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
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January 10, 1960
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