Man of the Year
Sir:
Khrushchev--for his Sputnik-nack!
INEZ PILK Cambridge, Mass.
Sir:
He is Nikita--damn it all.
KEN MCGREGOR
Los Alamitos, Calif.
Sir:
It has to be either Governor Faubus or the inventor of Sputnik.
CHARLIE C. HOERSKE
New Orleans
Sir:
Why not, for a change, the scientist? A tribute should be paid to the often obscure men whose growing importance in world affairs can no longer be ignored.
ALBERT A. GRUNSTEIN Heliopolis, Egypt
Sir:
Konrad Adenauer--staunch friend of freedom and implacable foe of Communism. It will be a fitting climax in a great career.
THOMAS BERTHOLD Wellington, N.Z.
Sir:
Billy Graham, our greatest Christian leader since William Jennings Bryan.
LUCAS DAVIDSON
San Francisco
Sir:
Mike Todd--the greatest of egotists.
LESTER JACKSON
Kansas City, Mo.
Sir:
Walt Disney--he still brings joy to young and old via Disneyland.
E. REED Detroit
Sir:
Unquestionably my husband--an average man with all the virtues: generous with his time and money, compassionate, charitable and always cheerful. Works twelve to 14 hours a day, six days a week.
MRS. EUGENE COVERT Dearborn, Mich.
SIR:
IKE FOR HIS BELATED RECOGNITION OF THE
NEED FOR EGGHEADS, EVEN ADLAl's.
EARL PLANTY
CHAMPAIGN, ILL.
Space & the U.S.
Sir: The shocking comparison between science education in our high schools and those of the U.S.S.R. -- as brought out in your fine and important cover story on Dr. Edward Teller -- is truly appalling. In light of this emergency where the security of our nation is involved, I think our quibbling, pussyfootiing, philosophizing, and hairsplitting over federal aid to education are ridiculous. Let's get with it. But fast.
HENRY LASH Los Angeles
Sir:
With the Russians blowing up our primrose path with Sputniks, now more than ever is the time to be glad that we are living in a country where some of the scientists spend their time working for human happiness, to ease human suffering, and to make life more enjoyable. I would rather go down in a ship that had room for all mankind than stay aboard one that floated on the backs of oppressed peoples and found its greatest achievement in 40 years to be a potential weapon of destruction.
MRS. PAUL K. GASTON
Ann Arbor, Mich.
Sir:
The public and many of the news commentators seem unwilling to pronounce Sputnik correctly, with the phoneme of the vowel sound of "boot" rather than that of "but." E. G. FLETCHER Austin, Texas
P:Rhymes with boot neck.--ED.
Lifting the Veil Sir: I thoroughly enjoyed your Nov. 11 article on the emancipation of Moslem women, especially since I was an instructor at Robert College in Istanbul at the time (about the beginning of Ataturk's idea to "westernize" his country) when the Turkish men were forced to throw away their fezzes and the young Turkish girls eagerly discarded their veils. The late Dr. Caleb Gates, president of the college and a very religious man, was a good friend of a wealthy pasha who had four wives. He asked the pasha why it was necessary to have four wives.
The pasha raised his eyebrows and said: "I see no difference. We have four wives all at the same time. In your country you have them one after the other." GRANT MERRILL Seattle
Sir:
Your article is a laudable appraisal of the vanishing veil situation. The "Malay Woman at Funeral Service" is a masterpiece of photographic realism, but the cover portrait is an atrocious, colorless affair.
M. KHURSHEED Karachi, Pakistan
Sir:
Congratulations to Robert Vickrey for his portrait of Princess Aisha. Cover artist, tempera painter and Yaleman, Robert Vickrey was a member of my class at the Yale School of the Fine Arts, that had the motto Un oeufs enurf.
LEWIS E. YORK Hamden, Conn.
Sir:
While the Moslem woman suffers slavery from excessive veiling and male domination, her Western sister suffers equally from her unveiling. No civilization, not even the most pagan, has utilized the female form as has America. Half-naked women are used to sell everything from cars to breakfast foods.
