The Gay & Lesbian Review

To call Robert Craft Stravinsky’s “amanuensis,” as Mr. Corn does, is a gross misrepresentation, but to insinuate that he was a parasite is unspeakable. Robert Bass, Galveston, TX

Finally, Julia Penelope, one of the first publicly out lesbians, died in January 2013. She was an activist, a scholar, an author, and a philosopher. Julia’s work could be serious or funny, personal or po- litical. Her work was original and often cited and built upon by lesbians who came after her. For a great read and an introduc- tion to her work, I recommend Found Goddesses: Asphalta to Viscera . Diane Ellen Hamer, Melrose, Mass. A Grittier Take on Rechy’s Significance To the Editor: Regarding Mark Merlis’ “mixed ver- dict” on the literary significance of John Rechy’s City of Night [Jan.-Feb. issue], I respectfully disagree. Even the title, City of Night , captured our attention. He told a story many of us lived. And, he told it in the only way he was able to. We who prowled those dark streets at the time would not have read a highfalutin work by some polished writer whom we would suspect did not know what he was talking about. The reason he was read (twice in my case) was that he rang true. We recog- nized our own lives in the experiences and characters he described. Who better to judge City of Night than

one of us sleazy sluts who were aficiona- dos of the “baths after-hours”—not just after the bars closed, not after fold had had a very early breakfast, not even after the queens had finally arrived, “gotten theirs,” and gone home. Rather, after all of that, when a half-dozen or so denizens stayed on in order to ravish some sweet, naïve young thing who had stuck around to see what would happen next? Another literary critic pontificated that “The Great American Novel was written by a long daisy chain of failed queers.” I would include City of Night on the chain. For whatever grammatical flaws Rechy may have committed, he drew an honest portrait of our world. In my opinion, that picture is worth more than all of Shake- speare only because it is of “my world” rather than the Bard’s. John Kavanaugh, Detroit Correction An “Artist’s Profile” on director Joshua Sanchez, who’s interviewed about his movie Four (Jan.-Feb. 2014), stated incor- rectly that the movie was based on Christopher Shinn’s play Dying City . In fact, the film was based on Shinn’s play by the same name, Four .

Overlooked Obituaries To the Editor:

I much admire Martha Stone’s remem- brances of the year’s deceased GLBT no- tables [Jan.-Feb. issue], and I realize it’s impossible to include them all. But as someone who’s also involved with this magazine, I’d like to add a few names that were not included. Lou Reed deserves mention for his groundbreaking body of work and self- presentation that defied convention even in the glitter rock days. He may have died as a heterosexually married man, but I think until the day he died he would have insisted on eschewing labels, and he never backtracked on how he lived his life—or how it was perceived by the public. Catherine Nicholson was a co-founder of Sinister Wisdom , an early lesbian femi- nist journal that has published continu- ously for 37 years and has published most of the prominent lesbian literary figures we know today.

John Burton Harter Charitable Trust

John Burton Harter. Torso (Arms in Tension). 1979. Acrylic on board. University of Buffalo — The State University of Buffalo, Buffalo, New York.

John Burton Harter (1940-2002) is remembered for his powerful studies of the male figure, as well as his superb portraits and landscapes. The John Burton Harter Charitable Trust preserves, publishes, and exhibits Harter’s work while funding nonprofit endeavors related to the artist’s interests.

John Burton Harter. Self-Portrait. 1992. Oil on panel. University of Buffalo — The State University of Buffalo, Buffalo, New York.

www.jbharter.org • jbhartertrust@aol.com

March–April 2014

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