Friday, Sep. 26, 1969
SIR: In your review of the recent books on George Bernard Shaw [Sept. 5], there is the usual abundance of puns, japes and witticisms which one expects to find in TIME. But I find it lamentable for one reason: the usual anonymity. Sincerely, Benjamin R. Katz."
TIME often receives letters wondering who is responsible for a particular story. TIME articles are traditionally anonymous, because they often involve the collaboration of correspondents, researchers, and a writer (or on occasion, even an editor or two). But TIME is very much the work of individuals--with styles, ideas and idiosyncracies of their own. Their identities, though, are more and more frequently mentioned in our pages. Thus, we are not reluctant to inform Reader Katz that the man he admires is Alwyn Lee, who has been rendering judgments on the literary world for TIME since 1955.
Born in Australia, Lee cut his teeth covering "the everyday humble-bumble of police courts," worked briefly for an encyclopedia but never got much beyond "Fleas, Performing." He believes that writers of fiction and poetry often give a truer picture of this world than sociologists, historians, scientists and politicians. "After all," he says, "who thinks of Queen Victoria in terms of Gladstone or the warehouse full of bureaucratic bilge? No. We think in terms of Dickens, as today will be thought of in terms of Koestler, Auden, Mailer and Waugh."
This week, Lee reviews Jesus Rediscovered, by Britain's Malcolm Muggeridge, whom he finds weak on God and grace, but "brilliantly funny on their adversaries the world, the flesh and the devil. Fiat Nox (let there be night) he sees as the first commandment of the modern world." In lighter vein, Lee tells us that he has found a name for the small house in Italy that he and his wife Essie have bought from an actor named Arnoldo Foa. Since the place has only a sometime well, and awaits a regular water supply, Lee calls it "Foa's Ark." It is a remark that an editor might reluctantly delete from one of Alwyn Lee's reviews (editing Lee is not easy).
The Cover: Photo composite by Robert S. Crandall. The story itself, written by Christopher Cory, researched by Madeleine Berry and edited by Michael Demarest, deals with one of the most delicate and complex issues in American life today: the fast-growing subculture of drugs. Thus it was important for TIME to examine the phenomenon in the BEHAVIOR section.
That department was launched nine months ago to deal with the work done in the behavioral sciences. We believe that BEHAVIOR has been a hit. We are especially gratified to learn that it has been honored by the American Psychological Foundation "for articles . . . which have served to advance public knowledge and appreciation for the work of behavioral scientists."
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