A Center for Lincoln

To the Editors:

Lincoln Kirstein, reviewing The Face of Lincoln [NYR, August 14], admires St. Gaudens’s statue of Lincoln which stands both in Chicago’s Grant Park and in London outside the House of Commons. He also deplores the fact that Lincoln Center in New York has no physical reminder of its namesake.

I believe that this could be remedied in handsome fashion. Some ten years ago, when I was chairman of the US Commission of Fine Arts in Washington, we helped arrange for a new casting of St. Gaudens’s magnificent bronze from the molds which still exist. That casting was given by the government to Mexico.

Another casting could be made, I am sure, if public spirited citizens would help with the costs. The figure, slightly larger than life, stands in front of a classical Roman chair. Imagine how he would look directly in front of the Metropolitan Opera with fountains playing at his feet.

William Walton

Stone Ridge, New York