NOTICE OF A FORTHCOMING BOOK
THE HOMOSEXUAL REVOLUTION by R. E. L. Masters. A challenging expose of the social and political directions of a "minority group." This is the first objective discussion and analysis of both the "cults" and secret societies of the past, and of the homophile movement as it exists today. Throughout the world there are groups working through their publications and organizations to abolish legal restrictions on certain private sex practices among consenting adults, and to achieve full integration of the homosexual into society. Among these groups in the U.S. are Mattachine Society, One, Inc., and. Daughters of Bilitis; and sub-groups of these main organizations. All of them come in for scrutiny in this new book, with conclusions drawn by a man who has been a reader of homophile publications avidly for the past several years. The book · also deals with the origins and nature of homosexuality and contains a biblio graphy. Certainly this is one no Mattachine Review reader will want to miss. Orders taken now for delivery after promised April publication date from Julian Press. 5.95
DON'T OVERLOOK THESE TITLES
A THIRSTY EVIL by Gore Vidal. Seven short stories, ranging from the hilarious to the horrifying, comprise this outstanding collection which has sold out as an American edition, and which is now out of print as a paperback. We have found a quantity of the British edition to keep this title available for Dorian readers who may have missed it.
3.00
SEX FROM A TO Z by Hugo G. Beigel, Ph.D. This book covers everything from Aaron's Rod (a phallic symbol) to Zoolagnia (erotic impulse derived from animals) in a highly comprehensive and scholarly work. Written in popular lanquage, it is a modern approach to all aspects of human sex life., Don't buy it for words that "shock;" but a lot of common sense sex education material is here for everyone past puberty. Authoritative and arranged for quick reference. Of the 444 pages, 12 are bibliography. 2.25
PAN-GRAPHIC TITLES
TRANSVESTISM COMMENTARY, Edited by John Logan and Carl Richter. A collection of articles, essays, notes and comment about those persons psychologically compelled to dress across the sex line, together with some ideas about. what brings this compulsion to the surface,
1.25
THE REJECTED by John W. Reavis, Jr. Although brief (26 pages) this booklet in permanent library format is outstanding in that it is the transcript of an huu r-long program produced for National Educational Television on the subject of homosexuality. Remarks are by Dr. Margaret Mead, Dr. Karl Bowman, Bishop James A. Pike, Rabbi Alvin Fine, District Attorney Thomas Lynch, Attorney's Morris Lowenthal and Al Bendich, three members of the Mattachine Society, and others. A collector's item for those observing the breakthrough in the "conspir acy of silence", since this program has played in San Francisco (twice), Portland, Oregon, and Tucson, Arizona. It will be presented in other major cities with educational television stations in the days ahead. 1.00
CAMEL'S FAREWELL by Harry Otis. Increasingly popular is this collection of 14 gay short stories, presented as a travelogue by a writer who is unmatched in his ability to land anywhere on earth and swiftly, learn the places to go to meet the people he wants to know. He learns about aphrodisiacs in Belem and New Delhi; hits Rome in time to go to a drag ball given by a diplomat, discov ers the things that flower in Casablanca's Oasis Park by night; attends a catamite auction bazaar in Khartoum (where Sultans buy handsome youths), and then winds up in Zululand at a hotel which is operated by two lesbians. There, he is swept into the bush to observe little-known sex rites of the all-male Fas imba cult. In essense, a serious sociological documentary. But for entertain ment reading it is a wild, gay camp.
Dorian
18
2.95
}
orían BOOK SERVICE
693 Mission Street San Francisco 5, Calif
BOOKS
A GUIDE TO UNDERSTANDING
THE CIRCLE OF SEX, by Gavin Arthur. San Francisco: Pan-Graphic Press, 1962. 75 pp,. $2.50. Reviewed by Carl Richter.
In spite of Mr. Arthur's predilection for the occult, much of which many readers will find difficult to accept, and an overpowering tendency to force form; this theory of sexual variation makes a great deal more sense than some of the over-publicized hypotheses-such as that of "psychic masochism" as an explanation of homosexuality, compounded by the late Dr. Edmund Bergler-which have been passed off on the public under the label "psychology". Furthermore, it is humane and practical.
The Circle of Sex is poetic-as are the theories of relativity-but because it deals with inner rather than outer phenomena, it does not lend itself as readily to objective, physical observation as do the magnificent structures of the imagination which have been erected in the field of physics in this century. And due to the intrusion of a sometimes esoteric lingo, it does not interpret itself readily for technicians. But for those students of human behavior who are not too specialized to give a fair evaluation to a poetic experience, this unique little book may prove a stimulus, if not a paradoxical return to the facts of life.
Mr. Arthur uses the familiar clock-face, with some unfortunate and irrelevant complications, as a mnemonic device on which to display specimens of human sexual variants gleaned from personal acquaintances, literature, historical (some, almost contemporary!) personalities. Here we have a circular continuum proceeding through the degrees of homosexuality and heterosexuality in both physical sexes. At twelve o'clock we have the "paterfamilias"; and its opposite, the "materfamilias" at six. At pine we have the lesbian and opposite that, at three, the dorian. He uses the Chinese concepts of yang and yin as more suitable than the abused ""masculine" and "feminine", and comes up with some surprising, but not necessarily untrue, conclusions. He represents neurosis as a conflict with the Zeitgeist as it pertains to erotic behavior. And Mr. Arthur's Zeitgeist is Spenglerian. It seems to be governed by the precession of the equinoxes for it marches, according to Mr. Arthur, slowly and surely through time and is at present 19
}