REAGAN AS PEN PAL
In the July 26 issue of The New Yorker, Douglas Brinkley reports on a remarkable 52-year correspondence between Ronald Reagan and Lorraine Makler Wagner. They first started trading letters when Reagan was an actor and Wagner a member of his fan club. Their last exchange occurred seven years ago, shortly before Reagan acknowledged his Alzheimer's disease and retreated into near-total privacy.

The very fact of the letters' existence shows Reagan's astonishing modesty. As Brinkley writes, "The actor's kindness toward Lorraine is hard to understand at first, but he was clearly someone with a rare gift for extending courtesies to people across the board without regard to political expediency." In an age of celebrity politics and "I feel your pain" sentimentalism, the Reagan-Wagner correspondence reminds us of when sincerity was actually sincere. We may not see its like again.

Although Wagner recently sold the letters to a Philadelphia autograph dealer, she hopes they will eventually wind up in the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. We do, too--and maybe even as a trade hardcover as well.

In the meantime, we have the New Yorker article, which includes plenty of excerpts from the correspondence. A few examples:

On ABC airing a sympathetic interview with Alger Hiss in 1962: "I don't think the Hiss broadcast comes under the banner of news reporting. It was a plain case of allowing a convicted perjuror [sic] and spy to attack a man [Richard Nixon] who had served as Vice President of the United States."

On fighting a TV director who wanted to cut a scene showing a little girl saying her prayers: "Finally in a near knock down drag-out, they admitted their objection was because they were atheists."

On China: "Personally I think the Red Chinese are a bunch of murdering bums ... but in the big chess game going on, where Russia is still the head man on the other side, we need a little elbow room."

On Jimmy Carter, in 1976: "Carter disturbs me more than a little. I have a deep-seated feeling that he is a real phony."

On George Bush's performance as vice president: "Darn good."

On Californians: "I never saw such insane drivers."