The Egg & Adlai

Sir:

If TIME \[Nov. 10\] really regards as un healthy the gap between the American intellectuals and the people, it could help reduce that gap by ceasing to refer to intellectuals as "eggheads."

The fact is that what TIME calls the "egg-head rebellion" was a perfectly understandable revolt on the part of intellectuals against Eisenhower's platitudinous, cliché-ridden campaign oratory and against his unprincipled embrace, "for the sake of party unity," of the most reactionary elements…. TIME performs no service to anyone by implying that that revolt should be merely discounted as "the desertion of the eggheads." Why intellectuals turned from Ike could bear some study, less snide comments from TIME.

HOLLY MANKIEWICZ Berkeley, Calif.

Sir: . Well, I'm sure happy to see we have 27 million intellectuals in America.

IRVING M. RACHLIS Washington, B.C.

Sir:

It was no surprising news to us eggheads that we have less influence than the clam-heads over the blockheads.

ARTHUR L. JACOBS Toledo, Ohio

Sir:

…To remind your public that there is "a wide and unhealthy gap" between eggheads and the rest of America, and that correction should be made in the intellectuals, as I read your passage, rather than from, may I say, the bottom upwards, is a remarkable way of looking at the problem. You don't say so, but I find the insinuation that intellectuals are more likely, rather than less likely, to be wrong than non-intellectuals…

ROBERT VANDERBILT JR.

New York City

Sir:

…The people of our country apparently possess a wisdom not shared by the eggheads whom I've long suspected of being eggheads…Webster's defines an intellectual as one "…endowed with intellect; having unusual mental capacity." One would think that such a person would also be possessed of wisdom. Yet today's intellectual seems somewhat lacking in this respect.

E. R. POLK San Antonio, Texas

Sir: Grant that the eggheads have had their shells cracked. Ike's trip to Korea may show us who the yolk is on.

A frustrated junior egg, PAT KELLEY Columbia University New York City

Princely Example.

Sir:

Re your Nov. 3 review of The Rebel Prince: "'Louis, my boy, never forget this. If you keep your backside flat on the ground, you cannot fall very far.'"

Our national economy (including capital and labor—but not the customer) should dig this.

CHARLES OVERILL

Corona Del Mar, Calif.

Cummings & Goings On

Sir:

Your Nov. 3 personality piece on E. E. Cummings (no relation) proves the need for some sort of national subsidy for poets and day, a writers. Otherwise where would E. E. be today, a man who couldn't earn his bread because he wouldn't sell his head…As for E. E.'s remark that he's glad he's no longer young because his generation "had something to revolt against, the new generations have only anarchy," that is sheer nonsense. For one thing, we haven't got anarchy (which might have good points), but cold, dreary economic complusion. For another, with the emphasis today on social conformity, rebels are sorely needed.

RIDGELY CUMMINGS

Hollywood, Calif.

Sir:

…One question to Mr. Cummings: What was your glorious…generation fighting for? Was it not to create as you saw fit? Do you find this easy now, or were you just revolting for the sake of revolt?…Why the preoccupation with the good old days? …I find it much the same world you intimated in your preface to The Enormous Room…It's no easier now…

PORTER TUCK St. Tropez, France

Man of the Year?

Sir:

…Who else but Dwight Eisenhower?

THOMAS P. TURNER

Berkeley, Calif.

Sir:

…A great loser, as he would have been a winner, Adlai Stevenson.

CALVIN FENTRESS

Deerfield, Mass.

Sir:

Without Wittaker Chambers there could not have been the clear indictment of Communism in government. Witht he people enlightened, Eisenhower became the spirit of the voter and his rejection of indecisive government.

Who else stood with such courage at the time Whittaker Chambers spoke? He was nearly alone—and being vindicted by the American populace—may we suggest Chambers for Man of the Year?

MARY RISCH Connersville, Ind.

What About Lanny?

Sir:

You say: "Sironia, Texas is apparently the longest novel by an American writer ever to be published. Its 840,000 words . . \[TIME, Nov. 3\]." Have you forgotten Lanny Budd, about 3,000,000 words? It is one novel, even though it was published in ten installments, with Volume 111 soon to come.

UPTON SINCLAIR Monrovia, Calif.

Judaism & Zionism (Cont'd)

Sir:

Allow me to compliment you on your Nov. 3 article, "Anti-Zionist Judaism." It is high time that expression be given to the views of a great many Jewish people about the high-powered propaganda handed out by Zionist organizations. Our Gentile friends should be made aware that these groups do not speak for the Jewish people, although they arrogate to themselves the right to do so. Judaism is a religion, not a political creed . . .

EMIL HEIMAN New York City

Sir:

The splendid article . . . was greatly appreciated. The objectives and accomplishments of the Council were correctly outlined . . .

WALTER S. GALESKI American Council for Judaism Richmond, Va.

Sir:

. . . The "bitter opposition" you mention the Council's having received has by no means died down among the hundreds of thousands of Jews who take pride in the establishment of the first Jewish state in the last two thousand years, and whose devotion and self-sacrifice contributed so largely to the establishment of that state: the "angry voices have become quieter" not because the Council is getting any "serious attention" . . . but simply because all responsible and informed Jews are aware that the Council has been so decisively bypassed by the course of recent history . . .

LOUIS LIPSKY Chairman American Zionist Council

New York City

Sir:

TIME is to be congratulated on its clear, daring presentation of a subject usually evaded by other publications . . .

MARION R. EPSTEIN New York City

Sir:

The American Council for Judaism has reared its ugly head again. This time, by presenting the Council's so-called "religion-versus-nationalism" tenets without bothering to really examine its personnel. TIME is inviting more Americans of Jewish faith to innocently enroll in its snobbish forces…

CHARLOTTE W. NAYFACH Geneva, Switzerland

Sir:

. . . The Council deserves praise….It has courageously resisted the pressure of Zionist vilification and propaganda.

Having recovered from ardent Zionism after almost two years in Palestine, I recognize this certain fact: the welfare of the Jews depends entirely on their relation to the rest of mankind.

ERNEST B. MAINZER, M.D.

Mansfield, Ohio

• 
• Click to Print

• Find this article at:
• [https://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,817336,00.html
);