Letters: Dec. 1, 1961

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Man of the Year

Sir:

Unless memory fails me, TIME has never awarded its Man of the Year honor posthumously. Surely this year is the time to establish that precedent. Nobody anywhere on earth deserves this year the recognition more than the late Dag Hammarskjold.

WILLIAM B. LIPPHARD

Yonkers, N.Y.

Sir:

Your forthcoming selection has not been so easy in many a moon. I am confident that even the Russians are placing a safe bet it will be that great statesman and worker for peace in our time, Dag Hammarskjold.

L. W. VAN KEMPEN

Detroit

Sir:

This year, unfortunately, I feel that there is no doubt that a Russian must be named. Yuri Gagarin, the first man to circle the earth in outer space, must surely be named to hold this distinguished title.

I only wish it could have been an American who opened these many new horizons.

RICHARD LOWE

Canoga Park, Calif.

Sir:

The year 1961 will leave many footprints in the sands of time—many of them crisscrossing, all deeply etched. But I believe the perspective of time will underscore this year as the year of man's first venture into space, as the start of a new era of voyaging into the unknown.

Therefore I nominate as Men of the Year Gagarin and Shepard, Grissom and Titov.

STAN COOPER

New Plymouth, New Zealand

Sir:

If the Man of the Year is chosen on a basis of "one who has done more to alter the world for either good or evil," the man for '61 has got to be "Mr. K." or a composite of all those who fled East Germany. These two nominees have done more to alter the picture of the world than anyone else.

PHYLLIS QUAYLE

Madison, Ohio

Sir:

Discounting the biological disqualification, I propose the most obvious, best-equipped choice for "Man of the Year": the Mole.

RICHARD A. SWANSON

Pastor

St. Matthew's Lutheran Church

Itasca, III.

Sir:

I know it's a man's world, but why doesn't TIME give us a "Woman of the Year," along with its "Man"? Say on the back cover?

EVELYN SPENCER

Toledo

Sir:

Have I the great honor of being the first to nominate Dr. Mary I. Bunting for an award by TIME of the title "Person of the Year"?

SUE MOYER BOSSERMAN

Baldwin, Kans.

Promising Painter

Sir:

Thank you for the wonderful reproductions in your Nov. 24 issue, particularly for that glorious and luminous cover. I often wonder what some of today's modern artists (drip, slop and hoodwink schools) feel when they look at masterpieces such as these. Awe? Envy? Shame?

VICKI WOODWARD PATTERSON

West Newton, Mass.

Sir:

I look forward to seeing more of this artist's work on future covers of TIME, and venture to predict that he will carve out a significant niche for his name among the ranks of the art world.

MURRAY GEWIRTZ

Brooklyn

Sir: