A Sculptor for Peace

Sir:

As though I had lost a dear and personal friend, I wept bitter tears of sorrow and regret at the news of the death of a great and good man, a true and courageous gentleman, Dag Hammarskjold. He belonged not to his native land alone but to all the free world.

Then, because I could think of no other way in which to honor such a great man, I flew our country's flag at half-mast.

MRS. LILLIAN MALMBORG Cranston, R.I.

Sir:

Dag Hammarskjold was killed in the service of the world and working for world peace. Others will express their sorrow better than I, but I must express myself.

Dag Hammarskjold has been attacked by persons and by some governments of the world. In spite of this, none of his effectiveness was lost by it, and in reality, he came out stronger.

Peace has lost a most tireless worker, and therefore in recognition of his valuable contribution to this cause, I nominate Dag Hammarskjold as TIME'S Man of the Year.

GEORGIA BLANCHARD Clarion State College Clarion, Pa.

Sir:

Never before has news of international import had such an emotional impact upon me. The U.S. and the Soviet Union, whether they like it or not, are up to their horns in pure power politics. Hammarskjold was the one person who gave the "uncommitted" nations a way to keep out of East v. West affairs and stay in one piece--literally.

DON E. EYLES Boston University Boston

Sir:

Mankind dare not forget the nobility of such a man.

EUGENE B. THALHEIMER Albany, N.Y.

Sir:

A sculptor should start immediately on the Dag Hammarskjold Monument to Peace. It belongs directly in front of the U.N. Secretariat Building in New York, and it should always stand alone.

ANDREW COWANS Montreal

J. D. & The Fat Ladies

Sir:

Thank you very much for your excellent cover story on J. D. Salinger [Sept. 15]. He speaks to me as no other author has ever done, perhaps because, by some very complicated snares, he has captured the very essence of my generation.

Please, J. D., get the typewriter out and feed this monkey on my back.

WILLIAM S. MCDANIEL Cincinnati

Sir:

Yes indeed, let our children study the great American classic, The Catcher in the Rye and learn, before their formative days are done, that all is vomity, and that man's spirit floats no higher down the byways of life's sewers than the rest of the garbage he so brilliantly produces.

R. BARBOUR Billerica, Mass.

Sir:

TIME is to be commended for in these times writing about a man who writes about Man--with hope! Congratulations to Jack Skow, three years my senior, for writing well--not on the man, but on his work.

If I had millions, I would bid on Russell Hoban's drawing of Zooey. Thanks for writing a story on the best Buddy all us Fat Ladies ever had.

STUART HORNER Pittsburgh

Sir:

On behalf of those of us who identify terribly personally with the Glass family, I am very sorry Mr. Hoban attempted to picture Franny, Zooey and Bessie. Not that he isn't talented and able--it's only that we who by some cruel trick of fate were not born into the Glass family, know exactly what they all look like, just as we know what our brothers, husbands and sons look like.

Nevertheless, let Mr. Hoban remain a member in good standing of the neoglassicists. He did his best.

JULIE R. BRICKLEY Milwaukee, Wis.

Sir:

Three years ago, when I met Holden Caulfield, we were both 16, and it was the afternoon before my first day of college. His restlessness was my restlessness; his bravado, my bravado; his confusion, my confusion. I realized then that I was neither unique nor alone in my feelings.

In a few days I commence my senior year, but not before reading The Catcher in the Rye for the fourth time. It's sort of a booster shot.

JOAN FISK Brooklyn

Sir:

Mr. Jack Skow is to be highly commended, on the whole, for a job admirably well done despite the unfortunate misnomer of "scatologer" in reference to Holden Caulfield. The kid practically tells you that he's talking to you like you were some goddam long-lost buddy or something, and naturally he's not going to sound like he was talking to those nuns.

ELI WOLF

Iowa State University Ames, Iowa

Sir:

I looked forward to reading with some interest your profile on J. D. Salinger, who along with Wilfredo Cot was my roommate for a time at Valley Forge Military Academy.

After reading the profile, I noted that it took a team of three to perform this task. This might be a case where too many cooks spoiled the broth.

I regret to say that these well-meaning gentlemen have written about as cluttered a profile as I have read.

