23 APRIL 1954, Page 14

SIR, — In his balanced and sensible review of Mr. Ray Bradbury's

Fahrenheit 451 Mr. John Metcalf says that Bradbury has been grven a lot of publicity as "the white hope of the "science fiction boys." But most of the enthu- plasm for Bradbury conies from quite another 'source, from that section of the narrowly literary intelligentsia which uneasily feels that there is something in science fiction, and has chosen Bradbury as a means whereby they can hdrnirc science fiction while retaining the essential ' literary ' (and even ' poetical ' !) snobberies. That minority of 'science fiction boys' proper who praise him far beyond his worth are, similarly, those who wish to make science fiction respectable in the eyes of that intelligentsia.