social customs, and our own psychology.

In a fascinating chapter entitled "Excluded Words," Mr. Young forthrightly writes about the words which not only in English but in other Western languages, everyone knows and which are then rigorously excluded from most channels of communication. After exploring his reasons for doing so Mr. Young then proceeds to use these words, which he calls the only honest words, frankly and freely throughout the remainder of his book. It is to be hoped that this kind of daring and it takes real daring to use the word "fucking" in this kind of writing-will set a common sense example for others to follow.

In following chapters Mr. Young discusses "Excluded Images," "Excluded Actions," a nd "Excluded People." We might, of course, expect to find in either of the two last named chapters some discussion of homosexuality and homosexuals, but we do not. While the author does not hesitate to refer to homosexuality or buggery or sodomy, or to homosexuals or queers wherever he finds it necessary to do so, in general he rather carefully excludes homosexuality from any serious discussion in this book. He partially explains this omission by stating that homosexual actions and homosexual persons are no longer really or completely excluded in our society. For example:

"There are in our society now two great classes of people excluded from the web of the normal because of their sex lives: whores and homosexuals. Of these the whore will better repay study in the context of this book because she is wholly excluded, all round the clock, whereas the homosexual is only excluded as a homosexual; he is accepted in working hours, the whore is not." This is not quite the same thing as saying that the homosexual is accepted, gen-

one

erally speaking, only when he is not recognized as a homosexual which would be nearer the truth. I have the feeling that Mr. Young has avoided homosexuality simply as a facet of our sexual mores which does not particularly interest him. This is a healthful and encouraging sign.

All in all, this book offers a brilliant history of the sexual mores of the West and expresses more clearly than I have read anywhere else a humane and enlightened thought on the whole question of love and sex. Marcel Martin

WHITMAN by Geoffrey Dutton, Grove Press, N.Y. Evergreen Pilot Book, 95c.

This tiny paperback may mark the turning of the tide for Whitman. It is unabashedly rhapsodic about the best poetry, frank in calling the bad poetry just that, and refreshingly irreverent toward those two anti-Whitmanite antiquarians, T. S. Eliot and Ezra Pound. The three sections of the book, "The Man," "The Poetry," and "The Critics," give a wonderful overall view and they make the book a marvel of balance and terseness. A. E. Smith

The most praised book we have offered in some years has been ANOTHER COUNTRY by James Baldwin. Still selling well and still available, you may order your copy of this major novel in which all conformity is shattered by sending $5.95 plus 24c postage to: 4% tax in Calif.

ONE BOOKSERVICE 2256 Venice Blvd., L.A., Calif.