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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 10, 1960)
A noted photographer presents a revealing" word-and-picture portrait of the great humanitarian on the eve of his 85th birthday Albert Schweitzer Tells THE MOST IMPORTANT COMMANDMENT 0 -v- &? Yousuf Karsh Albert Schweitzer, who gave up a career as a jamous musician 50 years ago to become a medical missionary in Central Africa, marks his 85th birth day next Thursday. Schweitzer has done little to' popularize himself, but the image of the tall, mus tached doctor running a hospital, treating the na tives' diseases, and in his spare time writing books on theology and recording the organ music of Bach has impressed itself on the mind of the world. Many well-known people have visited Schweitzer and written their recollections of the man who has been called "a living saint." However, photographer You suf Karsh has captured his impressions in words and picture. Here, with his camera portrait of Albert Schweitzer, is Karsh's own account of their meeting. From "Portraits of Greatness" by Yousuf Karsh. Copyright 1959 by Thomas Nelson & Sons, New York, N.Y. A THOUSAND QUESTIONS were on my tongue, and it was tantaliz ing to realize that I would not have time to ask a fraction of them. While we talked, I watched Dr. Schweitzer closely, especially his hands. They were the fine hands of a musician and a healer. I wished to photograph him holding some books, preferably an album of Bach, but he protested that to use Bach's music for this purpose would be like "sauce on sauer kraut." Accordingly, with a shy smile, he brought out some of his own books. Then he revealed a very human side by declining to be photographed while wearing spectacles. "They make me look too old," he said. It was, of course, my hope not so much to make the portrait that Schweitzer might desire, but to catch him, if possible, at an unconscious moment when perhaps my camera might seize something of those qualities which have made him great as a doctor, musician, philosopher, humanitarian, theologian, and writer. The picture shown here was taken in a moment of meditation. Remembering his tolerance and his ministrations to the African natives, I asked him how he thought Christ would be received if He were to appear in our time. Dr. Schweitzer looked up at me and in his quiet voice replied, "People would not understand Him at all." Which, then, did he consider the most important of the Ten Commandments? He thought about that for a long moment, the granite face was illuminated, the man behind the legend suddenly visible. "Christ," he said, "gave .only one Commandment. And that was Love." COVER: The lovely green-eyed star gracing our cover is Sophia Loren, whose life seems to be the epitome of glamour and success yet she lives under a shadow of discontent. Turn to "Sophia Loren's Struggle for Respectability" on page 6. Weekly LEONARD S. DAVIDOW President and Publisher WALTER C. DREYFUS Vice President " PATRICK E. O'ROURKE Advertising Director Send all advertising communications to Family Weekly, 153 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago 1, III. Address all communications about editorial features to Family Weekly, 60 E. 56th St., New York 22, N. Y. I960, FAMILY WEEKLY MAGAZINE, INC., January 10, 1960 Board of Editors ERNEST V. HEYN Editor-in-Chief BEN KARTMAN Executive Editor ROBERT FITZGIBBON Managing Editor MARGARET BELL feature Editor PHILLIP DYKSTRA Art Director MELANIE DE PROFT Food Editor Bob Driscoll, Irma Heldman, John Hochmann, Jerry Klein, Harold London, Jack Ryan; Peer Oppenheimer, Hollywood. 153 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago 1, III. All rights reserved.
