Letters

The

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LETTERS FROM 10TH ANNIVERSARY

ISSUE CONTINUED

THE PIONEERS, 1952-1962

Dear ONE:

As one of the Founders of ONE since 1952 I been active in ONE Magazine's editorial work, serving variously as member of the Editorial Board, as Managing Editor and since January, 1959, as Editor.

ONE over the years gradually usurped more and more of my time until, in 1955, I became its second full-time staff member. My several terms as a Director have brought me into continuing awareness of the problems and complications which have forever been the Corporation's lot.

As Manager of the Publications Division of the Corporation it has been stimulating sometimes harrowing, experience to preside over the publication of three books since 1955, Game of Fools, Homosexuals Today, The Keval, and watch the growth of the Book Service into its present important usefulness to the homosexual public.

A most interesting development has been to work since its beginning in ONE's Library and to see it grow from a small cardboard carton of books into a highly specialized collection of thousands of items, of items, many hundreds of which have already been catalogued according to professional library standards a collection unparelleled in the homosexual field.

My several years of circulation work to the local newsstands gave me a very realistic picture of the tie-up between editorial policies and sales. Since 1958 I have been teaching various aspects of homophile literature in ONE Institute, and look for expansion of the Institute's valuable work.

Dear ONE:

Don Slater

Los Angeles, California

I had the good fortune to attend that first meeting in 1952 at which the proposal

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"something ought to be done' done" was the germinal seed from which ONE sprang. A number of previous experiences with other organizations had convinced me that one of the most dangerous rocks upon which they fall afoul is the question of finances. As Business Manager since 1952 I have seen no reasons for changing that view. However worthy or urgent the plans we may devise, they can go nowhere unless the funds are forthcoming.

ONE has been most fortunate in the loyal, self-sacrificing support of its many supporters. Without their aid it would never have been possible to keep going during a decade in which such huge publications as QUICK, COLLIERS and a dozen others have bitten the dust.

As a Board member since the start and Chairman on several occasions, it has been interesting to watch the vitality of ONE's purposes win through over the attacks, the indifference, the occasional subversion, the attempts at unwise course-changing which are the lot of every growing institution.

It has been a privilege, as the Corporation's first fulltime staff member, since 1953, to work in ONE's Social Service Division and to counsel with a great number of discouraged, frightened, confused homosexual men and women who have come to the offices seeking help with their problems. The stablized, well-adjusted "alumni" of the Social Service Division are a source of great pride and satisfaction to all of us who have taken part in this indispensible part of ONE's activities.

It has been a very big ten years. William Lambert Los Angeles, California

EARLY BIRDS, 1953-1962 Dear ONE:

Although I have been interested in ONE'S work since its inception it was not until