Gates Did Not Tell Power Earlier of Pulitzer Prize

To the editors:

Thank you for The Crimson’s generous coverage of the Pulitzer prize awarded to “A Problem from Hell” ( Arts, “Powerful Words,” April 18, ).

A few of your readers have expressed confusion on one aspect of the story, which I would like to clarify:

When Henry Louis Gates, Jr. telephoned me on the morning the Pulitzers were announced, he offered no hint that my book was under consideration. He called simply to relay the news that the book had received the Aniston Wolf prize for the best book in race relations, a huge thrill in and of itself.

As a Pulitzer committee member, Gates is strictly bound to secrecy, and he did not let on that I would be receiving a second, earth-shattering call later in the day.

SAMANTHA J. POWER

April 21, 2003

The writer is a lecturer on public policy at the Kennedy School of Government.