The Man & the Portrait
Sir:
Though I approve of your choice of President Kennedy as Man of the Year, his portrait on the cover makes me recoil and shout like Macbeth upon seeing the ghost of Banquo:
Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold;
Thou has no speculation in those eyes . . . DOROTHY WHITE
North Charleston, S.C.
Sir:
About the fellow on the cover of your magazine. I mean, is it all right if we take an offering and buy him a new shirt, suit, comb and maybe even throw in a few extra bucks so he can get a haircut and some coffee? I mean, golly, after this, who is going to run for President?
(THE REV.) JAMES M. DECKER The Reformed Church of Deerpark Port Jervis, N.Y.
Sir:
Pietro Annigoni's ruthless brush speaks silently and shockingly of the physical toll a man gives in the presidency. Shall the Man of the Year now be haltered by denial of the help he asked for in his Inaugural?
MRS. W. B. EARL
Summit, N.J.
Sir:
Kudos to TIME for naming the New Frontiersman as Man of the Year. His prodigious, close-knit family from Caroline to Joe, his self-confidence, his ailing back, his Peace Corps, the Honcyfitz, Hyannisport, his struggle with the Syth Congress, and his many vigorous bouts with his alliterative foe in the Kremlin have dominated the 1961 news.
GEORGE RICE
Sacramento, Calif.
Sir:
Any "artist" who can make a portrait of our President look like one of Quasimodo (The Hunchback of Notre Dame) should be boiled in his own oils.
ELEANOR KOGEN LAPINSKY
St. Paul, Minn.
Sir:
There must be truth in Artist Annigoni's comment on the President: ''He didn't smile very much while I was there."
If Mr. Kennedy saw the painting, I can understand why.
GEORGE R. LEWIS La Puente, Calif.
Sir:
At first, we were shocked by your cover but it catches Kennedy's spirit and personality beautifully, and this is more important than just a flattering, realistic rendering. This painting should hang in the White House or the National Gallery, where future citizens can see it. It's a masterpiece.
MR. & MRS. RICHARD NELSON New York City
Sir:
Re your cover of Jan. 5:
Annigoni--Baloney!
MRS. H. L. SIIPOLA Long Beach, Calif.
Sir:
Never before, except in the photographs of Lincoln, have I seen the solemn responsibilities of the presidency more aptly reflected.
Not only is it an intimate glimpse of the President, but also a grim reminder of the immense burdens that rest upon his shoulders in his great task of guiding the world farther away from mankind's final tragedy and nearer to his greatest triumph--bringing peace to all men of all nations.
C. W. HARRIS Woodlynne, N.J.
Sir:
As you say, Mr. Kennedy may yet become a great President, but the idea that his delayed reaction to the presidency qualifies him to the title of Man of the Year seems more than a little ridiculous. True, he has been good news copy, for various reasons, but his ''indelible mark" is yet to be left on history. In baseball the sportswriters do better with two awards, The Most Valuable Player of the Year, and the Rookie of the Year.
GUY MONTHAN Altadena, Calif.
Sir:
It is abundantly clear that the artist is no court sycophant. It reminded me of Oliver Cromwell's roaring rebuke to his 17th century artist, "Paint me as I am, warts and all."
FRANCES HOUGH St. Louis
> In 1650, the stern-faced Cromwell admonished the young painter Peter Lely to "use all your skill to paint my picture truly like me; but remark all these roughnesses, pimples, warts and everything as you see me, otherwise I will never pay a farthing for it." For the result, see cut.--ED.
Sir:
I am full of admiration for TIME'S splendid cover of President Kennedy, and for Annigoni for his masterful taste and urgent brevity. The portrait is astonishingly truthful.
Though at first glance it tends to perplex, it quickly engages scrutiny, and you are left with a feeling of unrestrained respect for the artist. No question, this is your finest cover.
THOMAS J. GOLDTHWAITE Bloomington, Ind.
Sir:
Annigoni has probed beneath the smiling and immaculate exterior to reveal a man who holds the loneliest job in the world.
PAULA MUSTER Sherman Oaks, Calif.
Singular Difference
Shin referring to the new Russian ambassador to the U.S., Anatoly Dobrynin, as a "Soviet-style New Frontiersman" [Jan. 5], you should have used the singular not the plural in the Russian translation. Instead of Liudi novykh granits, it should have been chelovek novykh granits. Liudi means men; chelovek: a man. You need a Russian language expert.
IZRAEL TAUBENFLIGEL Skokie, 111.
> Says TIME'S embarrassed Russian expert: "I na starukhu byvaet prorukha!"--ED.
What They Do
Sir:
All here at St. Anselm's were pleased with the RELIGION section [Jan. 5]. Your accurate and well informed survey of U.S. Benedictinism will be appreciated by Benedictines throughout the country. It is sometimes difficult to answer the layman's query, "What do you do in the monastery?". TIME'S balanced reply points up the present situation and indicates the course of our deepening development. We thank you for it.
(RT.REV.) ALBAN BOULTWOOD, O.S.B.
Abbot
St. Anselm's Abbey Washington, D.C. ,
Sir:
As a member of a less than affluent monas tic community whose school enjoys only a regional reputation, may I voice a quiet demurrer to the notion that monasticism in the 20th century is likely to solve the ancient antinomy, action-contemplation, by the efforts of pressagent monks or by an exodus from our monasteries to search for activity in the world at large.
PLACIDUS RILEY, O.S.B.
St. Anselm's Abbey Manchester, N.H.
