READERS FIGHT BACK

Letters

Beryl of Fun

I have recently completed the authorized biography of Beryl Markham, Straight on Till Morning, which will be published in the United States in September by St. Martin's Press, and I feel compelled to advise you that there is documentary evidence available to dispute many of the things contained in Scott O'Dell's letter, printed in your March issue.

I dispute Raoul Schumacher's claim that he was the author of West with the Night. He was not even with Beryl when the book was planned and started; in fact, an author of considerably higher stature than Schumacher was involved in the gestation phase of Beryl's memoir. This was Antoine de Saint-Exupery, the French writer-aviator, who was an old friend of Beryl's. Schumacher became involved only when eighteen draft chapters (out of twenty-four) had been completed. I discussed this with Mr. O'Dell on the telephone, and while I am not questioning the fact that Raoul made this statement to him, there is evidence to refute Raoul's claims.

Conversely, it is obvious from reading Schumacher's works that he was never capable of producing writing of the level of West with the Night. He was a writer for the pulps, so why Beryl's statement of this fact should have caused him so much anguish is a mystery. He was, according to a friend, "a lazy writer who preferred drinking to working. He seemed to live on advances for which he never produced anything." He was a good—perhaps brilliant—editor, of that there is no doubt, and he was also an allaround, genuine Mr. Nice Guy, but this does not make him a good writer. His published work was pedestrian in the extreme, and the quality of the short stories that he produced in Beryl's name during the mid-forties falls far short of that of her own autobiographical writings. His real contribution was to provide Beryl with much-needed support and to make her believe in herself. Despite outward appearances, she suffered from appalling self-doubts regarding her own abilities.

While I am naturally reluctant to leak important information before my book on Beryl's fascinating story is published, I thought you should know that a challenge will shortly be made to the irritating assertions regarding Beryl's authorship. Beryl herself could never be bothered to deny these rumors; she felt it was not important. Even if she were still alive, it is doubtful whether she could have been persuaded to dignify them with a denial. It is therefore now in the hands of her friends to ensure that she is given full credit for her literary talents.

MARY S. LOVELL Salisbury, Wiltshire, England

Dole Out

I appreciate Vanity Fair's interest in me as a possible presidential candidate. Unfortunately, the Dole profile by Gail Sheehy in your April edition included a dead-wrong, 100 percent inaccuracy—a tasteless joke about George Bush that was attributed to me.

I like to have fun, but the alleged crack is definitely not my style. Thank you for letting me set the record straight.

BOB DOLE Washington, D.C.

Hip Hopper

I very much enjoyed Ron Rosenbaum's article on Dennis Hopper [April], I have long followed Hopper's films and am lucky enough to be one of those who actually saw The Last Movie—I still and always will remember those fabulous scenes of the Indians with their wicker dollies and mock cameras. I am also one of the few who can say they have seen Dennis Hopper's Vietnam movie, Tracks. I wondered at the omission of even a mention of it in the article. I saw Tracks at the American Film Institute in Washington in 1977. I would rank the last scene right up there with anything from The Deer Hunter or Apocalypse Now.

GWEN KELLEY Middletown, Rhode Island

I was surprised that Kid Blue was not even mentioned in the Dennis Hopper feature. Hopper was at his best, and funniest, in this innovative Western.

MARK LEE Houston, Texas

Well, you certainly wasted a lot of space on one of life's losers, Dennis Hopper, whom Ron Rosenbaum seems to think is a man of today, rather than of yesterday. Granted he made a bit of a comeback in a couple of recent pictures, it makes me laugh when Rosenbaum says of a new film project to be directed by Hopper that it needs only Sean Penn's signature to be a "go project."

Putting Sean Penn in a picture is a very risky project, and having it directed by someone who has wasted his entire life makes it even more so. Dennis Hopper, whose name means nothing to people my age, is a thing of the past, placed there by his own stupidity, and Sean Penn's arrogance is rapidly putting him into that same category. A film with those two will not lure many customers.

EMMY DENNIS Carson, California

Three's a Crowd

I enjoyed the April issue, and was able to comprehend even its subtlest nuances—with one exception, which occurred in your Editor's Letter. Apropos of the amusing Dennis Hopper profile, you write: "The years that followed were downhill into a hazy purgatory of drug abuse, troilism, and crazed gunslinging in New Mexico." What is troilism?

MAURICE ZOLOTOW Hollywood, California

The people at Merriam-Webster define troilism as sexual relations among three people. Though there are not yet enough citations for it to appear in their standard dictionary, they say it may at some point in the future. The word occurs in Victoria Glendinning's Vita: The Life of Vita Sackville-West. It has also appeared in several advertisements which were sent in to Merriam-Webster, one of them in the personals of The New York Review of Books: a "male troilist'' was seeking a couple for good times.

Letters to the editor should be sent with the writer's name, address, and phone number to: The Editor. Vanity Fair, 350 Madison Avenue. New York. New York 10017. The letters chosen for publication may be edited for length and clarity.