Letters
Under no circumstances do the Editors forward letters from readers to other persons nor do they answer correspondence making such requests.
SOME HITHER AND YON-SIES Friends:
I have noticed with increasing alarm that your stories fluctuate in quality from month to month. "The Pickup" (June, 1961) is one of the worst cornball pieces of trash I have ever read. Most pickups are not doorways to love and marriage; they usually are trails to danger, even death.
I wish you would stop printing stories that are so fairy-tale-ish and present something on a more mature plane. The ending of the story was most depressing-the young man's college education was only a waste of time, since he too became a truck driver.
Dear Sirs:
Mr. G. Brooklyn, N. Y.
It seems that nearly every issue carries some reference to the possibility of further illustration of the Magazine with art or photographs which would be appealing. I would urge you to stick to your present policy for two reasons. First, there are plenty of little magazines which carry such things for those who want them. The limited pages of ONE should be devoted to material unique to its primary purpose in publication.
Second, it is my personal observation that not too large a percentage of the homophile population cares as much about the photographs as many seem to think (as, for example, our former Chief Guardian, Mr. Summerfield). Therefore, by devoting space to attractive pix you would actually detract from the value of the Magazine for a portion of your readers.
Dear Friends:
Mr. W. Chicago, III.
Your cover (April, 1961) was your finest pictorially of any I've ever seen. There is action. There is raw masculinity, yet tastefully and respectfully displayed. And when I read the delightful poem "John Mowing,"
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by Pierre Foreau, I realized how many times. I had secretly drooled at much the same situation.
I would like to see ONE use more photographic covers, rather than most of the weird symbolism that has been splashed on it; a lone couple sitting at surfside, at surfside, wistfully watching the sunset; a drag party; a boy walking alone pensively through a park in a summer rain; or so many other one, or twoperson cover situations reflecting Gay life and Gay interests.
Dear Fellows:
Mr. T. Chicago, Ill.
There are two rather successful bars in Tulsa that cater to the fraternity. Our numbers are comfortably large. The legal position is one of toleration of the bars and of the inhabitants. In fact, after investigation, I found there had been no police activity in any manner that could smack of encroachment for many years.
There have been those arrests necessitated by uncautious behavior on the part of some, but the streets, bars, private clubs and social gatherings are open to any and all of our group who wish to conform to the usual and expected code of social action. Tulsa is a fine city and a place for the traveller to visit. Mr. R.
Dear ONE:
Little Rock, Ark.
No doubt you know the Homosexual Law Reform Society have, in conjunction with another group, started to issue a magazine called MAN & SOCIETY, and the first issue contains a great deal about reform of the present laws in England.
For my own part I watch the changing scene in England with some concern. Since the implementing of the first part of the Wolfenden Report, when the female prostitutes were swept from the streets, it seems to me that certain parts of West End have been
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