Marilyn

Sir:

The tragic death of Marilyn Monroe, whether accidental or otherwise, emphasizes the potential danger of having sleeping pills within easy access of the bed.

In nearly a third of a century of practice, I have seen patients in a semi-stuporous condition after the first dose repeat it once or several times, with no self-destructive intent because they were not fully conscious.

It would be wise to keep these medications as far as possible from the sleeping quarters, preferably on another floor.

H. PAUL JOHNSON, M.D. Canon City, Colo.

Sir:

We here in Los Angeles heard the first announcement of the tragic death of Marilyn Monroe about midmorning on Sunday, Aug. 5.

As a subscriber to TIME, I receive each issue in the mail on Tuesday morning-this time on the morning of Aug. 7.

It seems incredible to me, as to others, that you could have included this item of news so quickly to be received by your readers all over the country in less than two days' time.

An explanation to your readers would be most interesting and informative.

FRANCES WAGNER Los Angeles

> TIME editors also heard the news Sunday morning, after the magazine had gone to press. Contributing Editor Barry Farrell was called in to write the obituary, and the press run was interrupted long enough to insert the article. More than 88% of TIME'S copies carried the news.-ED.

Sir:

Within hours after her death, Marilyn Monroe faced her Last Judgment at the hands of TIME magazine. In quick, merciless thrusts your writer depicted early guilt, perverted dreams, and a "kittenish romance." It advanced a "death long in coming," "self-doubt," and just plain "body."

Who asked this writer to play God? And such a God-who sees only the public image, only the sensational, only the body? Who dares to judge a human being, the person Marilyn? "Judge not that ye be not judged." The real Last Judgment may reveal a much wider responsibility for this death-it may even reveal you and me.

(THE REV.) MARTIN L. DEPPE

Mandell Methodist Church Chicago

Sir:

Back in 1956 TIME ran a cover picture of Marilyn Monroe. It didn't emphasize her curves; it was simply a portrait of her head. I and others too said then, "Truly, she is the most beautiful woman in the world."

Why don't you rerun that picture this week ? It was a lovely one.

RAY L. COMSTOCK Wheaton, Ill.

Sir:

Such venom, such malignity, such vindictiveness, such cold-blooded malevolence must, indeed, have curdled the blood of the author of "The Only Blonde in the World."

I read the article as this poor butterfly, broken on the wheel, was being placed in her grave and was outraged at such complete lack of common charity.

Better to have had the understanding of Thomas Hood, when he wrote:

One more Unfortunate

Weary of breath

Rashly importunate,

Gone to her death!

Take her up tenderly,

Lift her with care;

Fashioned so slenderly,

Young, and so fair!

(MRS.) ADA R. CORDER Salt Lake City

Sir:

Thank you, TIME, for an enlightening final tribute to Marilyn Monroe. This scholarly talent, imbued with maturity and good taste, was I'm sure a boon to her many friends and fans here in the golden land of sunshine and yellow journalism.

WALT DAVIDSON Beverly Hills, Calif.

For & Against Humanity

Sir:

The article on Sherri Finkbine and her desire for a legal abortion [TIME, Aug. 3] appears to be written very objectively, to my great amazement. Could it be possible that TIME condones her desire for an abortion?

As a human being, I ask you not to approve of Mrs. Finkbine's efforts but to criticize them. To me abortion is an act against humanity.

ALBERTA SABATINO

Brooklyn

Sir:

Nuts to your biased approach to the Sherri Finkbine case. As mother of none, may I present another angle? I would be only too glad to be given a fifty-fifty chance to bear a normal child. I would gratefully accept a deformed child.

After several fruitless years of visiting specialists, my husband and I have little sympathy for the Finkbines.

(MRS.) ANNE DIEFENBACHER Dubuque, Iowa

Sir:

Re the Finkbine business: the late Dr. Lansing Wells was born with flipperlike arms and only a few fingers on each hand.

How fortunate for the U.S. Bureau of Standards that its distinguished scientist was not murdered before he was born !

RICHARD W. NAGLE

Lieutenant, U.S.A. APO, New York

>-- Dr. Wells (1892-1954) received his Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Illinois in1919, joined the Bureau of Standards in 1930 as a mining production chemist. He lived a full and active life using both of his "hands" for writing, swimming, smoking and playing golf. At his job he deftly manipulated the tricky analytic balance, the chemist's scale. At the time of his death, Wells had become a chief chemist and consultant for the bureau, is remembered as a "useful contributing scientist."-ED.

Sir:

Every grateful American should acclaim Dr. Frances Oldham Kelsey Woman of the Year.

LYNN TOWNSEND River Vale, N.J.

Wrong Clue

Sir:

Your article about the first successful Nike-Zeus interception of a special target vehicle borne aloft by an Atlas ICBM [TIME, July 27] stated that "the onrushing Atlas ICBM actually carried a transmitter to clue the slender, 48-ft. Nike-Zeus bird on the target.''

This statement is not true. Equipment carried by the target vehicle was completely incapable of affecting, favorably or unfavorably, the performance of the Nike-Zeus.

ARTHUR SYLVESTER Assistant Secretary of Defense. Washington, D.C.

> TIME erred. The Atlas device was a "miss distance indicator" to enable ground stations to tell how close the Nike-Zeus came to the target during the intercept.-ED.

Gulbenlcian's Money

Sir:

Re TIME People item, July 27: could you make it clearer to your readers that in the 1959 BBC interview and in my recent successful law case in London, my complaints were not that the trustees of my late father's foundation were withholding a part of my inheritance as you stated, but rather that the administrators "are not the people he wanted, are not running it as he wanted, and you cannot get proper accounts out of them."

Some are drawing remuneration of -L-10,000 each ($28,000) per annum, whereas the will provided -L-4,000 ($11,200). Ford Foundation trustees receive only $4,000 each, and the Rockefeller trustees do it for nothing.

NUBAR GULBENKIAN London

Father Flye

Sir:

Around here, from Jumpoff to Tickbush and from Lost Cove to Thumping Dick Hollow, we thought your feature on the James Agee letters to Father Flye [TIME, Aug. 3] magnificently done. It was a tribute well deserved by them both.

Nothing was said, however, of any letters Father Flye might have written to James Agee. Hereabouts we considered Father Flye the greatest correspondent since the 18th century.

Something might have been said of Father Flye's special mission in teaching. His life was dedicated to gifted boys. On the edge of our mountain here, overlooking the majestic slopes of Crow Creek Valley, stand the ruins of Father Flye's great dream, a school for gifted children.

What a pity it is that the academy never opened, but what a glory it is that he lived to see one of his boys achieve the recognition that TIME and Pulitzer have accorded.

ARTHUR BEN CHITTY The University of the South Sewanee, Tenn.

>After Agee's death, Father Flye recovered some 35 letters out of the 200 he had written the author through the years. He did not think there were enough of them or that they were important enough to include in the volume of Agee letters.-ED.

Just Plain Bill

Sir:

Re the man behind the BBC's administrative baton [TIME, Aug. 10]: even Liberace has a first name, but what is Clock's? Could it be Net Thrower Clock, Pianist Clock or Tastemaker Clock?

LEON M. BRYAN Oakland, Calif.

> His name is William.-ED.

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