Man of the Year
Sir:
The entire free world must concur with your inevitable choice at year's end of John F. Kennedy as TIME'S Man of the Year.
E. F. HARVIE
Wellington, New Zealand
Sir:
For Man of the Year—your choice of Johns: President or Pope.
JOHN M. GEHL III
New Orleans
Sir:
I nominate James Meredith, of course; for a difficult, thankless, but necessary task, accomplished with consummate dignity and inspiring courage.
(MRS.) LOIS D. DUMMETT
Tuskegee, Ala.
Sir:
John Glenn.
SUSAN O'BRIEN
New York City
Sir:
The American serviceman—the soldier, sailor, marine, or airman who has stood ready in countless spots around the world from the paddyfields of Viet Nam to the blue waters of the Caribbean to serve his country, and meanwhile acts with warmth and friendship as its most effective ambassador of people-to-people diplomacy.
R. C. GROSSE
Lieutenant, U.S.N.
F.P.O., New York
Folk Singing
Sir:
Thank you, TIME, for a long-anticipated cover story about Joan Baez and folk singing [Nov. 23].
JOANNE A. MIRRA
Boston
Sir:
I hardly know whether to applaud you for your wit, groan over your unscholarly and superficial analyses, or praise you for your occasional (I say occasional) insight into the ideological conflicts and underlying bases for the widespread folk-music interest today.
The thoughtful critic of folk music, unlike the pseudobeatnik "Harvard underworld" you describe so well, criticizes the commercially oriented "folk" group or individual not on the basis of money, but on the basis of a sincere approach to the spirit and tradition of the songs being sung, which, surprisingly to many, is an extremely complex and difficult achievement. A good voice is incidental to the attainment of this goal, though it doesn't hurt. One might criticize Bing Crosby's style of singing opera even if he were to hit all the notes properly.
If nothing else, in spite of some gross oversimplifications this is a thoughtfully provocative article.
DICK REUSS
Indiana University
Bloomington, Ind.
Sir:
Joan Baez is professionally lost, unilaterally unhappy to the point that her life might be a void were she ever—perish the thought! —to find happiness. She is a believer without a faith.
The folk singer who sings in public is a self-conscious fraud who needs to be scorned, hated and pointed out. He needs to feel that he is as unwanted as he feels he is. Nothing shall come of nothing.
J. MICHAEL FREEDBERG
Salem, Mass.
Sir:
Your article on folk singing was very interesting, but I want Miss Baez to know that there is at least one good Republican who is also a good folk singer—my wife Mary.
JOHN C. OWEN
Baltimore
Sir:
You committed the unpardonable sin of dismissing Richard Dyer-Bennet in one sentence as an "arty eclectic." The likes of Joan Baez could not even hold his guitar.
DAVID S. BAUMGARTNER
Chagrin Falls, Ohio
Sir:
How can you write an article on this subject without at least mentioning Josh White?