A Letter From the Publisher

By Richard B. Thomas

When Yale Graduates Henry Luce and Briton Hadden (class of 1920) launched TIME in 1923, they recruited more than a few fellow alumni to staff their fledgling magazine. Over the years the Yale ranks were easily surpassed in number by new arrivals from other colleges around the country, including a hefty contingent from archrival Harvard. So it is no surprise that the team that worked on this week's cover stories on Harvard's 350th anniversary includes staffers with ties to the venerable Massachusetts school.

Senior Writer Ezra Bowen, who wrote the main story, had two uncles among the Harvard graduate faculty while he was deciding which university to attend. Bowen, however, chose Amherst. Says he: "I never wanted to go to a big urban school. Amherst offered a good athletic program, and I wanted to play baseball. Alas, the Harvard team beat us my senior year."

Senior Writer Otto Friedrich, who wrote on Harvard's history, was virtually born with Crimson blood. Perhaps for that reason, Friedrich pooh-poohs any idea of a Harvard mystique. Says he: "I grew up there, my father (Carl J., who helped create the West German constitution) was a professor of government there, and the life of the faculty was our neighborhood life. I wasn't that impressed. Anyway, I almost flunked out my freshman year." Friedrich quickly recovered, though, and graduated magna cum laude.

Bowen and Friedrich relied on contributions from Boston Bureau Chief Robert Ajemian (Harvard), Correspondent Joelle Attinger (Wellesley) and Harvard Senior Robert Cunha. They were also assisted by Reporter-Researchers John Gallagher (Fordham), Val Castronovo (Vassar), Nancy Gibbs (Yale) and Zona Sparks (University of Chicago). Senior Editor Christopher Porterfield, a Yale graduate who edited the cover stories, discounts any talk of brisk competition between Harvard and his alma mater. Says Porterfield: "The Macy's-Gimbels rivalry thing is a big bore. There is more kinship between Harvard and Yale than between Harvard and any other university. In these days when others are challenging our supremacy, Harvard and Yale ought to draw together against the upstarts."