P.E.N. Emergency Fund
At the recent meeting welcoming Heinrich BOll, P.E.N.'s new
International President, to the United States, there was a long
discussion of the desperate plight of writers in Czechoslovakia
and Greece. Mr. Boll strongly urged the American Center to
support the silenced writers through the foundation that the
Dutch Center has set up. Its full name is the Foundation P.E.N.
Emergency Fund.
The German Center has given 10,000 Marks, about 3,000 dollars,
to this foundation. The Dutch writers have raised 3,000 florins–
another 3,000 dollars. The English P.E.N. has been equally gener–
ous. .The American Center has thus far given $1,000, $750 of
which was donated by our treasurer, Eliot Janeway.
We think we can and should do more. We recently received a let–
ter from the chairman of the fund, in which he wrote about what
he had learned firsthand from a visit to Czechoslovakia. "The
books of more than sixty writers have been banned, they cannot
publish new manuscripts, a number of them have succeeded in
getting badly paid blue collar jobs. I shall be leaving again for
that country in another few days, taking with me the rest of our
bank balance."
Will you help? You can make your checks out to the American
Center of P.E.N. and send to P.E.N. American Center, 156 Fifth
Ave., New York City 10010. Your gift is then tax deductible. We
will forward the money to the Foundation P.E.N. Emergency Fund.
P.E.N.
A WORLD ASSOCIATION OF WRITERS
80 CENTERS IN EUROPE, ASIA, AFRICA, AUSTRALIA,
AND THE AMERICAS
AMERICAN CENTER
MRS. KIRSTEN MICHALSKI, EXECUTIVE SECRETARY
156 Fifth Ave., New York City 10010
Phone: 255-1977_
Cables:
Acinterpen NY
