It’s Not a Photograph

There are two errors on the cover of the May 17 issue. Thomas Jefferson was in France during the creation of the Constitution, and if that’s supposed to be John Adams on the right, he was not there either, but in England. Maybe you were going for the generic Founding Fathers artistic cover, but I did not bother to read the articles knowing that there was something already incorrect.

Daniel Neckel Alexandria, Va.

The Editors Reply: That’s James Madison on the right, not John Adams. And yes, the cover was meant to convey what we believe the Founding Fathers would think of President Obama’s Constitution. If you see the cover as a literal depiction of a historical event, why not object that, at the Constitutional Convention, the Founders did not throw up their hands in dismay at the fruits of their labors? We hope this clarification encourages you to read the articles.

Bedtime Stories

In “The Depths of Time” (May 3), Richard Brookhiser recalls reading Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time aloud to his wife.

How glorious to learn that someone else does this! For over a decade, I would read aloud to my wife while she cooked dinner. It didn’t stop there, either. When my children were young, they swore we were the only family on the planet that read books (big books, Crime and Punishment, Brothers) aloud. But I think my wife and I hold the record. We read the Summa of Thomas Aquinas — all 64 volumes.

Oddly, after that, my wife asked me to get a hobby.

Mark Herring Via e-mail