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BOOKS

BANNED BOOKS -

R. R. Bowker Co., 1955 -

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Anne Lyon Haight

Paper covered, $.75, Cloth covered, $4.00

While many people who know the value of literature (authors, teachers, librarians & booksellers) have been trying to lead the rest of us to an appreciation of books, there has been at the same time another group of people, the censors, who are trying to limit our access to knowledge.

In the past, books have been censored largely on the grounds of heresy, treason, or obscenity. This has placed under forfeit such books as the Bible, Shakespeare's THE MERCHANT OF VENICE, Paine's THE RIGHTS OF MAN, Mrs. Stowe's UNCLE TOM'S CABIN, Marx's DAS KAPITAL, Joyce's ULYSSES, Caldwell's TOBACCO ROAD, and Kathleen Winsor's FOREVER AMBER, to name only a very few.

Mrs. Haight has gathered in this revised edition of BANNED BOOKS a discussion of censorship, statements on the Freedom of the Press, Court. decisions, Postal Laws, and finally a bibliographic check list.

Mrs. Haight does not discuss homosexuality as a separate issue and yet implicit in everything said about censorship is the right to study, discuss, and write books on this subject, a right which would certainly be drastically curtailed if the censors had their way..

This book should be owned by everyone who writes or reads.

ROAD OF NO REGRETS -

J. F. W.

Joseph de Pelissero

Greenwich Book Publishers, NYC, 1956 $3.00

Out of a short bookful of highly-romanticized characters, the most unbelievable of all is "Jeffy," the hero himself. A middle-aged, homosexual exbutler, left with affluent means by a deceased employer, he bounces from pinnacle to pinnacle of effervescent bliss as his young beloved, Adrian, plunges in and out of far-flung romances. "Jeffy" sits at home, for the most part, nourishing grand schemes for his lover's business and domestic career, apparently content with vicarious pleasures derived from the latter's adventures. The plot ends on a high note of felicity, as Jeffry watches his Adrian getting happily married to the daughter of a business associate.

The writer's style is florid, tiresome, incredibly refined, and oozing with Victorian sentimentalism. The book is subtitled, "A Novel of the Homosexual in our Culture." If this is an accurate description, then may every budding homosexual read ROAD OF NO REGRETS and be advised

THE SPANISH GARDENER

Little, Brown & Co., 1950 $3.00

Robert Gregory

A. J. Cronin

The boy, Nicholas, is the central figure of this tender and beautiful story, but his vain, tyrannical father, and the warm, smiling youth, Jose, are jewels of characterization. Subtle homophile overtones permeate this triangle of personalities, as Nicholas is torn between filial obedience and affection, and his blossoming devotion to "the Spanish gardener."

Much pathos is woven into the intricate turns of the plot, and no reader could fail to be deeply touched by the tragedy which finally overtakes Jose at the hands of the jealous father. THE SPANISH GARDENER is a book of deep and delicate insight, a "must" for all readers who know how to treasure a gem of character portrayal. Robert Gregory

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