Professor Matthiessen

It should not be necessary to labor the fact that, with the suicide of Professor Matthiessen, Harvard has lost a great scholar, a devoted teacher, and a fine and sensitive man.

It would not be necessary, but for the misemphasis placed upon his death by newspapers and individuals everywhere. Men of as different political persuasion as Bill Cunningham and Howard Fast have chosen to consider his death solely in political terms, using it as a springboard for their own opinions.

They have treated him as a political cipher--Cunningham displaying extraordinarily bad taste, others with somewhat more respect, Fast with reverence and fury--failing completely to treat his death apart from its possible political significance. They have distorted and misconstrued the fact of his death for their own partisan purposes.

The news columns, with their listings of "affiliations" and almost total neglect of the non-political side of his life, have been scarcely better.

So, we repeat, Harvard has lost a great and deeply-loved professor, not a politician.