Sir:
The article on Roman Catholic monastic orders in the U.S. was most interesting and informative; however, many people may not be aware that Anglo-Catholic (Episcopalian) religious orders are also active in this country. There arc eleven Episcopal monastic orders and 14 orders of nuns in the U.S.
L. M. WILSON Oklahoma City
Man From Stalag III
Sir:
TIME failed to mention that Culver's Delmar Spivey [Jan. 5! is well trained to prevent ''turncoat performances" after having served as senior American officer in center compound of Stalag Luft III during World War II. He is respectfully credited by many of us with having maintained discipline under difficult circumstances, and thus of having saved our lives at the risk of his own.
R. P. FROESCHLE, M.D. Hazen, N. Dak.
sbSpivey was shot down while piloting a B17 over Germany in June 1943. For the next two years he was the officer in charge of some 9,500 Air Force prisoners of war, responsible for their internal organization and welfare. Freed in 1945, he became General Eisenhower's adviser on prisoner-of-war matters.--ED.
Castrophobe
Sir:
In these days of G-2 Cuba, believe me it is distressing to be called a "Castrophile'' in your report on Juan Jose Arevalo's book, The Shark and the Sardines [Jan. 5].
Since I collaborated with the Cuban revolution--1959 and part of 1960--times have changed. For example, I well remember when I found it perfectly natural to receive help from the papal nunciate in the preparation of an Italian version of a pamphlet by Bishop Evelio Diaz praising the land reform.
All my pro-Castro activities, as a volunteer in New York and later as a member of the staff of the Office of the Prime Minister in Havana, were directed toward preventing the alienation of Cuba from the U.S.
In view of Castro's recent declarations, I was--like many other Cubans and Americans of good faith--plowing in the sea! But I certainly do not deserve to be mistaken for one of today's Castrophiles.
JUNE COBB
Mexico, D.F.
6 & 14
Sir:
My wife and I are the discoverers of what has been referred to as "6 and 14 dysrhythmia" [Jan. 5], and we have been recording for many years electroencephalograms on normal children, epileptics, and children with behavior disorders, including all the famous child murderers in northern Illinois. We can assure you that there is not a significant correlation between murder and 14 and 6 per second positive spikes.
By mixing this common and relatively benign electroencephalographic abnormality with a heavy charge of Freudian psychosexual speculations, Dr. Sherwyn Woods has produced an article that you have thought worth reporting upon. His two cases are statistically insignificant, and only the Freudian overtones entitled it to "scientific" publication in the first place.
Undoubtedly children who murder are sick, but neither the electroencephalogram nor Freudian theory tells us what is wrong. We are dismally ignorant; we might as well face it and keep looking for the truth of the matter.
FREDERIC A. GIBBS, M.D. Professor of Neurology Director, Division of Electroencephalography College of Medicine University of Illinois Chicago
Peace Corps Predecessor
Sir:
It seems you are spreading it on a bit too thick when you say that the Peace Corps [Dec. 29] is "doing what no other American has ever done." Christian missions have been doing for more than a hundred years what the Peace Corps is now trying to do.
I have eaten my share of roasted iguanas, even if I have never eaten a lechon. And I don't even count the times we have had dysentery.
Really now, do we need to teach people the twist? The best friends America has on foreign soil are the nationals who have been in touch with the missionaries.
QUENTIN SHORTES Guatemala
Sir:
As the Nigerians look upon whites who wear native dress with the same sort of horror that Scots reserve for a Sassenach in a kilt, I suggest that Graham Greene's novel The Quiet American be made compulsory reading for future Peace Corpsmen.
E. A. HARRINGTON Esher, Surrey, England
Sprinkle v. Pour
Sir:
I am quite sure that the Archbishop of Canterbury did not "sprinkle" Viscount Linley, infant son of Princess Margaret and the Earl of Snowdon, when he christened him, as your report has him doing [Dec. 29].
The only two methods of administering baptism recognized in the English (as in the American) Book of Common Prayer are "dipping" the baby "discreetly" in water and "pouring" water upon the baby. Since "dipping" is all but obsolete in Anglican circles, I am certain that on this royal occasion the method used was "pouring," probably with a baptismal shell.
(THE REV.) FRANCIS C. LIGHTBOURN Milwaukee
sb The Archbishop dipped his hand into a golden font, designed by Prince Albert, and gently poured water over Viscount Linley's head.--ED.
Who's Hoot
Sir:
Where has your MODERN LIVING writer been listening to folk singers [Jan. 5]? He is right in saying that the blues are being sung by guitar-twanging imitators of Josh White. He is also right when he says international songs are being sung. He is dead wrong in claiming that Scottish and Irish ballads are big today. Actually, the No. 1 trend in folksongs currently is "bluegrass," an attempt to re-create the songs of the Southern Appalachians circa 1925-35.
Finally, he couldn't be wronger when he says that labor union songs are in vogue. The whole social-protest balloon collapsed among folk singers in the middle 19505. In its place has risen a new craft--protest songs concerning integration, peace, and the H-bomb. Instead of The Rebel Girl, your writer today would most likely hear something like this at a hoot: *
What will we get from radiation? No neck, two necks or maybe three! Each one will have his own mutation-- Nobody else will look like me! Strontium, strontium, strontium go, Fallout will get you, even underground, So if you want strontium, strontium go, There's plenty enough to go around!
ROBERT A. JURAN Hartsdale, N.Y.
*A hootenanny (hoot for short) is a gathering, usually pretty informal, of folk singers.
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