The author warns strongly against castration except under the most stringent regulation and study of all the factors in the situation. It would seem to this reviewer that the subject is of interest only to those students of inversion who still hold to the now rapidly disappearing view that homosexuality is pathologic and subject to "cure". With the enacting of more rational legislation and the development of a more sane attitude toward sex in society at large, it would seem that the homosexuals who become neurotic in their attitude toward their own tendencies need the help of a psychiatrist or at least a counsellor rather than drastic measures designed to destroy their sexual life completely.

T. M. M.

THE WHEEL OF EARTH by Helga Sandburg. McDowell Obolensky, 1958.

This fine first novel contains two women who are homosexually married to each other, big, bluff Gen, and petite, feminine Frankie. For a nonhomophile novel, it is amazingly explicit, and there is no censure, no "sympathy," and, indeed, a hint of admiration. Frankie is a major character, but her marriage is not delved into and is treated as a minor factual episode, but the two women reappear frequently.

The novel as a whole is of a hillfolk Kentucky family, centered around Frankie's sister and the sadistic father. It is not for everyone, due to its dark and brutal tone and obsession with nature, animals, and cruelty.

A. H.

LESBIAN LOVE IN LITERATURE edited by Stella Fox. Avon Press, 1962, 50c.

From the view of someone not interested in the homophile movement, this is a fine literary collection. But from the view of the homophile movement, one must quibble. The selection

shows a definite anti-homophile view. The average person after reading this paperbound will be only surer that all homosexuals are sick, sick, sick.

That could not be said of the book that comes the closest to being the male equivalent of this one, Cory's 21 Variations On A Theme. This is not because female homosexuals are sicker. It is not because there is a dearth of pro-homophile lesbian stories. It is simply because one editor was prohomophile and the other not.

With that important reservation, (and taking into consideration that the world we live in and its literature has viewpoints other than the homosexual viewpoint!), this collection is highly recommended. The tone is definitely literary, and the editor isn't pro-homophile but her batting average on literary quality is certainly high.

The 10 pieces are: Ch. 14 from Monday Night, Kay Boyle; Paul's Mistress, de Maupassant; Ch. 11 from The Illusionist, Francoise Mallet; Ch. 19 from Ann Vickers, Sinclair Lewis; Ch. 15 from Mademoiselle de Maupin, Gautier: The Sum Of Two Angles, Calder Willingham; Ch. 6 from Dusty Answer, Rosamond Lehmann; Shame, D. H. Lawrence; Bliss, Katherine Mansfield; "Nyetochka Nyezvanon" from The Friend of the Family, Dostoevsky.

There are two horrifying suicides. by two of the five male authors, de Maupassant, and Sinclair Lewis. The latter's piece is probably the most viciously anti-homosexual in all of literature. In The Illusionist the older woman takes off her heavy leather belt and gives the younger a detailed lashing. In Monday Night one woman takes over the wife of a man in prison and dresses up in his clothes and flaunts in front of the man's young

son.

The only piece that could remotely be called pro-homophile is from Dusty