Letters

READERS BITE BACK

First-Class Mailer

Norman Mailer has played many roles in his long career—novelist, essayist, poet, social historian, political analyst, film writer, actor, director, and biographer. But his essay on Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho ("Children of the Pied Piper," March] confirms what some of us have known for a long time, namely that Mailer is also a major literary critic, maybe the best we have. He is a master of language, with uncanny sensitivity to the fine distinctions to be made between the solid and the meretricious in a work of fiction. Above all, he shows in his criticism what may be less evident in some of his other work: that he has attained that rarest of qualities in an American writer—wisdom and absolute fairness of judgment.

JOHN W. ALDRIDGE Ann Arbor, Michigan

Mailer suggests that, far from encouraging male violence against women, Ellis's book may make violent men rethink their attitudes. This is possible, but let's remember the so-called Moors Killers of England (so well described in Emlyn Williams's book Beyond Belief), who, inspired by the works of the Marquis de Sade, went on to torture and kill three children. Do we need the works of an Ellis or a de Sade to remind us that people can be awful, or to demonstrate our devotion to the First Amendment? And what if Mailer is wrong? What if ten violent men read the book and reform, but one goes forward?

AL HORMEL Weston, Connecticut

Mailer adopts the approach of D. H. Lawrence in his Studies in Classic American Literature: Art should serve the twofold purpose of entertaining and telling a significant truth. Mailer con-

eludes that American Psycho is flawed on the second ground and, hence, cannot satisfy the test of artistic merit. Given the apparently offensive and disturbing content of the novel, the judgment seems eminently sound. However, if this standard were to be the test of publication, little in the entertainment field or in the "arts" currently being offered to the American public would ever see the light of day.

DANIEL BERGER Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Hammer Blow

John Richardson's article about my late step-uncle, Armand Hammer ("Hammer Nailed," March], was certainly closer to the truth than the public-relations fantasies Armand created. However, I was deeply upset to read Richardson's comments about my mother, Ireene Seaton Wicker. When Richardson met her in the 1970s, she had already become a ghost. Within the corrupt encirclement of the Hammer family, she had lost her work and her identity, become a victim of neglect and abuse, and escaped into alcoholism.

When Victor Hammer married my mother in 1941, she was the creator, writer, and sole performer of the first children's program on radio. She was in Who's Who and, as "the Singing Lady," had an audience of 24 million listeners. In the years before and after her marriage, she wrote children's books, made records, and won more awards than any other radio artist, including an Emmy and the Peabody Award. The 1950s McCarthyite charges that she was "sympathetic" to Communist causes were provably false. As for Vuitton luggage being her "one and only status symbol," it was Victor who insisted they use Vuitton luggage.

When my mother became widowed in 1985, she was an utterly helpless invalid in a nursing home; her talent and her mind had been annihilated. Armand sued her estate for all the money left. There was just enough to pay for her nursing care, while Armand was worth more than $180 million. I fought Armand's claim because what the Hammers had done to her was obscene. Armand settled out of court, but it is unimaginable that he settled with me because he wished, as Richardson suggests, to placate his wife, Frances. Armand was incapable of such consideration.

NANCY D. WICKER EILAN Stamford, Connecticut

King David

Regarding "David Is Goliath," by Paul Rosenfield [March]: It is absolutely fabulous that David Geffen has come out of the closet. On the cover, you refer to him as Peter Pan. On the contrary, he has just grown up.

MARIANNE G. C. SEGGERMAN Stamford, Connecticut

You forgot to mention one thing about David Geffen: he's a hell of a nice guy. When my niece Madeleine was bom, he gave her a beautiful Tiffany spoon. Perhaps that is why my sister continues to work for him. He genuinely cares about his employees.

CHARLES W. LA WRY Santa Monica, California

Lady, Be Good

I was appalled to read Dominick Dunne's article about Enid Kenmare ["Memento Mori," March], I was Lady Kenmare's son-in-law from 1954 to 1958 and lived in La Fiorentina for most of that time. As to her purported heroin addiction, she had to use morphine because of severe arthritis, and it was prescribed by a doctor. If she was late at the table, it was not because of shooting up in her room, but because she was in considerable pain and it took her time to dress. We all knew the stories about her husbands' mysterious deaths. It was the people who were not invited to her table who liked to think she murdered them.

COUNT AYMON DE ROUSSY DE SALES New York, New York

Unkindest Cut

In Ben Brantley's "The Whole LindsayHogg" [March], Michael Lindsay-Hogg makes an acerbic reference to his first feature film, Nasty Habits, saying he would prefer "to draw a veil over it" because of the way it was cut. I wrote the screenplay for that film and produced it, so I can jump-start Lindsay-Hogg's memory. The film opened in New York in 1977 with mostly solid reviews by Pauline Kael, Vincent Canby, and Rex Reed. Nearly all the critics gave Lindsay-Hogg high marks. As for the edit, Peter Tanner is one of England's best. And what about Lindsay-Hogg's own director's cut, guaranteed him by the Directors Guild of America? With few changes, mostly for length, the final cut was his.

ROBERT ENDERS London, England

The Story of fldelaH.

I am responding to Leslie Bennetts's article about me [ ' 'Springtime for Holzer?' ' February], It was the first interview I had granted since being incarcerated, and I want to clarify certain points. I was not seeking publicity when I wrote to Saddam Hussein. I felt so depressed during my incarceration that I felt if a letter would alleviate the misery of so many lives in exchange for my own it would be worthwhile. As for my former press agent Michael Alpert, he criticizes an image he helped to create and, incidentally, made a lot of money creating. It is not true that I have a son of "fiftyish age." I challenge anyone to prove it.

ADELA HOLZER Bedford Hills, New York

EDITOR'S NOTE:

Taki's article "High-Life Crash," which appeared in the March 1991 issue of Vanity Fair,was an excerpt from his book Nothing to Declare,which will be published by Atlantic Monthly Press in June. It was published by Viking in Great Britain in March. Copyright 1991 by Taki.

Letters to the editor should be sent with the writer's name, address, and daytime 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.