I have a hunch that my former roommate, after reading this epic on himself, must have exclaimed loud and clear: "My God."

ROBERT L. GROSS Albuquerque

Sir:

Congratulations on an outstanding article on America's finest living author. J. D. Salinger has done more to influence the minds and literary contributions of the youth of our world than any other single individual. He is a religion.

I don't blame him for living a secluded life. Why should a man of his intelligence be bothered by the chattering phonies that dominate the American reading public?

W. J. McTAGGART Buckhannon, W. Va.

Head Count

Sir:

In discussing the problems of Alabama in redistricting [Sept. 15], you mentioned that state's "decreasing" population. Actually, the problem of Alabama, and of most of the states with similar situations, is not that they lost population, but that their rate of gain was not as high as that of the whole nation.

Alabama, for example, gained over 200,000 people in the past decade, but the state's rate of increase was just under 7% as compared with a national rate of 18.5%.

RICHARD M. SCAMMON Director Bureau of the Census U.S. Department of Commerce Washington, D.C.

Cry for Help

Sir:

One reads of the horrible, indifferent, heinous crimes of U.S. teen-agers today--appalling! But, then, one goes on to read the rest of your magazine about their glorious elders, and the teen-agers are absolved of guilt. Their so-called "crimes" are the most harmless pranks compared to those who would wield tanks, H-bombs and death for millions. Please, somebody right the world . . . and above all don't blame the young whom we have created in our own image.

JOHN D. SEPESI San Francisco

Sir:

Your article on "Youth" [Sept. 15] should be a sad reminder to many parents that we have not provided the right standards for our children.

Today's parents have greatly rebelled against the changing times, and the demands of these times have led many of us to love any cause outside the home better than our own.

The parents are becoming the national malady, and the actions of our children a result of our restlessness. Their violence is a yell for help!

ROBERTA C. MYERS Convent, N.J.

Sir:

As a summer resident of Lake George, who would probably have been involved in the riot had it happened five years ago, let me give you a reason for it: Lake George's setting is so striking that it could be the most beautiful resort in the country. Yet for years the local greedy property owners have built every conceivable kind of cheap, tourist-trap nightclub, alligator farm, phony oldtime village, souvenir stand--and dozens of bars. The place is now so trashy that it could attract only trashy people, and it does.

PETER B.WEBER New York City

Corporations

Sir:

Re TIME, Sept. 15, listing Atlantic Refining Co. among five companies in which Floyd Odium's Atlas Corp. was involved in "buying, revitalizing and selling." The facts are: Atlas Corp. never owned more than 7% of Atlantic common, and no other Atlantic securities. In 1952 and 1954 Atlas sold all but a very small fraction of its interest and has held no stock since March 1956. No Atlas Corp. representative ever had a voice in Atlantic's management.

HENDERSON SUPPLEE JR. President The Atlantic Refining Co. Philadelphia

> TIME unwittingly included Atlantic on the basis of erroneous information, is glad to correct the record.--ED.

World Without Shadows

Sir:

I found it very refreshing to see a small island of beauty among the threatening, depressing and sarcastic pages of your magazine. I'm referring to the wonderful reproductions of Chinese art [Sept. 15].

MIKE KINCH Beaverton, Ore.

Sir:

The reason one never sees a shadow in a Chinese painting is that in order to have a shadow you must have the sun. The sun moves, suggesting the passing of time, which in turn suggests that the onlooker is growing older. Since it would be most impolite for the artist to make any such suggestion, he just leaves out the shadows.

LIONEL TOMPKINS Chicago

Sir:

My appetite for Oriental art is insatiable, and my appreciation for it infinite; therefore, your reproductions by Chinese artists had me ecstatic with glee. This mere smattering of Far Eastern art will compel many a Westerner to admire these delicately beautiful chefs d'oeuvre.

R. L. COWSER, JR. Houston

Ham Spread

SIR:

IN REFERENCE TO YOUR REVIEW "KING OF THE ROARING TWENTIES" [Sept. 22], THANK YOU FOR BEING SO KIND TO ME. YOUR PAL,

SMOKED HAM MICKEY RODNEY LOS ANGELES

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