CORRESPONDENCE
MISS HERBST AND MISS PORTER
Sirs:
Allow me to congratulate you on the
May PR, an excellent issue. I like
Sartre's piece and particularly Joseph–
ine Herbst's "Miss Porter and Miss
Stein." Miss Herbst's article is literary
criticism at its best, clear, succinct,
unlabored, placing its subject in the
right context of ideas so that it stands
out in uncluttered contour. It is quite
true, as she says, that Miss Porter's
facts on Miss Stein "are assembled with
wit and presented in flawless prose"
but that there is something "wrong with
the expression." What is wrong, it
would appear, is that Miss Porter has
been keeping company with ideas which
she has not examined carefully. Sec–
tions of her article on Gertrude Stein
in
Harper's
come dangerously close
to the irresponsibilities of
Mona Lisa's
Moustache
and the strange double talk
of the Boston Institute of Contempo–
rary Art on "unintelligibility" in mod–
ern painting. Miss Herbst has done
Miss Porter a service in pointing out
that some of her ideas in the Stein
article may lead her into fields where
she would not be very happy to find
herself.
Holger Cahill
New York City
NOTICE
Sirs:
On the back cover of your April is–
sue, in an advertisement for the books
of Kenneth :ratchen, I was startled to
see a rather fantastic statement printed
over my name, and would ask you to
publish this notice that it is neither
authentic nor authorized. While I have
a very great liking for the best of
Patchen's poetry, I would certainly re–
serve the comparison with Whitman
845
for men of the stature o£ Pound, Eliot,
Crane, Cummings, and Williams.
Patchen is still in his thirties; he has
time to grow, and I think he will. .
James laughl1n
Lausanne, Switzerland
THE ATONAL TRAIL
Sirs:
I have been extremely disappointed
on reading Mr. Nicolas Nabokov's Com–
munication on "atonality" in the May
PR; disappointed, because it seems to
me that the publication of this article
negates the impression of strong,
healthy, forward-looking musical ac–
tivity produced by previous communica–
tions in these pages. . . .
First I was amazed by Mr. Nabokov's
reference to the "detached attitude"
and "cloak of impartiality" affected by
Mr. Leibowitz. Mr. Nabokov should
know that the essence of the existen–
tialist attitude towards life (which is,
as practical experience has shown, as
applicable to music as to any other
field of endeavor) is
engagement total–
"total involvement"-which implies
anything
but
detachment; for one ob–
viously does not enter into the "en–
gagement" or battle of life without
choosing sides.... Mr. Leibowitz does
not, and does not want to, present his
views in this article as those of the
musicologist, the scholar who judicially
weighs everything "after the fact."
RECORD COLLECTORS'
EXCHANGE
76 West 48th Street, New York City
Plaza 7-3831
NOW
IN
STOCK
Telefunken Imports
Le Chant du Monde Imports
FEATURING
Milhaud Suite Provencal
Write for list. We mail throughout
U.S.A.
