A Voice from 1981

A friend who used to work for Ambassador (TWA's in-flight magazine) shared this with me recently. It seems the magazine's editor, William Reynolds, wrote to a number of well-known writers and asked them for a list of books that we all should read. 

He got responses from Studs Terkel, Isaac Asimov, Jerzey Kosinski, and David Brinkley. Some had interesting lists, and others less so. 

The best response was from Ursula K. LeGuin, and I'm not saying that just because I love her writing. Here's the note, which was typed on monarch-sized paper:

And as text:

March 23, 1981

Mr. William J. Reynolds
Senior Editor
AMBASSADOR
1999 Shepard Road
Saint Paul, Minnesota 55116

Dear Mr. Reynolds:

I drew a blank trying to think of books that "we should all read." The "should" really scares me. The kind of books I read were written to give pleasure and delight. I am now trying to think of books that we should not read, and even this is very difficult. Perhaps MEIN KAMPF, perhaps the instruction manuals of the KU KLUX KLAN, perhaps THE ODYSSEY in Greek, unless we understand Greek. I guess I am stumped. Maybe I will now go read the latest Harlequin Romance, although I know I shouldn't. 

Yours very truly,

Ursula K. LeGuin 

UKL/d

Note the initials at the end: I wonder who "d" is? I assume her assistant. The letter was typed on an IBM Selectric with the Letter Gothic type element. From the looks of the Xerox copy, her letterhead is either engraved or thermography, given the way the thin parts of the letters didn't make full contact with the paper when copied.

At this point in 1981, LeGuin was 51 years old.