To the Editors:

Robert Phillips states in his letter (February 1991) that Marya Zaturenska in “Visiting the Gregorys” (September 1990) concluded that The Golden Journey: Poems for Young People, which Louise Bogan and I compiled, was an “imitation” of The Crystal Cabinet: An Invitation to Poetry, com piled by the Gregorys, not because we plundered its contents but because we had copied its format, its subtitle, and its use of woodcut illustrations. That conclusion, absurd as it is, cannot go un answered.

We made no claim to originality for the subtitle of The Golden Journey; it had been used many times before, as had the subtitle of the Gregorys’ book, and simply indicated the audience for which the book was intended. Woodcuts have appeared as illustrations since the earliest publication of children’s books, and our choice of Fritz Kredel, a modern master of the woodcut, owed nothing whatever to the Gregorys. Indeed, Louise Bo gan’s contempt for the Gregorys was such that she would not have looked at The Crystal Cabinet even if I had placed it in front of her. The fact is that we did not look at that book. We did not take it up, we did not put it down; we did not glance at its dust jacket, its title page, its subtitle, or its con tents. We did not examine it, we did not imitate it. Marya Zaturenska’s conclusion that we did is vicious, absurd, and totally wrong.

William