Poets and Producers

The portion of Jan Breslauer’s story on Julie Harris and the serendipitous eavesdropping by Charles Nelson Reilly on the conversation at Sardi’s between Don Gregory and Mike Merrick and their hope to produce a one-person show omitted a very telling plot point (“Sharing the Soul of the Poet,” Sept. 3).

As recounted by Reilly in his “Save It for the Stage,” producers Gregory and Merrick wanted the star (Harris) and the play (“The Belle of Amherst”) but not Reilly, who conceived the project, engaged the writer (William Luce), directed the play and found them, the producers. But thanks to Harris’ legendary instincts, her unerring good taste and her unequivocal sense of loyalty, she allowed as how she would never do Emily Dickinson without Reilly. Now, with that, as they say, the rest is history.

JIM PINKSTON

Los Angeles