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Greek Love

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I merely wanted to state that J. Z. Eglinton was the pseudonym of the late Walter Breen, a numismatist (coin expert) who was married to Marion Zimmer Bradley. He died in prison and I hardly need say what the charge was.

J.Z. Eglinton, also known as Walter H. Breen, coauthored "Greek Love" with my mother, Marion Zimmer Bradley. He felt deeply of the rightness of his position, and used arguments from the book to try to convince the judge at his two trials for child molesting. A few of Marion Bradley's books have pedophilic themes; among them "The Catch Trap" and it is interesting to read her works with awareness of her involvement in these issues. It is sad that Walter Breen was so unaware of the pain he caused to his many victims. He was afflicted with paranoid schizophrenia which meant he had a fixed system of delusions which were unresponsive to conflicting data (like the objections of his child-victims!!) When he was sentenced to thirteen years in San Quentin, for the forcible rape of a seven-year-old child, among other charges, he had already been diagnosed with terminal cancer and given only a month to live. He was considered too dangerous to even be allowed into a hospice to die! He was so charismatic in life that his friends were widely in favor of finding a way to discredit his victims, and many were loyal to him to the end, even the ones who knew the truth about his crimes.

Greek Love is the first literary, historical, psychological and sociological study of boy-love ever to appear.

Up to now, specialists in sexology have been either too confused to say anything of relevance, or too scared to commit it to print! Such authorities as Stekel, Krafft-Ebing, Bergler, George W. Henry, Ulrichs, Carpenter, Haverlock Ellis, and Freud managed to write volumes about other sexual practices, but they betrayed no real understanding of what makes a man love a boy.

The author of Greek Love believes that boy-love is a potential social force for good. In Ancient Greece, it was closely bound up with the highest ethical and philosophical ideals. Therefore, we must seriously consider the possibility that boy-love can be a forece for good right now, in our own country.

Greek Love is refreshing to read. The author does not affect the modern pseudo-objectivity that is so often a coverup for moral vacillation. Though he treats the subject fairly, he makes no attempt to conceal his pro-sexual orientation.

Following is the table of contents:

I. Theory and Practice

1. Objectives

2. Some common Objections Answered

3. Greek Love as a Social Problem

4. Greek Love as a Solution to a Social Problem

5. The Theory and Practice of Love

6. Sexual Aspects of Greek Love

7. Some uncomplicated Greek Love Affairs

8. Some Difficult Greek Love Affairs

II. History and Literature

9. Historical Synopsis

10. Boy-love in Ancient Greece

11. Boy-love in Ancient Rome

12. Boy-love in the Middle Ages

13. Boy-love in the Renaissance

14. Boy-love in the Restoration, Enlightement, Romantic Period

15. Boy-love in the 19th Century

16. The 20th Century -- Divergent Traditions

Postscript by Dr. Albert Ellis

Rebuttal by J. Z. Eglinton 15. Boy-love in Ancient

The first edition of this book was published in 1964. It was, as one reviewer has asserted, written with the extensive scholarly aid of Joseph Wallfield ("Warren Johansson"). John Zimmer Eglinton was in reality the numismatist Walter Breen, a rather eccentric figure married to a science-fiction writer. He claimed to "know" Italian as a result of being the reincarnation of an Italian of the Renaissance. He had a falling-out with Wallfield when they embarked on a revised edition. Wallfield was in favor of a lowering of the age of consent to 14, but refused to assist Breen any more when it became evident that Breen was interested in boys younger than 14. As to the supposed horribleness of encouraging boys to grow up heterosexual, as the other reviewer claims, I fail to see how Breen could have won over anyone to his cause if he had said that the point of pederasty is to encourage the boy to grow up gay. "They cannot reproduce, therefore they must recruit!" (Anita Bryant) Breen's point was to assure parents that pederasty is not the same thing as recruitment. After being abandoned by Wallfield, Breen attempted to enlist the scholarly aid of another researcher, but Breen was so hopelessly disorganized that the new man threw up his hands, and the revised version never appeared. The blatant discrepancy between the idealistic arguments of the book and the real-life behavior of Walter Breen, if the accusations were true, is typical of the way in which special pleading often lapses into hypocrisy. I might add that Breen made the inexplicable blunder of saying that Gide was not a pederast.

Unavailable for a long time, it is wonderful to see this book offered by Amazon.com. Anyone interested in the subject should put this first on their reading list - a comprehensive and unprejudiced review of the subject; something we badly need in today's hysterical and prejudicial atmosphere.

To begin with, I suspect that the real "author" of this book was Warren Johanssen, a very important figure -- perhaps the dominant figure -- in the world of New York gay academics. I say this because (a) Walter Breen was a coin expert and (b) the footnotes and bibliography belong to Warren.

Much later, Warren Johannsen made extremely important contributions to "The Encyclopedia of Homosexuality," the most important reference work on this topic ever published.

But Warren liked to remain in the background. He had no desire for publicity, but was fluent in some 14 languages.

That said, Walter Breen managed to write a fairly stupid book on top of the scholarly background provided by Warren. His theme throughout the book is that the only purpose of a love between a man and a younger guy is to encourage the younger guy onto the path of True Heterosexuality, and this is a theme so foolish that I am embarrassed to repeat it. People are who they are!! Why should a gay man in love with a younger guy act like a parental surrogate, and continue insisting that Lovely Heterosexuality is the goal of life, when in fact his boyfriend might be utterly gay?

Walter Breen was a brilliant numismatist, but a very stupid man, who did time in prison several times for extremely inappropriate sexual and social behavior. Towards the end of his life (I have heard) he began regarding the friends of his sons as legitimate targets (!). He wound up in prison and died there, as he so richly deserved.

Sorry: not all gay men are good! Welcome to the real world!