Barbara Griffin Head of School Saint Dominic Academy

July 1, 2012
Barbara Griffin
Head of School
Saint Dominic Academy
2572 Kennedy Boulevard
Jersey City, NJ 07304

My wife, Amy Chapman Smith, was graduated from St. Dominic Academy in 1960. She died on August 25, 2011.
Some time ago I asked you to post the notice of her death in your News/Alumna letter and then strike my name from your rolls.
The reason was simple. Its name, Pentimento, and its connection with Lillian Hellman, was more than I could stomach. How a religious institution, particularly one connected with the Dominican love of reason and philosophic enquiry could be associated with this slatternly mountebank is still quite beyond me.
I enclose 2 articles published since my letter to you.
I present these, not in defense of my argument, but as outside proof that she gave hookers a bad name.
Perhaps Mary Magdalene would be a better example for the young ladies under your charge. At least she came to accept God’s grace. [Is The Hound of Heaven to be found anywhere in your curriculum?]
The reason for this note is simple. Yesterday was the anniversary of Lillian Hellman's death. As is my custom, I send an armed guard to surround her grave, bayonets pointing in. I do this lest this moral, cultural, and literary succubus slip out of her grave site and further infect Western Civilization.




Kevin Smith