Letters
The views expressed here are those of the writers. ONE's readers cover a wide range of geographical, economic, age, and educational status. This department aims to express this diversity.
CONGRATULATIONS, STUPID! Dear ONE:
Congratulations on the August issue. Bronstein's drawings are splendid. Hope not too many people object to lack of a figleaf or body drapery! Keep up the good work, which gets perceptibly better.
Dear Editor:
Mr. M.
Toronto, Canada
I deeply deplore the fact that the picture on page 16 (August, 1963) was included. In my opinion the subject of the drawing was in grossly poor taste, vulgar in theme and offensive to many viewers as well as cheapening and debasing the Magazine.
For thousands of heterosexual magazines we have two or three homophile publications in this country. Because of this it is of critical importance that ONE reflect favorably upon the homosexual if it is to assist in constructively influencing public opinion and improving the public "image" of the homosexual.
Dear Sirs:
Mr. B.
San Francisco, California
One must always regard the Magazine as a welcome monthly visitor, giving encouragement and delight to its readers. Indeed, your August issue was superb. ONE, for sure, is ahead of the times we have with us. It is to be complimented for the incentive it lends and the education it affords.
Gentlemen:
Mr. D. Chicago, Illinois
The Executive Board of the Mattachine Society of Washington has directed me to express unequivocally to you its utter shock and disgust that you would waste valuable space to reproduce an ordinary and artistically and socially unredeeming drawing of a nude sailor defecating. The drawing does not become a magazine of the eminence and with the eminent purpose of ONE. It might have a place in one of the many physique
magazines. It does not have a place in a magazine which is intended to correct the public image of homosexuals.
If your purpose in printing the drawing was to test the law, a sensuous Greek statue or a critically well-regarded painting or drawing of a male nude by an exceptional artist would have been much more appropriate. People get the impression from such a drawing, from some of the other art work, and from the stories in ONE that homosexuals are not the cultured persons and do not have the elevated culture which shines through such persons as John Addington Symonds, Edward Carpenter, Walt Whitman, and others like them.
Please do not try to compete with the physique magazines. You have more important work to do!
Dear Friends at ONE:
Bruce Schuyler, Secretary The Mattachine Society Washington, D. C.
The August issue with the low key salty dog drawings has just arrived. The drawings are welcome for a change, seem well done, and are not objectionable to me. Enclosed find my check to help keep ONE going. Mr. F. Berkeley, California
Dear Mr. Slater:
I have decided to stop receiving the Magazine, due to the quality of the August issue. As I do not allow this type of art to be walked into my home I do not expect to have it mailed into my home either.
I sincerely hope that you find the two enclosed manuscripts to your liking. I would like to continue writing articles for the Mag-
azine.
Dear Don Slater:
Miss S. New York, N. Y.
I have just finished the August issue. The Bronstein art is just that, Art with a capital "A"; totally devoid of the fatuous; wonderfully, really human. The two fiction pieces |
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