The Author’s Credentials, Please

I have just read Peter Steinfels’ review of “Politics, Power and the Church” (The Book Review, Sept. 27) and it provokes a recommendation. You scrupulously identify your reviewer. Steinfels is the editor of Commonweal. When you are publishing a review of an evidently contentious and controversial book, ask the reviewer to tell the reader a few facts about the author. Who is Lawrence Lader? What else has he written? What are his qualifications--if any? Steinfels’ half page critique finds nothing in Lader’s work except bad logic and rampant bigotry.

JOHN M. PHILLIPS

Granada Hills, Ca. 91344

Editor’s Note. Lawrence Lader is the author of the following books, in the order of their publication: “Margaret Sanger: The Fight for Birth Control,” “The Bold Brahmins,” “Abortion,” “Margaret Sanger: Pioneer of Birth Control,” “Breeding Ourselves to Death,” “Foolproof Birth Control: Male and Female Sterilization,” “Abortion II,” and “Power on the Left: American Radical Movements Since 1946.”