In our issue for March 1988, The New Criterion published an article called “Thinking about ‘Witness’” by Hilton Kramer. In the course of Mr. Kramer’s discussion of Whittaker Chambers’s Witness, he made extensive reference to the writings which Diana Trilling and the late Lionel Trilling had devoted to Chambers and the Hiss case. On some matters the article was in essential agreement with the Trillings’ views. But questions were nonetheless raised and certain criticisms made in regard to an essay Mrs. Trilling had written on the Hiss case in 1950. As a courtesy to Mrs. Trilling, we invited her to reply to these criticisms if she wished to do so, and we are pleased to publish her letter here together with Mr. Kramer’s response. We much appreciate the fact that Mrs. Trilling has taken time from her current literary endeavors to respond to Mr. Kramer’s article. Whatever our disagreements may be on this subject, or indeed on others, her thoughtful comments remind us that nowadays we do not hear from her often enough on the outstanding political and cultural questions of the day. It is certainly to be hoped that when she completes the memoirs on which she is now at work she will once again address herself to the kind of critical tasks to which she has in the past brought so much vigor and distinction.—The Editors

Letter from Diana Trilling

To the Editors:
Thank you for your invitation to reply to Hilton Kramer’s article on