der why the dual reactions almost as if a reader tends always to select what he wants to believe in a novel and to reject the rost. My greatest cons olation out of all this is the knowledge that this type of literature does not soom to "corrupt" those who do not wish to be cor. rupted, especially in one instanco where one of our friends, undecided about the path she should take with her life, decided not to be "gay". I am glad that I was able to spare her the pains of experimentati on and also to spare the pains of the unsuspecting Lesbian who would have had the misfortune of falling in love with her! In another instance, a girl who was very disturbed about being a Lesbian found my book assuring because of its optimistic tone.

I intend to pen all my other novels under the name of Artomic Smith, both straight and gay, as I make little effort to hide my own (I dislike the word homo phile because it is weak) tendencies. I have written four short stories for ONE Magazine under the name of Carle, one of which, "Confessions to a Window", was reprinted in Vriendsohap without credit before the international copyri ght law came into effect.

My second gay novel for Beacon Books, tentatively titled "Strange Invitation", will be more concerned with the legal aspects of Gay life, mainly with the persecution of "drag butches", and of Lesbians in the Services. It will have a happy ending, not because I wish to make it "party-linish", but because I firmly believe that all true-life endings are in most ways happy 1.0., while there's life there's hope, and killing off a character at the end is somewhat deus ex machina. And since I feel very personally attached to my subject, my treatment will again be very sympathetic.

·

ODD GIRL by Artemis Smith, Beascn Books, 1959, #B230, 35 cents. This book was reviewed in the "Lesbiana" column of THE LADDER for June, 1959, No. 104. It may be obtained from Beacon Books, Dept. 230, 117 East 31st St., New York 16, N.Y.

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