15 OCTOBER 1954, Page 16

SIR,—As Editor of one of the Little Magazines whose subscribers,

after nine issues, still show no inclination to echo your forthright ' Good- bye,' I feel bound to add my comments to those arising from your first literary leader.

I have not read any of the novels men- tioned, but I am fully conversant with the published (and a great deal of the unpub- lished) verses of those who can be grouped, through common symptoms, ' In the Movement' I must say that I find the self- satisfied smiles of their urbane lines as similar as those of any pin-up starlets.

The Spectator has clone a great deal to boost the not altogether undeserved reputa- tions of these young writers. In your current pages you lament the lack of patronage for the Arts. Yet in one airy phrase In the Fashion' you damn the ' efforts of private individuals' upon which so many young poets depend, as of no consequence.

I do not protest on behalf of my own pub- lication which has as many loyal readers as it deserves (except in Scotland) but I do suggest that other surviving ' Little Maga- zines' like Poetry and Poverty, and Outposts, which provide a broad eclectic medium for effective publication of current poetry, should not be ushered into a premature grave in the rush to acclaim a very temporary phase in the life of contemporary poetry.—Yours