LEWIS CARRY Milwaukee
Sir:
As indicated by your picture of Malaya's Maria Menando, emancipated Moslem women should keep to their veils.
MARY MOLLOY
Manhasset, N.Y.
Sir:
Re your article: Women! Always rebelling against something. Aren't they ever satisfied?
CLEMENS A. LOEW New York City
Chicago Line-Up
Sir:
Your statement in Nov. 4 Press section quoting the Chicago Sun-Times's boast of passing the Chicago Daily News in ad volume is inaccurate. The Daily News has a total of 16,610,147 lines of advertising for the first nine months of 1957; the Sun-Times has 15,911,951 lines.
ARTHUR E. HALL Vice President and General Manager Chicago Daily News
P:In the high calculus of newspaper advertising figures, the Chicago Daily News leads the Sun-Times in national advertising, while the Sun-Times leads in full-run retail and classified advertising. Both agree that the News leads in total advertising.--ED.
God & Camus
Sir:
The Nobel Prize to Camus is a sinister joke. An atheist, amoral, pessimist author. The choice should have been Andre Maurois.
G. DE PERTIGNY New York City
Sir:
TIME is apparently trying to insinuate that Camus' thought might be perfect with just a tiny "final leap of religious faith." We have had 20 or 21 centuries of God. If those problems which Camus and other modern thinkers still face are not solved yet, I doubt very much that God would be a satisfying solution now.
ESTEBAN TOLLINCHI Heidelberg, Germany
An Oasis of Clarity
Sir:
I wonder how many Vermont lovers protested your remarks about that state [Nov. 11|. Surely the preponderant voice would come from ex-Vermonters. Perhaps the high suicide rate stems from disgust with the rest of humanity. Vermont will always be a breath of fresh air and an oasis of clarity. ESTHER MONTGOMERY STRONG
Englewood, N.J.
Sir:
It should not be surprising that Vermont has the lowest murder rate and the highest suicide rate. It means that the Vermonters have become quite civilized. Barbarians relieve their frustrations by carving or shooting up their neighbors. Civilized people vent their frustrations on themselves.
LEONARD THORP
Pullman, Wash.
The Game of Governing Sir: TIME, Nov. 4, states that I was the candidate of David Lawrence for governor, that he dragged me into office, that I was a "playboy" governor, that he ran the state during my administration. I was not La rence's candidate. A group urged me to run for office. Lawrence was neither for nor against me, and he did not drag me into office. Quite the contrary. In the presidential election of 1932, in spite of a Roosevelt sweep of the nation, Pennsylvania Democracy lost the state to Hoover. In 1934 I campaigned, covering every county in the state.
But far more important, I contributed $160,000 partly my money, but for the most part borrowed from personal friends. My record of public service was pretty fair, I think, for a "playboy."
GEORGE H. EARLE
Radnor, Pa.
P:TIME agrees that Reader Earle performed some good works as governor, also believes that he earned his widely held reputation as a playboy.--ED.
History With Pleasure Sir: The museum has had the good fortune to receive a copy of Three Hundred Years of American Painting. The broad scope of this work distinguishes it as the first publication to encompass all phases of the painting of the nation without undue emphasis on fashions or favorites. Within the limits of national borders you have put together an important segment of history and a description that gives pleasure as well as profit to the reader.
GEORGE L. STOUT
Director
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Boston
Sir:
I should like to register my enthusiasm for American Painting. The volume is beautifully composed and so full of entertaining and useful material that it will not merely be another art book on my shelf, but one which I shall enjoy looking at and referring to often.
MRS. LOREN EISELEY Assistant Director The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Philadelphia
Sir:
I find it to be an extremely interesting collection of works, representing the development of painting in this country from Colonial times, and the excellence of the color reproductions adds a great deal to its effectiveness.
KENNETH E. HUDSON Dean
Washington University St. Louis
Sir:
I found it very lively. By your intriguing style and fresh presentation of an oft-told story, I think you will catch a lot of people unawares, people who had thought they were not interested in art.
PERRY T. RATHBONE Director
Museum of Fine Arts Boston
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