Letters, may 11, 1959

The Astronauts

Sir:

Re your article concerning the seven chosen [for the first manned space flight — April 20]: the essay about Marine Lieut. Colonel John Herschel Glenn Jr. was stupendous! Like we sing in the Marine Corps Hymn:

If the Army and the Navy Ever look on Heaven’s scenes They will find the streets are guardedBy United States Marines.

(A CPL) DON L. CARVER U.S.M.C. Kaneohe, Hawaii

Sir:

I can only wish the Astronauts failure in their race to space until would-be warmakers are treated with solicitude in their padded sanitariums. The U.S. and Russia should surely be indicted for negligence in their attempts to spread man-made chaos to the cosmos when we have galaxies of human problems to solve here on earth.

WESLEY H. LONG

Ann Arbor, Mich.

Sir:

I wish you had included pictures of the wives of the seven chosen.

MELVA POBER

Pittsburgh ¶See cuts. — ED.

The Mood in Britain

Sir:

From your April 20 description of “The Strange British Mood,” are we to assume that you Americans are ready and anxious to be fried by H-bombs?

Supposing that we hadn’t been “stripped of … empire, economically and physically sapped . . .” by wars — in which, may I remind you, you first bled us white with “cash-and-carry” and then joined in largely to protect your investment in our future —are we to understand that you would expect us to be as anxious as the Gadarene swine to plunge to perdition?

STEPHEN BARBER

London

Sir:

The U.S., France and Germany all pay attention on political matters to military leaders; we in Britain find this inexplicable. What is disquieting at the moment is that, with the illness of Eisenhower and the resignation of Dulles, the mainspring of Western defense is weakened to such an alarming degree that the political direction could be taken over by these “talkative generals”—no match at all for Top Politician Khrushchev.

PETER STEVENS London

Lonely Fight

Sir:

Nehru’s attitude toward the recent events in Tibet is flagrant contempt for democracy [TIME, April 20]. You simply do not possess a true love for democracy and brush aside the mass propulsion of Tibetan people into slavery by casually and apathetically remarking, “We do not wish to aggravate the situation.” There is no need for Communism to force itself into Asia, for with the sympathetic indifference of men such as Nehru, Asia will be Communist without a shot being fired.

EDWARD KURDZIEL Cudahy, Wis.

Sir:

The thought is enough to make one weep. Today, when a courageous little country dares to defy a giant in the name of freedom, the same freedom which the whole free world endlessly chants about, it fights alone. It is a lonely and futile fight indeed that inevitably has to be lost while the rest of the free world stands by and pours torrents upon torrents of sympathetic words.

L. S. ITCHON

New Haven, Conn.

Sir:

Couldn’t TIME, just for once, be a little more two-sided and state that the people of Tibet find the materialism of all the great powers (not just Russian-Chinese) unsatisfactory to their personal philosophy?

KATHERINE L. STEVENS Lincoln, Mass.

Sir:

Being myself a Buddhist, I read with great interest the note on Buddhism which accompanied your article concerning the Dalai Lama. You correctly quoted the principle of Buddha’s philosophy of life as self-conquest. This is refreshing to see, since an alarming number of Westerners seem to be under the impression that Buddhism is a lot of heathen mumbo jumbo designed to please a golden idol so that he would send the worshiper to heaven.

AYUMONGOL SONAKUL London

Baudelaire on the Beach

Sir:

The French poet Baudelaire should be chosen as the patron Satan of college students vacationing in Florida [TIME, April 13]. His words, “Be drunken always . . . nothing else matters,” could be incorporated into a fine party song, and the beaches and motels of Fort Lauderdale would have little trouble passing for the streets and houses of Paris that he so vividly described.

ANN E. MCALEER

Madison, Wis.

Sir:

Beer ain’t all! One evening a friend of ours returned from Porky’s to my parents’ home, pleased to report that “several young college students were there, drinking—of all things —tomato juice!” They were (of course!) drinking Bloody Marys . . .

MOLLIE DURANT Evanston, III.

The Master Builder

Sir:

It has been my pleasure to have known the late Frank Lloyd Wright for the last few years. As a result, I feel impelled to offer my congratulations for the sensitive yet succinct sketch you offered to this individual’s memory [April 20]. It was indeed an ideal thumbnail sketch of the high points of this native genius’ life and times.

F. M. Hinkhouse Director

Phoenix Art Museum Phoenix, Ariz.

Sir:

I was dismayed that you did not pay more homage to another of Frank Lloyd Wright’s great gifts—i.e., his philosophical power.

TOM EASTHAM Warsaw, Va.

Frankie & Ava Down Under

Sir:

Nothing I have read in recent months has given me so much satisfaction as did the account in your April 20 issue of how Ava

Gardner and Frank Sinatra dealt with the “gentlemen of the press!” It happened in Australia, but it should happen here—and more often. It is heartening then to see two people such as Ava and Frankie stand up to the arrogant reporters and photographers. When they tell them off, these two of my favorite people are, I am sure, speaking for millions.

S. W. BURNETT

Chicago

Sir:

It takes the good works of 100 right-thinking and right-acting American visitors to make up for the antics of these two.

J. T. WEST Bellingham, Wash.

Sir:

Speaking for myself, wish you would go a step further and inform the public about the attendance at his shows. This, I think you will admit, would give a truer picture of Sinatra in Australia.

EDDIE CANTOR Beverly Hills, Calif. 1§ West Melbourne Stadium (seating capacity: 10,000) averaged two-thirds full for each of the four Sinatra concerts.—ED.

Treasures of Mount Sinai

Sir:

It is a remarkable thing that you have done in publishing some of the rare, fine Byzantine iconography in your April 13 issue, together with your story on the expedition to the Greek Orthodox monastery of St. Catherine. No detraction of appreciation is intended of your fine color plates by pointing out that your descriptions were purely secular.

Icons are not mere paintings, and their painting is not a craft but a liturgical art. The Eastern Orthodox Church holds that every icon partakes of the glory of the prototype, breathing an ineluctable essence of divinity. Although the icon painter uses the material means and arts that are at his command, with prayerful approach he shows the eternal aspects.

IVAN MICHAELSON CZAP President, Icon Society of America Member, Icon Society of Paris The Niconian Society Philadelphia

Sir:

I must congratulate you on the color reproductions of the Sinai mosaic and the icons, but it was most irritating to me to see the name of my distinguished colleague, Professor George Forsyth, appear alongside the photo of the monastery as if he were a photographer. The scholarly enterprise is conducted jointly by Professor Forsyth and myself. Our responsibilities are so divided that Professor Forsyth, being an architectural historian, is in charge of the field work, while I am responsible for the publication of the scholarly results.

KURT WEITZMANN

Professor of Art and Archaeology Princeton University Princeton, NJ.

Sir:

Vicarious congratulations are equally in order for persevering Princetonian Professor Kurt Weitzmann, for bringing into focus this lost horizon of Byzantine art.

ROBERT C. LARSON

Assistant Director University of Maryland Overseas Program European Division Heidelberg, Germany