Hiebert and Mailer
To the editor:
I thoroughly enjoyed Dorothea Samaha’s article about Daniel Hiebert [“The Good Doctor of Provincetown,” Jan. 2, page A11]. It gave a good review of a wonderful man.
I worked with Dr. Hiebert in the summer of 1958 when his encounter with Norman Mailer in the town lockup, described in your article, took place. (It was not 1960, as you reported.) I had gone to medical school thinking about being a general practitioner in Provincetown, so this was a critical set of experiences for me.
I was present the morning after Dan had taken care of Mailer. I arrived and he looked like hell. I said, “Dan, what’s the matter?” He said, “That son of a bitch Norman Mailer was in the jail last night with a laceration and I had to sew him up. He swore at me and spit at me during the entire time. I am exhausted.”
Ten years or so later, I was a professor at the University of Florida College of Medicine, and Mailer came to Gainesville to give a talk. My wife and I attended and enjoyed it. The next morning, I was scheduled to fly to a meeting — I don’t remember where. But as I sat in my assigned seat, Norman Mailer sat down next to me.
I mentioned that my family was from North Truro and that I had actually worked with Dr. Hiebert. His response was, “Hiebert — that son of a bitch. He would sew you up without giving you any novocaine.”
Mailer undoubtedly had a blood alcohol level that would be near lethal for most of us, and Dan may have thought that should provide some anesthesia. Unfortunately, it did not.
At least I had both sides of the story.
Parker A. Small Jr., M.D.
Newton and North Truro
The writer is professor emeritus of pediatrics and pathology at the University of Florida.
Penniman and the Hawks
To the editor:
The Jan. 2 Nostalgia edition of your paper was chock full of fabulous stories of people and places perhaps long forgotten or never really known.
I was most taken with the story “Irma Penniman, Keeper of the Gate” by William von Herff [page A8]. As an Eastham resident for many years, I thought I knew the essence of the Penniman House and its sea captain, his wife, sons, daughter, and granddaughter. I knew that a granddaughter had come to live with the captain from the age of two. That’s where my knowledge of her and her story ended.
I learned that Irma and her husband, Maurice Broun, became the first wardens of the Hawk Mountain Sanctuary in Pennsylvania in 1934 and helped end the legal slaughter of raptors. Bird hunters were urged to put down their guns and observe birds’ migration over the mountain flyway instead. Many hunters left the mountain with a newfound respect for and love of these birds.
Irma and Maurice’s work helped win passage of the 1940 Bald Eagle Protection Act, helped create the federal Environmental Protection Agency in 1970, and led to the banning of DDT in 1972.
Your article has motivated me to reach out to the Cape Cod National Seashore to volunteer to help tell the stories of Irma, Maurice, Hawk Mountain, and the sad but ultimately uplifting story of raptors in the U.S.
Roz Diamond
Eastham
Letters to the Editor
The Provincetown Independent welcomes letters from readers on all subjects. They must be signed with the writer’s name, home address, and telephone number (for verification). Letters will be published only if they have been sent exclusively to the Independent. They should be no more than 300 words and may be edited for clarity, accuracy, conciseness, and good taste. Longer pieces (up to 600 words) may be submitted for consideration as op-ed commentary. Send letters to [email protected] or by mail to P.O. Box 1034, Provincetown, MA 02657. The deadline for letters is Monday at noon for each week’s edition.
