by a totalitarian government, and I fled to England while my compatriots fought and died, would I be a hero to the cause of freedom? What would I be if my wife and I fled leaving a nine-year-old daughter behind? A hero?
WALTER J. BOETTCHER Canonsburg, Pa.
Sir:
"Any mans death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankinde, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee" (John Donne). The bell which tolls for Hungary tolls equally for us who watch in helpless impotence.
NOLA WALLACE
Los Angeles
Sir:
Mrs. Bloomstadt asks [Dec. 3] how we are going to feed, clothe, etc., the Hungarian refugees here. Where there's room in the heart, there's room in the house.
M. C. McLAY Flint, Mich.
The Catholics as Censors
Sir:
I am one of many Roman Catholics, I hope, who are appalled at the shallow thinking of our Chicago brethren who became a pressure group protesting the showing of the TV film Martin Luther [Dec. 31]. If, as Catholics, we possess the truth, why do they resort to such intolerance in order to prohibit what they consider to be false from the beginning. We cannot deny the historical existence of Luther and his founding of the Protestant Church. Do Chicago Catholics fear the facts of history? I wonder if they realize how much their bigotry damages the cause of Catholicism and the fellowship of man?
GERALD QUINLIVAN Honolulu, T.H.
Sir:
No one would object more violently than I if Roman Catholics were refused permission to schedule ''Bishop Sheen," "The Christophers," etc. on TV, but by the same token,
I vehemently protest the interference of Roman Catholics in the showing of programs not in accord with their beliefs.
MRS. TOMMY MCGEORGE
Billings, Mont.
Too Bad About Sade
Sir:
I would like to add some unrecognized facts to your Dec. 31 story on the Marquis de Sade controversy. I pointed out in my recent book We Can't All Be Sane that Sade was really an early-day Kinsey--an overenthusiastic medical researcher who has been much maligned by history. As he clearly explained, his so-called ''torture" of a poor servant girl was an imprudent attempt to test a healing ointment on some superficial abrasions during a time when he was plagued by boredom and domestic strife. The girl was terrified but unharmed. The so-called poisoning of the Marseille prostitutes was a planned experiment to test the aphrodisiac properties of "Spanish fly" (Cantharides) on the unfortunate girls. Most of the "dreadful" books of Sade are quite mild compared to many paperback novels sold today.
WILLIAM H. KUPPER, M.D. San Pedro, Calif.
Advice for the Met
Sir:
Like all art forms, opera is inclined to settle in a rut until someone comes along who is capable of rekindling the spark of creativeness. I for one welcomed the advent of Maria Callas as the one bright spot in the otherwise dull Metropolitan Opera performances. Her talents, vocal and histrionic, far outweigh her faults. A singer who can maintain a perfect record for all performances has yet to be found.
JOHN W. HARMON Colorado Springs, Colo.
Sir:
I wish to go on record as saying: "We don't want Callas!" If it is a drawing card the Met needs, the estimable Fred Muggs may be at leisure.
WILLIAM HAMILTON JR. Fort Worth
Sir:
Really, there is only one thing wrong with her as an opera singer--her voice.
GUY BAKER Fort Kent, Me.
Operation Deep Freeze
Sir:
I have just read "Compelling Continent" in your Dec. 31 issue. If there lhas been sweeter writing in a decade, more eloquent and descriptive prose, then I have not read it, and would like to.
DAN POLING Editor
Christian Herald New York City
Sir:
Several thousand persons, here and abroad, who have known Dr. Paul Siple since the start of his exploring career 28 years ago will read with satisfaction your story. It was a splendid article and well illustrated.
AUGUST HOWARD Secretary
American Polar Society New York City
What the Cardinal Said
Sir:
Your Dec. 17 article on Cardinal Josef Mindszenty stated that the letters C.F. mean coactus feci ["I have been forced to act"]. Another magazine said they meant contra fidem ["against my will"]. Could you tell me who is speaking cum fiducia?
MICHAEL MURPHY Auburn, N.Y. P:TIME.--ED.
