Challenging Velikovsky

I was glad to read about Pseudoscience Wars: Immanuel Velikovsky and the Birth of the Modern Fringe by Professor Michael Gordin (Campus Notebook, Oct. 24). As a sophomore in the fall of 1965, I challenged Velikovsky in The Daily Princetonian on his theory that the mythical Oedipus was actually the Pharaoh Akhnaton. As with other theories, he devoted a book to this topic. In reply I got a 2,000-word character assault from him titled “Lesson For a Sophomore,” which filled a page of the paper but failed to refute the evidence. Nonetheless, it reduced me to feeling that I was an unworthy ignoramus who had unjustly attacked an untouchable academic dignitary.

Fortunately, both Professor John Marks of the Oriental studies department and Professor John Wilson ’20, a distinguished Egyptologist then at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, came to my rescue. They wrote letters to the Princetonian indicating that the evidence supported my contention. It is heartening to see that 47 years later, Velikovsky continues to be called on his pretensions and distortions by Princeton faculty.