Letters, Jun. 25, 1956

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The Intellectuals

Sir:

It was reassuring to see that you gave Jacques Barzun equal cover status with Marilyn Monroe. Intellectuals need not turn to across the Atlantic for stimulation and enrichment, for there is a whole world here. Your "thumbs in the suspenders" attitude is exactly what the rest of the world so vehemently resents in us Americans.

BERENICE COHEN The Bronx

Sir:

"Parnassus, Coast to Coast" could have read "Parnassus v. Dun & Bradstreet, Coast to Coast." Mindful of the decadence of a Europe and Asia which worshipped intellectuals and of the progress of an America which ignored them (though using some of their ideas), Mr. Average American would rather be a prosperous pragmatist than an impoverished pundit.

LAWRENCE MEEHAN Kearny, N.J.

Sir:

Your essay on the plight of the intellectual was a brilliant job. However, the more accurate statement of his dilemma is summarized in your Art section. When the vice chairman of Houston's Bank of the Southwest gave as his reason for rejecting William Zorach's sculpture that "the bank looks mighty pretty just plain," he summarized the attitude of millions of other Americans toward culture and the arts.

DAVID ANTMAN New York City

Sir:

You forget the unhappy plight of the intellectual American Woman. She who delights in thought and its communication and longs to take part in this great American Dream has no place. As a woman, she is shunned by the American man ("Something's wrong with her, she thinks too much!"). In order to extend her life, she has to wait for the European or European-educated man to come and dig her out. (Alas, he may never.) With only narrow channels for her broad, enquiring mind and practically no one to talk to—even intellectual men assume one cannot find a brain in combination with a low décolletage—she gradually loses her objectivity, gives up and retreats into quiet reflection and neurotic loneliness.

TERRY ROBERTS New York City

Sir:

Bravo for TIME'S eminently just and fitting observations on intellectualism in the U.S., and for giving J. Robert Oppenheimer the place he deserves. Both right-wing and left-wing intellectualism are necessary for maintaining political balance.

WALTER GERSTEL

Berkeley, Calif.

Sir:

To the Parisian, the names Malraux, Sartre, Camus bring instant recognition and respect; Barzun's apologia notwithstanding, intellectual influence here is clearly not comparable.

ANDREW S. KENDE Cambridge, Mass.

Sir:

Your photographs of the intellectuals of today look remarkably alike—peering, wondering, baffled, scared.

ZEKE BECKETT

Berkeley, Calif.

Missing Man

Sir: