Letters
Under no circumstances do the Editors forward letters from readers to other persons nor do they answer correspondence making such requests.
HOW COULD YOU DEPARTMENT
Dear sir:
In a publication such as ONE, which I enjoy and admire, and which pretends to literary quality, fairly successfully I think, i feel it proper to point out three grammatical errors in the issue (January, 1962).
Jeff Winter's "Note on Phallic Worship" says, "The world about them is comprised of gorgeous brutes . . . Now you can say "composed of," but never "comprised of." If this verb is to be used it is correct to say "comprising."
Two mistakes of the same nature occur in Doyle Eugene Livingston's excellent "Love. is the Night." He writes, "They laid together and later "but went on laying there."
The confusion between the two verbs is very common in North America, but nonetheless inexcusable. I lie on the sofa. The hen lays an egg. I don't know whether this is the writer's fault, or yours. What a shame that this common error nearly spoilt for me an enjoyable reading experience... Mr. E.
Dear ONE:
Vancouver, British Columbia
A very powerful poem, "Love is the Night." But why, oh But why, oh why, doesn't your editor catch such things as, "They laid together, and, "He went on laying there"?
There is no excuse for this sort of thing in a good magazine. Moreover, its presence in our publication can do us a great deal of harm, for it gives the impression that we are illiterates.
Perhaps one of the retired professors whom you know would not mind doing a bit of editing before contributions reach the printer. The depth of my feeling is due to the depth of my respect for the Corporaton and of my hopes for its future.
Mr. H.
Los Angeles, California
Dear sirs:
I do love your Magazine, but I do think you ought to inform your readers of recent Broadway plays and new novels that deal in homosexuality instead of exploiting old novels and that dreadfully dull poetry you put forth.
Saw Tennessee William's new play "The Night of the Iguana" in Chicago a couple of months ago. There is a lesbian schoolteacher in it who, I might add, was really a scene stealer.
Dear friends:
Mr. R. Wabash, Indiana
I feel that the editor's pencil could be used more liberally. Two glaring examples appeared (January, 1962): the first was on the Theater, by M. F. The words, "You silly little Mr. Taubman. You are a bloody, dreary, tiresome fool" ruin what would otherwse be a good answer to the charge. that the theater is run by homosexuals. How could anyone ask a non-gay friend to read. that?
The other was at the end of Geraldine Jackson's otherwise excellent "As For Me," where she quotes Abraham Lincoln as saying, "Together we stand; divided we fall." Lincoln expressed similar thoughts in his "A House Divided Against Itself" speech, but the other quotation is from someone in the Revolutionary War.
Dear Mr. Lambert:
Mr. G.
New York, N.Y.
You have now developed into a kind of little "cult group, in California of course. I would guess that you have about two hundred or less "cultists" who keep you going, keep you in print. What amazes me is the way you people keep congratulating yourselves for existing. I'll admit that is something, but you're ten years old now
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