LETTERS

WHAT A DIFFERENCE an "or" makes. In my review of Jeffrey T. Richelson's A Century of Spies (Book World, Nov. 5), I made the distinction between spies and "idealistic press informants such as John Vanunu or the American who gave the Pentagon Papers to The Washington Post and The New York Times." Somehow the "or" went overboard, and Australia's first Anglican convert from Israel became a Washingtonian insider.

Your copy editor asked me for a translation of "Rezidentura," and I said it was the KGB equivalent of a CIA station or a CIA country team. He must have misunderstood, because he confused the station with the station chief, rather like calling a brigade a brigadier.

Finally, I had asked that the siege of Troy (1193 BC) be replaced by the siege of Verdun, since Troy is out of historical context for a book on the 20th century. Somehow, this became "the siege of Troy to Verdun". Oh, well . . . RUSSELL WARREN HOWE Washington

Spies of Every Stripe

RUSSELL WARREN HOWE seriously distorts the events leading to the Second World War in his review of Richelson's A Century of Spies. The American failure to anticipate the Pearl Harbor attack, Howe writes, "surely sprang mainly from American laziness about learning Japanese." The U.S. Navy, at least, had a substantial Japanese language program, and it is common knowledge that Army and Navy cryptanalysts cracked most of the high level Japanese diplomatic and naval codes before the attack. A great many mistakes led to the disaster at Pearl Harbor, including the failure to properly collate and disseminate the intelligence gained by the codebreakers; Howe's explanation of the defeat is shallow reductionism.

Far more egregious is Howe's treatment of the Munich crisis. He contends that "most scholars would now agree that Chamberlain and Daladier were prudent in playing for time with Hitler and that Capitol Hill was then the capital of appeasement." The absolution of Chamberlain is at best a gross exaggeration (Chamberlain has his defenders, but surely they are not a majority of historians). The U.S. government played no role in the events of September 1938, neither encouraging nor resisting the Anglo-French sacrifice of Czechoslovakia. The United States in the 1930s can justly be held accountable for a passivity that complemented the irresolution of Britain and France, but to suggest that it was the the active force of the spirit of Munich) is an absurd calumny. KEITH E. ALLEN Baymarket, VA

Although Jonathon Pollard accepted money for his spying, to write him off as one of the "venals" shows a lamentable ignorance of his motives, and indeed of the entire affair. To call the loathsome Philby an idealist is to descend into childish word games. (Attila the Hun called himself the Scourge of God. Should we then assume he was deeply religious?)

What is truly indecent, however, is the off-hand labeling of Stephen Spender, Melvin Lasky, and Brian Crozier as literary prostitutes because they wrote for Encounter magazine and, mirabile dictu, were paid for their contributions. It is true that Encounter received money from the C.I.A. So what? Spender, Lasky, and Crozier wrote what they believed and believed what they wrote. They welcomed, as would any writer, another avenue in which to promote their beliefs. Sol Schindler Bethesda

Russell Warren Howee replies:

Allen seems to have missed my point, which was to distinguish between "venals" (the Walkers, Pollard, Ames, etc.), idealists (Philby, the Rosenbergs, etc.), who may have caused deaths, and press sources (Daniel Ellsberg, John Vanunu, etc., who never spied at all.

Mann in Other Words

MARK HARMAN gives deserved praise to John E. Woods's new and beautiful English translation of Thomas Mann's masterpiece, The Magic Mountain. I only wish that Harman could have done so without taking a gratuitous swipe at the work's previous translator, Helen Tracy Lowe-Porter, whose close personal relationship with Mann lasted 30 years until his death in 1955.

It is not true that "his otherwise enlightened American publisher, Alfred A. Knopf, foisted Helen Lowe-Porter upon him . . ."Knopf recommended that Mann commission Lowe-Porter to do the translation, but the decision was left up to Mann entirely. In fact, Mann first chose George Scheffauer, an American living in Germany, for the difficult job. It was only after Scheffauer's sudden death that Mann finally chose Lowe-Porter. the woman who had already translated his Buddenbrooks, a translation which even Mann himself considered "extraordinarily sensitive and accomplished." After the financial success of The Magic Mountain in America, Knopf and Mann agreed to retain Lowe-Porter for future translations. Over the years, Mann came increasingly to respect Lowe-Porter's abilities with his complex prose.This "small-town Pennsylvanian," as Harman describes Lowe-Porter, lived in Europe for many years, socialized with many of Europe's greatest writers and statesmen, experienced World War II's Battle of Britain firsthand, translated works from French, Italian and Latin, studied drama in Munich, and became a friend of Albert Einstein, whose papers and addresses she also translated. Except for Harman, her having come from Towanda, Pennsylvania, was not a bar to the recognition of her talents. In 1964, for example, Wells College established an annual award for superior translating in her name.

Harman concludes that "Mann would undoubtedly be far happier with his new translator . . ." Undoubtedly, we'11 never know. But given the copious written record of Mann's satisfaction with Helen Tracy Lowe-Porter, one should speculate on the matter with caution. RROBERT A. JACQUES Davidsonville, Md.

Mark Harman replies:

My negative comments on the work of Helen Lowe-Porter were not gratuitious, even if I did indulge in a little sarcasm. Though a woman of considerable intellectual gifts, Lowe-Porter herself conceded that she was "not really a literary bird ... T. Mann says that I am a sociological, not a literary bird." Her translations were always controversial. Among her early detractors were such eminent critics as Harry Levin and Erich Heller. Moreover, the evidence does show that Knopf foisted Lowe Porter on Mann. It is not true that Lowe Porter was selected for the task only after Scheffauer's sudden death. Scheffauer was still very much alive--and indeed collaborating with Mann--in 1927, the year in which Lowe Porter's translation of Magic Mountain first appeared.

Choosing Poetry

THANK YOU, Washington Post! Thank you, Robert Hass! Like most people, I just don't have much time for pleasure reading. Least of all, do I have time for reading poetry. Thanks for shaking up my world view and making me look at the wonderful world of literature again. And thanks for reminding me that, as the good sisters taught many years ago, poetry must be read aloud to be appreciated fully. Agnes Danna DiPietrantonio Alexandria

Book World welcomes letters from its readers. Letters must be typed. They should be signed and include the writer's address and daytime telephone number. Because of space limitations, those selected for publication may be abridged. Address letters to The Editor, Book World, The Washington Post, Washington, D.C. 20071.

Articles appear as they were originally printed in The Washington Post and may not include subsequent corrections.