Letters: Jun. 29, 1998

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I was disappointed to see so little attention given to composer George Gershwin. It is no accident that some people call him the American Mozart. He, like Mozart, made high art out of a commonplace style of composing and performing music. Art that has staying power can come from unlikely origins. PETER KNUDSVIG Hof, Germany

Steven Spielberg can be counted as perhaps the most popular moviemaker of all time, but he is not necessarily the most influential. None of his movies has revolutionized the cinematic language as did the films of D.W. Griffith, Sergei Eisenstein, Orson Welles, Federico Fellini and Jean-Luc Godard. Spielberg's influence has been detrimental, spawning a generation of moviemakers who produce only high-tech, infantile retreads of old movies and TV shows. JACINTO SOTTO Makati City, the Philippines

BART SIMPSON!

I was shocked at the selection of Bart Simpson as the cartoon character of the century [TIME 100, June 8]. Though an unfortunately large number of people watch his TV show, his character is a parent's worst nightmare. You should apologize for selecting him. DAVID GREPE Mexico City

I missed the cartoon characters Charlie Brown and Snoopy. Charles Schulz's creations, from their modest beginnings through their phenomenal growth and complexities, revolutionized the panel strip and changed forever the nature of what can be said with simple, funny squiggles. There would be no Bart Simpson if not for Charlie Brown. ELAN FLEISHER London

AND WHAT ABOUT...?

Where was J.D. Salinger on your list of the century's most influential writers [TIME 100, June 8]? Salinger is one of the few authors who have been able to connect with American teenagers from the 1950s to today. The Catcher in the Rye has been a rite of passage for every generation of the past 40 years. I was greatly disappointed by the omission. CASEY SCHWARTZ, 15 New York City

What about giving full coverage to actresses Bette Davis, Katharine Hepburn, Marlene Dietrich, Ingrid Bergman and Sigourney Weaver? JULIE HARTY San Francisco

There should have been more than a mere mention of John Steinbeck. And why nothing about Ray Bradbury and Robert Heinlein? DAVID W. DAVIDSON Bethesda, Md.

Where is a prominent, full discussion of country music? No Hank Williams? Not to mention (and you didn't) Roy Acuff, Bill Monroe, Ernest Tubb, Kitty Wells, Lefty Frizzell, Flatt & Scruggs, Loretta Lynn, George Jones, Bob Wills, Merle Haggard... "COUSIN LYNN" JOINER, Co-Host Hillbilly at Harvard, WHRB-FM Cambridge, Mass.

There was no category to take note of enduring pop and folk groups, like the Kingston Trio and Peter, Paul and Mary, that cut across musical boundaries. LENORE HUTTON Normal, Ill.

In the jazz-musician group, your runners-up include Wynton Marsalis, but he can in no way match Dizzy Gillespie or Thelonious Monk, who changed the form of jazz during the 1940s. BO FORSLIND Stockholm

It is a pity that great names in music like Bela Bartok, Benjamin Britten, Arturo Toscanini, Wilhelm Furtwangler and Eugene Ormandy were not mentioned. THOMAS HORVATH Buenos Aires

You omitted poets Carl Sandburg and e.e. cummings. ELIZABETH BENNETT Ballston Spa, N.Y.