THE ICE NEXT TIME

Regarding your July 16 article “Literature After the Bomb”: Poetry of the nuclear holocaust, sometimes specifically addressing Hiroshima, is extensive throughout the world. A comprehensive index of such verse may be obtained upon request from Steve Sneyd, 4 Nowell Place, Almondbury, Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, HD5 8PB, England.

In the piece as it appears in the Book Review, there is a typo that Kurt Vonnegut would probably find quite ironic and amusing. That reference, as printed, is to “ice-nine, a substance capable of freeing the entire world.” Of course, the spell-checking software wouldn’t realize that this should be corrected to “ice-nine, a substance capable of freezing the entire world.” To be sure, the latter would free the world--of all life, in a manner antithetical to a thermonuclear firestorm.

JONATHAN VOS POST, ALTADENA