The Right to Read in the Public Library

Having spent the last year as the recording secretary for a library board in Washington State, which regularly deals with challenges by the public to books in the library's collection, I read with interest the Opinion page article ``Some Words In Their Defense,'' Sept. 15.

I came to my current job from an academic environment where intellectual freedom was taken for granted. It had always been clear to me that, under the First Amendment freedom given by our Constitution, I had the right to hold personal opinions about any subject. I am only now realizing how important it is for all citizens to understand that, if someone decides to write down an opinion and this writing gets published, the community has a right to have access to these opinions.

American public libraries protect our freedom by making available to all the full range of ideas, issues, and information, however popular or unpopular. Janet Pizzarello, Portland, Ore. Invisible love

I was pleased to read the Home Forum essay `` `The Thing That Is Not Seen','' Sept. 22, and to see that due recognition is given to ``The Little Prince'' in commemoration of 50 years of enchantment. I would like to differ with the author on a point, vital to understanding Antoine de Saint-Exupery and his small hero. Although Consuelo de Saint-Exupery was a difficult, short-tempered woman, she and her husband were devoted to each other. Saint-Exupery immortalized her as the proud, unique flower whom he loved and who loved him too. That love is precisely ``the thing that is not seen'' beyond words and empty gestures. Genevieve Bogert, Elsah, Ill.