CORRESPONDENCE

To the Editor:

May I quietly point out, in response to Lee Siegel’s noisily shouting piece (Book Review, Aug. 11) on the Partisan Review conference (to which I contributed, though I did not attend) that when an essay--mine, in this instance, which he calls “sour” while sourly misrepresenting it--is delivered “humanely and elegantly,” it may be because the content is in fact humane and the writing is in fact worthy.

Unless Siegel believes that a silk purse can be made out of a sow’s ear? I have experimented with that possibility--I have tried reciting Siegel’s first two paragraphs aloud--and found that it cannot be done.

Cynthia Ozick

New York City