Dear Editor
DEAR EDITOR NEW FORMAT I like the fresh, clean lines of The New Leader's new clothes. You have managed to retain the dignity of your publication and have at the same time put more spirit...
...Hyman deserves chiding for making such statements...
...New York City Ernest B. Hook HYMAN I have been interested in all the pieces Stanley Edgar Hyman has done for The New Leader, and I am particularly pleased with his review of Bernard Malamud's A New Life ("A New Life for a Good Man," NL, October 2...
...This is my first letter to The New Leader, and I hope not only for the success of what has always been an important and even readable magazine but also for the invalidation of my initial criticisms...
...September 18), Stanley Edgar Hyman declared: "Where the true novelist shows somethings, Montherlant tells it to the reader...
...You have managed to retain the dignity of your publication and have at the same time put more spirit into the layouts and typography...
...Frederick M. Stern The new New Leader looks very smart and impressive and has good content as usual...
...And poor William E. Bohn...
...Joseph T. McIntyre In a recent article on Count Henry de Montherlant ("An Unlovely Aristocrat," NL...
...I congratulate you on the new format of The New Leader...
...The celebration of their conspiracies is most assuredly in bad taste, to put it mildly...
...What Hyman is suggesting has become a standard cliche at creative writing courses around the nation...
...You are to be congratulated on your initiative...
...Purist reaction given...
...Their acts against their Government were in the interest of a ruling aristocracy and in support of abject human slavery...
...President, Farrar, Straus and Cltdahy We are very much interested in the new format and publication schedule of The New Leader which, in my view, makes a responsible contribution to informing the public by stimulating critical re-examination of accepted ideas...
...I trust it will bring even more readers to what has always been a stimulating publication...
...New York City Roger W. Straus, Jr...
...Larchmont, N.Y...
...Herbert Collins The New Leader in its new format is a happy improvement...
...Ira D. Cardiff...
...All signs point to a fresh and vigorous era for the magazine...
...New York City Edward K. Thompson Editor, Life Magazine The New Leader in its new look has an excellent appearance...
...Grafton, N.Y...
...New York City Dick Elman CIVIL WAR TRAITORS Permit me to compliment you on John P. Roche's refreshing article, "The Abolitionist Centennial" (NL, August 14-21...
...But I must admit that the illustrations by Gerry Gersten are splendid...
...I've read a lot of magazines in my day, and unless I'm terribly wrong, pages 18-19 look like a cheap Mondrianish obituary...
...Raleigh, N.C...
...New York City Lazare Teper Director, Research Department International Ladies Garment Workers Union Your new format is fine but did you have to inaugurate it with a smiling picture of a benign, fatherly Barry Goldwater...
...Yakima, Wash...
...The logo, theNEWLEADER, would benefit from a space between the and NEW and another between NEW and LEADER...
...Washington Luther J. Retd Director, Office of Special Projects, Department of State The new New Leader is a very handsome job of restyling, and Herb Lubalin is to be congratulated on a bull's-eye...
...It may have worked with Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, and a few other such figures, but it is certainly not an important rule of fiction even in the 20th century...
...Granville Hicks Is Stanley Edgar Hyman consciously antiChristian in his review of A New Life, or is he merely ignorant of the deplorable taste he shows in his fetid comparisons...
...Robert E. Fitch Dean, Pacific School of Religion The New Leader in its new dress is indeed an improvement both in looks and legibility...
...Philadelphia Ben HtBBS Editor, Saturday Evening Post My hearty congratulations on your new format...
...Point Lookout, N.Y...
...Washington Edward R. Murrow Director, U.S...
...As an opponent of design for design's sake I have only one objection...
...New York City ALFRED A. KNOPF Chairman, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc...
...Indeed, I have enjoyed so much of the illustrative work which has distinguished your magazine since the arrival of Ruth Marossi, including her own perceptive drawings...
...Berkeley, Calif...
...It is high time young Americans are given to understand that Jefferson Davis, John Breckinridge, Robert E. Lee and their ilk were traitors...
...The magazine retains its high calibre as a journal of opinion and information...
...Line the three issues up, and if what Lubalin designed is what you think will inaugurate a new period of circulation for The New Leader, then I'll join the mastadons...
...Information Agency As an old fan of The New Leader I applaud your new bold and direct format...
...Page 25 is a complete flop...
...New Rochelle, N.Y...
...But this much heralded format looks "slim, trim, youthful, soft voiced and poker-faced...
...Compare the cover of the September 18 issue with the magnificent cover for July 17-24, 1961...
...This is first-rate criticism...
...you apparently did not know what to do with his face...
...Richard Hanser I have been reading and subscribing to The New Leader since about 1945...
...New York City Nathan C. Belth This is to congratulate you on your new format, and all the imaginative innovations which make The New Leader not only very worth while to read but also a joy to look at...
...Now I read it as an old habit, and I suppose I'll somewhat sadly be reading it for a bit more...
...I am sure that the magazine will continue its important contribution and great influence...
...Any number of true novelists have told a great deal and shown very little, as Hyman should be well aware...
...Or compare it with the issues from the days when great photographs appeared on the cover, as on March 20, 1961...
...What nonsense...
...It is not only an immense improvement over the old, but very good indeed on its own account...
...I congratulate you and wish you well with it...
...at first glance I thought the wonderful Stanley Edgar Hyman was contributing three pages instead of two...
Vol. 44 • October 1961 • No. 35
