Letter to the Editor of The New Yorker

Titled "Meeting Koestler"

"According to Louis Menand's review of Michael Scammell's new biography of Arthur Koestler, I converted Koestler to Communism in Berlin in 1931 (A Critic at Large, December 21 & 28th). This is silly. I was never a Communist, and never encouraged Koestler (or anyone else) to become one, or to "lurch to the left." I worked in Russia, and in many other countries, but I was apolitical. My arrest in Russia, in 1936, for "conspiring to kill Stalin", was a trumped-up charge, as were many arrests during the Stalin purges"

Eva Striker Zeisel
New York City

This is the type of letter I love. Eva Striker Zeisel is 101 and is still one of the world's leading artists in ceramics.