Finding Literary Treasure On Upper Broadway

It's amazing how things happen unexpectedly. I recently put in my pink and lavender Gay & Lesbian loose leaf binder this quote from gay author Gavin Lambert: "In movies then [the 1950s], you had to be discreet [regarding one's homosexuality]. You still have to be." I copied that quote from the book Live Fast, Die Young: The Wild Ride of Making Rebel Without a Cause by Lawrence Frascella and Al Weisel (Touchstone/Simon & Schuster, 2005).

The next day I found a yellowed paperback edition of Gavin Lambert's Inside Daisy Clover (Bantam, 1964, 75 cents) among a pile of discarded books at the corner of 113th Street and Broadway, near Columbia University. (The book was made into a movie, released in 1965, starring Natalie Wood, who co-starred in Rebel with James Dean and Sal Mineo.)

If I had been looking specifically for Lambert's book, I probably would have had a tough time finding it since it was published more than 40 years ago.