AIDS: Young Adult Topic

I was delighted to see that you mentioned my book, “Coping With AIDS, Facts and Fears” in your Book Trade column (The Book Review, Jan. 18).

I would, however, like to comment that in reviewing the several books having to do with this deadly disease, you mentioned my work last, saying, “There is even a young adult book on the subject.” The notion is that “even a young adult book” seems possibly superfluous. I would like to point out to you that the vast majority of victims of AIDS are, in fact, young adults.

I suspect that in general when you deal in the book trade, you don’t think of the primary market as being young adults, and that is probably always correct. Nevertheless, in this particular situation, the primary target has to be young adults, and so “even a young adult book” is a somewhat inaccurate description.

MORTON L. KURLAND MD

Rancho Mirage