21 May 1982 [from postmark]: ". . . I think an excellent counter-strategy in Academe is to prove that all the known fag writers (precious, marginal) were really totally hetero--Emphasize the uxoriousness of Oscar Wilde, father of two; show how he was rail-roaded into 'somdomy' because of his socialism. . . ." 21 July 1983 [from postmark]: ". . . I thought the Baldwin '49 piece brilliant; I never knew it existed, which explains Jimmy's nervousness with me at the time--'his panic' is an excellent description of a state of mind which my characters, perhaps, shared though the author not. But I was a realist back then--if you succeed in driving a stake through those false nouns 'homosexual' and 'heterosexual,' statues will be built in y'r honor--or perhaps just a large stake to burn you at."
2 September 1988 [from postmark]: ". . . Lucien Price admired Messiah ('54) in the Boston Globe. This was a time when I was either not reviewed or strongly attacked. I got to know him during the decade (his last) when I could no longer publish novels so turned to theater, TV, etc. I read his book on Whitehead with fascination. He was also splended to talk to, an old-fashioned Platonist in his questioning style, not in his ideas about the state. . . . Anyway, we were as one in our detestation of Christianity and the moral mess that accompanies it like an acid rain. . . . True or false, he wsa a consistent philosopher, and lived in a glowing nativist past. . . ."
4 September 1989 [from postmark]: "Do you not fear the FBI? Such vileness as you reveal, as you life the flat rocks of the republic from the temple floor, may yet cause a hetero backlash--It is not enough that you include Abe & Josh in Sodom's column but Buchanan as well . . . ."
[11 April 1990]: ". . . In order to demonstrate that heterosexuality does not exist, one must first posit the blessed category & by so doing, fall into a semantical, sophistical trap. Artful dodging should help you in y'r demolition of this great non-sense, so useful to the rulers, and so perfectly evil."
18 July 1996 [from postmark]: ". . . [H]ad you let slip the dogs of ridicule, you would have been serious, & in our flat-earth society, solemnity is all-important. One can't be stupid enough for our few dull readers--as for the rest, French horns, the triumph of the will, rally courtesy of Mike Eisner. Keep the war going."
From the collection of Jonathan Ned Katz.