My Aug. 9th letter about our survey of TIME-reading men (all 1,800,000 of them) moved many of you to compare yourselves smugly, humorously or wistfully with this statistically -average, $7,600-a-year TIME-reader --knowing, in many cases, that an average does not, of course, mean a majority. Here are some excerpts from your letters:

"Your average TIME-reader was very revealing and hit me right on the nose --even to and including the golf balls . . ."

"Riding home in my 'present car,' which the Rapid Transit System undoubtedly purchased years before I was born, I read the second paragraph [about the typical TIME-reading man], looked down at one of my two summer suits (a greasy pair of overalls) and then read on, looking hopefully for exceptions. I found none. Nevertheless, I hung on my strap and continued reading TIME, as I have been doing for years . . ."

". . . Although I cannot clip coupons with TIME'S typical male reader, I can boast of a clothes closet just as crowded . . ."

"What should I do: cancel my subscription or go out and rob a bank?. . ."

". . .Why choose white collar workers for typical readers? Our budget could only stand one magazine subscription, so TIME won out. As a whole, it is a fair grouping of all the things we want to know . . . But, good heavens!

Four suits! My husband has one suit, six pairs of socks, three pairs of shoes, seven

shirts . . . Nevertheless, I notice your typical man does not seem to own his own home. We do. Seven rooms and three lots . . ."

"What a blow it was to compare my accomplishments and possessions with your average reader's . . . However, if there is anyone who reads TIME who has any more optimism than I have of someday equaling and even surpassing this mythical average reader, I don't know him."

"Phooey! I can beat his golf score any day . . ."

"... I earn $25,000 a year, do not entertain eleven persons a week, provide no music lessons, and have only $5,000 socked away . . ."

"What an inferiority complex I have now. I find that the only area I measure up to at all is the fact that I do carry six keys. I realize, of course, that all distributions must have extremes at both ends, but I certainly would consider it nice just to be a 'typical TIME-reading man.' "

"The facts and figures you printed may be true for the 'typical' or 'average' TiME-reading man, but what about the majority of your readers? . . ."

"Your typical TiME-reading man made very interesting reading, but your average values do not interest me as much as the median values might. Are they available?"

They are, so far as they have been tabulated. The median (or reader-in - the -middle) amount of life insurance carried, for instance, is $15,450. The median sales value of houses owned by TiME-readers is $13,867. As yet, we have not calculated what the median ownership of shirts, ties, socks, shoes, hats, suits, golf balls, luggage, cameras, etc. is.

In view of our figures on the average TIME-reading man, many of you have asked about the average TIME-reading woman. A compendium of her life and works will be ready next week.

Cordially yours,

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.