A Critic’s Critic

I am writing to correct several inaccuracies in David Van Houten’s capsule review in the Sunday, March 31, Book Review. Let us begin with the book’s title, which is properly “The Merchants’ War” ( not , as Mr. Van Houten had it, “The Merchant’s War”). Moving right along his slug line to his next error, the author’s name is Frederik (no “c”) Pohl; I can understand Mr. Van Houten’s confusion--he must have assumed the publisher had made an error in the printing of the book, which he (Van Houten) felt necessary to correct--which he did, four times in the space of one paragraph. Next, in referring to Mr. Pohl’s classic 1953 prequel, “The Space Merchants,” Mr. Van Houten neglected to mention the co-author of that book, the late C.M. Kornbluth.

SHERRY M. GOTTLIEB

Owner, A Change of Hobbit bookstore

Santa Monica