17 NOVEMBER 1961, Page 15

VON HOFMANNSTHAL

SIR,—In an article about Fischer Verlag in the Spectator of November 3 you say 'Sigmund Freud and Hugo von Hofmannsthal—both Jews, and both Viennese.'

Of Hugo von Hofmannsthal's four grandparents, only one was a Jew. Two were of Austrian peasant stock and one north Italian.