In response to:

Good Grief from the July 19, 1973 issue

To the Editors:

One of your readers, Jean Brunk of Corvallis, Oregon, has mentioned in an extremely gracious letter to me that the aphorism “what is not forbidden is compulsory” which I quoted from W. H. Auden’s poem “Talking to Myself” [NYR, July 19] comes from T. H. White’s The Once and Future King, Chapter Thirteen. I thought some of your readers would be interested to share my pleasure in Mrs. Brunk’s discovery.

Denis Donoghue

Dublin, Ireland

This Issue

October 18, 1973