Picasso
Sirs:
To TIME: loud shouts of joy for its swell article [Feb. 13] on the greatest creative genius since Leonardo.
WALTER REINSEL
Philadelphia, Pa.
Sirs:
Your spread of Picasso deserves high praise.
The layout of the color reproductions of his various periods lends weight to a theory of mine: that artists lean to abstract painting when war is in the air. (Picasso's 1914-15 and 1935-36 periods would correspond to the beginning of the World War and to the Civil War in Spain.)
I feel a decided abstract period coming on right now.
VICTOR DE PAUW
New York City
Sirs:
I enjoyed your article on Picasso, it was very good.
However, if the father of Pablo Picasso was, as you report, Blasco Ruiz and his mother's name was Maria Picasso, then his name would have been Pablo Ruiz y Picasso which will explain why he is known by his mother's name. Now, if he had been born out of wedlock, his name would have been Pablo Picasso, and his father's name would not have appeared in his name at all. . . .
I have heard that Picasso selected his mother's name instead of his father's name because Picasso was more musical than Ruiz.
J. E. HERNANDEZ
Department of Romance Languages
University of Kentucky Lexington, Ky. > Ruiz y Picasso it is.—ED.
Don Juan
Sirs:
MAP FLEET PROBLEM XX, FEB. 2O ISSUE, SHOWING "DON JUAN, PUERTO RICO" SWELL BUT WE SPELL IT SAN JUAN. CORDIALLY INVITE ALL AMERICAN GIRLS COME DOWN SEE US SOMETIME
DON RAMON QUINONES
San Juan, P. R.
> To TIME'S cartographer, one copy, collect, of Byron's Poems.—ED.
Shooting a Professor
Sirs:
Your recent account of a shooting here (TIME, Feb. 6) was written with characteristic colorfulness, but it seems that you sacrificed accuracy to attain this end. The student in question did not shoot his professor until fully a half hour after he was seen cribbing. This move was made after he had confirmed his expulsion from the institution, which is automatic in such cases. What is more important, he returned to his quarters before doing so. ...
WALDENSE C. NIXON
Meharry Student
Meharry Medical College
Nashville, Tenn.
> What seems most important to TIME is that he came back with a gun.—ED.
Deductible Items
Sirs
The American Birth Control League, Inc.received from the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, Treasury Department, Washington, D. C. on March 2, 1938 a ruling that the League is exempt from Federal Income Tax under Section 101 (6) of the 1936 Revenue Act, and that contributions to the League are deductible by individual donors in arriving at their taxable net income. This exemption ruling continues in force. At least two of the leading tax service publications noted the ruling in 1938, but evidently it was not observed in the 1939 revision of Simon & Schuster's manual, Your Income Tax, which you reviewed in your recent issue of TIME, Feb. 20. Your review erroneously stated that contributions to birth control organizations are not deductible. . . .
WILLIAM J. MCWILLIAMS
Attorney for the Birth Control Federa tion of America
New York City
Brash Sprat
Sirs: