The Press: Soul-Searching on the Left

As onetime (1943-49) art critic for the Nation, Clement Greenberg feels he still has "a certain real stake" in the magazine's wellbeing. Recently, Greenberg decided that the weekly's well-being was not being furthered by its foreign policy and its foreign editor, J. Alvarez del Vayo, veteran journalist and for a time (21 months) foreign minister in Spain's Loyalist government. To the Nation's editors, Greenberg sent a 1,200-word letter charging that Del Vayo's column "invariably parallels that of Soviet propaganda." Editor-Publisher Freda Kirchwey refused to print the letter. Her explanation: "It's absurd, defamatory and...