Washed in public
Sir : Not having read the autobiography of N. Podhoretz, reviewed in the SPECTATOR of 30 August, I can't say whether the flagrant untruth you print there is due to the reviewer or the reviewed, but as perpetual sub-editor of Scrutiny I am in a position to refute Mr Ken- neth Allsop's statement that when Podhoretz was at Cambridge `Leavis blessed him and opened Scrutiny to his thoughts.' Having paid his fees to the English Faculty, Podhoretz, like everyone else in that position, could attend my husband's lectures; no blessing was implied by this privilege. Over and above this he was indeed commissioned to write one review for Scrutiny, on the recommendation of an American critic we trusted, a review of a volume by Trilling which it would have been tactless to expose to a qualified English re- viewer; and this is the whole extent of his connection with Scrutiny.
I well remember his subsequently submitting (uninvited) an essay for publication which- was, predictably, quite below our standard, and his calling on us with another of his kind (Stephen Marcus) to try and ensure its acceptance. Quite possibly this episode in the career of an apparently otherwise successful journalist has been transfigured in his reminiscences!
12 Bulstrode Gardens, Cambridge Q. D. Learis
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