The Cardinal & the Bishop
Sir:
I've grown weary of the constant publicity on Cardinal Mindszenty. It's about time some mention was made of the struggle European Lutherans have had in their Christian stand against Communist domination. It was indeed gratifying to read your article [Oct. 22] on Lutheran Bishop Lajos Ordass.
MRS. ROBERT GODLEWSKI Niagara Falls, N.Y.
P:Bishop Ordass, once imprisoned for nearly two years by the Communists, was recently reinstated as Lutheran Bishop of Budapest.--ED.
Soul Searchers
Sir:
Regarding the Dec. 24 article, "A Soul Without Psychology": Dr. Ira Progoff is making the same mistake as Freud, Adler, Jung and Rank have made. He is looking for an absolute truth, through which he can understand the complexities of human personality. Such an absolute probably does not exist; nor is it necessary in the study of psychology. Rather than look for something "nonrational" or spiritual (the soul), Progoff should content himself with rational probabilities. Human personality, although it is something abstract, is affected by a material environment--even in its seemingly spiritual characteristics.
ROBERT WHALEN Detroit
Integrating the Blind
Sir:
As the parents of an eight-year-old blind child in the second grade, my husband and I were very pleased to read your sympathetic Dec. 10 article on the education of blind children alongside their sighted contemporaries in Chicago. The spread of the public-school program in this field is a source of gratification to the many people who have believed for years that blind people live in a sighted world and can best take their proper place in that world if they have not been segregated from it.
MRS. HERMAN LASS
Cincinnati
High Level Problem
Sir:
Your Dec. 24 Swiss sixth-grade problem* was subjected to the combined efforts of an education senior, a business administration grad student, a pre-med student, and an English lit. major. After about six hours we made a frantic call to our favorite Ph.D. candidate in math. He was kind enough to tell us that our solution was the right one. Next time, could you publish a fifth-grade problem ?
FLORENCE GUTMAN FRAN SPALDING DOROTHY ROSENBLOOM CAMILLE TROGAN Stevens Co-operative House University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Mich.
Refreshing & Gratifying
Sir:
Your Dec. 24 cover story on Edward Hopper gives me courage to go on painting and to be worthy enough to be called an artist.
ERNEST MEZO
New York City
Sir:
Congratulations on your fine color reproduction of Benjamin West's portrait of Guy Johnson. On what authority does TIME label the Indian in the background Joseph Brant? There is no resemblance between this and the portrait of Brant by Romney, painted in the same year, or those by Gilbert Stuart, painted later. It is more likely that the Indian is merely a symbol of Guy Johnson's office, Superintendent of Indian Affairs in succession to his uncle and father-in-law, Sir William Johnson.
MILTON W. HAMILTON Editor
The Papers of Sir William Johnson Slingerlands, N.Y.
P:TIME'S authority is the National Gallery, whose experts agree that West's Indian, while not looking like other portraits of him, is indeed Joseph Brant. However, it is logical, they say, that West idealized him in his portrait as a symbol of his race. For West's and Stuart's portraits, see cuts.--ED.
Sir:
Your excellent cover and article on the great painter is a shaft of brilliant light in the brownstone world of dying avant-garde abstractionism.
FRANCIS C. PETERS
President Chapter of the American Artists Professional League Washington, D.C.
Sir:
The ejaculations of Hopper are more lively than his paintings. One thought is clear: the continuum of romanticist murmuring and sweet trills of past American art will "glow" through the age of Hopper and those who follow, amply aided by TIME.
(PFC.) MILTON T. STUBBS U.S. Army Fort Benning, Ga.
Sir:
Your Dec. 24 issue took us to the world of outer worlds. Never before have we lingered over an issue of TIME for so long with such appreciation.
PAUL B. NOEL
San Francisco
Sir:
I think your article on Edward Hopper the most moving and understanding you have ever published. Many artists should read this. You have done a top job.
ANDREW WYETH Chadds Ford, Pa.
* "A stack of pamphlets is in three piles. The first pile contains one-sixth of them, the second pile several fifths of them, and the third pile contains six. What is the total number of pamphlets? Answer: 180."
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