and how he gets his. Three cheers.

A new title, apt to be overlooked because of a poor medium of presentation, is the novella "Emanuele, Emmanuele,' by Caroline Gordon, in her collection of short stories with the uninspired title of OLD RED AND OTHER STORIES, Scribner, 1963. Robert Heyward becomes the secretary of elderly French "man of letters" Guillaume Fay. He is young enough to be consumed with intellectual passion for the famous man and overcome with curiosity about his personal life, particularly his strange relationship with his wife. They live apart and Guillaume writes copious letters to her. Literary gossip says that the letters will be used to supplement the famous "journals" of Guillaume Fay after his death. It is, of course, based on Gide's life, and is a magnificent short novel with a tragic denouement. This is not the first time Mrs. Gordon has expressed interest in historical homosexual men of letters and if you have not read her earlier novel, THE MALEFACTORS, Harcourt, Brace, 1956, you will want to do so soon. It is a minor title, where the present novella is definitely major, but the earlier book is a fascinating roman-a-clef paralleling the life of the always interesting poet, Hart Crane.

Too much has been said about homosexuals as security risks. Far too many novels were written about BurgessMacLean with an unnecessary emphasis on the homosexual aspects. Traitors and defectors can be any kind of man or woman and sex or pressure frequently has little or nothing to do with the problem. Since this viewpoint is hardly sensational enough to sell well, it is no real surprise to find that the finest book on the overall subject of traitors, whether homosexuality is a point or not, has never been published in this country. THE PRIMROSE PATH, by Peter Forster, London, Longmans Green, 1955, is the story of Edward Primrose, a most ordinary male. Because he lacks push, he fails here and there--sexually and in his work. He is heterosexual, moderately intelligent, faintly prejudiced against homosexuality -an ordinary and gray little man of no particular worth but of no particular blame, either. After a bumbleshoot series of adventures, Peter Forster's semi-hero, Edward Primrose, becomes friends with Bobo, a homosexual who loves (very much) a strong and ruthless mattachine REVIEW

man who is an important communist. Bobo is as much an innocent pawn as Edward is. Bobo's love makes him no traitor but his lover uses his innocence and he is a "courier." Soon Edward is tricked into the same work. They perform on the fringes and their subsequent failure is a very small one, but it is enough to have them executed very quietly. Peter Forster makes it very clear that the way you sleep and with whom has little to do with good or bad, patriot or traitor. After the execution (only the reader knows they have been executed, the public thinks of this as a disappearance) the papers have a hey-day linking Bobo and Edward as communist spies and homosexual lovers. They were neither and it is a shame this title has not had the audience it deserves. Without preaching it carries quite a message. Many of the finest novels from a literary standpoint contain minor homosexual episodes and themes. Taken alone these episodes may not be sufficient cause for purchase of a book; but often these minor incidents are so wellhandled, so well-written and enclosed in such quality reading matter that they are well worth a trip to your library. One of these is the vigorous and humorous male-oriented novel, THE UNTIDY PILGRIM, by Eugene Walter, Lippincott, 1954. While there is only one extended significant episode, the novel has a male vigor which makes it wholly appealing.

Another is John Steinbeck's SWEET THURSDAY, Viking, 1954, Bantam, 1956, etc., in which there are two decidedly homosexual characters. No one, admittedly, comes out from behind the curtain and shouts "queer," but it's all there for the faintly intuitive reader. And, additionally, it's an entertaining book, really fun reading.

Sometimes a beautiful all male love story is told without the necessary expository scenes needed to classify it as major. Alexander Randolph's lovely novel, THE MAILBOAT, Holt, 1954, is a good example. Not one positive phrase Aunt Matilda could read it but she wouldn't get the message and you will. I don't know whether the male throat is as prone to tighten with unshed tears as the female throat, but this book is a "tightener.”

John Kelly's ALL SOUL'S NIGHT, Harcourt, Brace, 1947, is another example of a novel too minor to advertise as homosexual yet it is that and just that. Another odyssey