{"value"=>"<p> The letters sent by Robin Hardy consist of original handwritten and typed letters mailed to his Canadian friend, Norman Hay, while he was sojourning in Europe in 1983. These letters, which were written from Berlin, describe his experience of gay life and culture in Berlin, Paris, and Amsterdam, his struggles for acceptance into German society, his efforts to support himself as translator of tourist brochures and as a writer of adventure fiction for his Canadian publisher, his gay friends, his sexual encounters in gay bars, and the vicissitudes suffered while hitchhiking between Berlin and Paris. They also contain reflections on German history and culture and a lengthy diatribe against his Canadian editor who had altered an article he had written on Canadian politics prior to his departure for Europe. At Hardy's request the letters were returned to him that he might have additional records of his European experiences.</p>"}