Letters by Benjamin Howard, Alan Littell ’53 published in London’s Times Literary Supplement
Two longtime Alfred residents, both affiliated with Alfred University, had work published in consecutive issues of London’s Times Literary Supplement, one of the English-speaking world’s oldest and most authoritative cultural publications.
Benjamin Howard, professor emeritus of English at the University, contributed a letter to the editor that appeared in the July 21 issue. Responding to a review in which the American heartland was described as “flyover country,” Howard noted that two U.S. poet laureates of his acquaintance (Ted Kooser and the late Howard Nemerov) had connections to the Midwest, and he expressed the hope that they and other Midwestern writers might be read without “the coloration of prejudicial filters.”
Alan Littell ’53, special-collections bibliographer at Herrick Memorial Library, provided a letter published in the London paper’s July 28 issue. In it, Littell, supplied background information he claimed was missing from a book review touching on the life of the late Art Buchwald, an American newspaper columnist noted for his satire and humor.
In Paris in the 1960s both Buchwald and Littell were employed by The European Edition of The New York Herald Tribune. Littell was one of the columnist’s editors. A 1953 graduate of Alfred University with a bachelor’s degree in sociology, Littell served as public information officer at his alma mater from 1968-86.