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which no amount of sagavery will eradicate.
Living, as we do, in the fear of detection with resulting ostracism, prison or blackmail, is it any wonder that many homosexuals develop neurotic tendencies leading to insanity or suicide?
It should not be thought that the majority of homosexuals are of the loose wrist, lisping vintage eager to parade his anomaly in the market place, like some of our less evolved brethren. Not a few of them are filling responsible posts in the business world, but their efforts in a measure are handi-
New Newsstand in Denver
capped by the Sword of Damocles hanging over their heads.
Freed from the fear of persecution, I venture to predict that the majority of homosexuals would be a decided asset in the cultural life of any community, instead of living in abject fear of detection; for it must be remembered that when Nature takes away with one hand, she gives generously with the other, and so we find the fields of drama, painting, music and literature enriched by the labors of many of the despised homosexuals.
Vancouver
INVERT
Scotty's Newss tand, 1659 California street, Denver, Colorado, now has copies of the Review from the JulyAugust issue to date. It is located next to Mozart Club.
Paterson, New Jersey, Shop Has Copies
Market Street Spot, 257 Market street, Paterson 1, New Je y, now handles the Review, beginning with the October issue.
BOOKS
Miss Mark's WELL is dry....
"MY SISTER MY BELOVED" by Edwina Mark. The Citadel Press, New York, 1955. Reviewed here by Del Martin of San Francisco, this new book on the lesbian theme is not recommended by the reviewe: who states that it is sensational instead of significant.
AS THE JACKET of this book
says, "For the reader who is not afraid to learn, it may well prove a more than illuminating glimpse into the world of what most of us thin! of as abnormal':" The publisher could very well omit the quotes around the word abnormal; the book depicts characters who are just that. The alcoholic, the sadist, the masochist, the prostituted, the abortionist, the drug addict, the dope peddler, the incestuous, the murderer are all represented here.
It is a book of sensuality and sensationalism, rather well written for the type of book it is, but a far cry from Radcliffe Hall's "The Well of Loneliness" with which the publisher audaciously compares Miss Mark's first novel.
For too long now publishers have been managing to overrun the market with much mediocre and inferior material on the lesbian theme by taging their new ware with a reference to the "Well". It is not only mislead ing; it is also downright libelous for these "sexsation" seekers to take a free ride on the reputation of Miss Hall's book.
Edwina Mark is 23 years old, unmarried, and lives in New York's Greenwich Village. It would seem she is having her fling. Perhaps when she becomes à little more mature and less impressed by the seamier side of life, she may turn her ability to write 'a simple and direct style to far better advantage. There are characters, and then there are "characters".
COMMISSIONS FOR DISTRIBUTORS
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mattachine REVIEW
Devoid of Rhyme or Reason│
DESPERATE ASYLUM. Fletcher Flora. Paper Bound. Lion Library, 40 cents. This book was reviewed by Jack Parrish. He says it is a little hard to understand why it was ever written/
A beautiful alcoholic lesbian meets a self-tortured gentlemen of the old school, who is impotent. Her brother, in the hopes of assisting
her to become normal, persuades her to marry him. They know a happily married heterosexual couple who experience safe and sane sex relations. She tells her husband all, drinks even more heavily, and he kills both her and himself. The heterosexual couple wonder if they shouldn't have tried to comprehend
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