Aubrey Beardsley by Jacques-Emile Blanche

Aubrey Beardsley (1895)
Jacques-Emile Blanche (French, 1861-1942)
Oil on canvas
36.5 x 29 in. (92.6 x 73.7 cm.)
© National Portrait Gallery, London

The Confessions of Aubrey Beardsley by Donald S. Olson

London : Bantam Press, 1993

When Oscar Wilde was arrested for gross indecency, it was reported in the press that he was carrying a copy of The Yellow Book. Both the color and the title of this literary journal, whose art editor was Aubrey Beardsley, was a reference to illicit French novels which were typically bound in yellow. The story of what happened to Oscar Wilde is well known, but the affect of his arrest, conviction and imprisonment on others in his orbit is less well explored.

The Confessions of Aubrey Beardsley opens in the final years of Aubrey Beardsley's life. He has committed himself to converting to Catholicism prior to his impending death at the age of 25 from tuberculosis. As a matter of survival, becoming Catholic or moving to the continent were the common choices among gay men in England after the Wilde trial. Beardsley provides his full confession to Père Coubé, a French priest, through a series of letters. Over the course of these letters we learn about key events in his life.

Beardsley's family struggled financially during his early years and Aubrey and his sister performed at parties of the wealthy—he on the piano and his sister, Mabel, reciting poetry. As a teenager, he had begun to take more seriously his talents as an artist and he was particularly enamored with the art of Edward Burne-Jones, a member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Beardsley presented himself and his portfolio of drawings at the home of Burne-Jones who saw something worth encouraging. He later helped Beardsley to hone his craft and make connections with others in the arts community. 

After entering this new world of art and literature, he became aware of Oscar Wilde's intention to publish an English edition of his play Salome and that it would need illustrations. Instead of appealing directly to Wilde or his publisher, Beardsley created a single illustration depicting a critical moment in the play and it was published in an arts and literature journal where he knew Wilde would see it. His plan worked and he soon had the commission to provide the illustrations for Salome. Wilde was ascendant in the literary and arts world and having this connection helped Beardsley to achieve even greater success. When Wilde soon thereafter had his great fall, Beardsley's star also fell. He blamed Wilde for his foolish behavior which also ruined his own reputation and career.

Beardsley struggles with his confession because to renounce his life as sin would mean to agree that his art had no value. He had suffered from tuberculosis at least from the age of seven. Death was always imminent and given his young age at death, one can see why he wanted to experience everything possible while he was still alive. 

Although the particulars of the story are quite different, while reading this novel, I couldn't help thinking of another extremely talented artist/author that died far too young, Denton Welch. There's something about putting so much energy into one's artistic output while suffering significant and ongoing health crises that is extraordinarily compelling. 

Krijgsmanen (Warriors) by Jean-Eugène-Charles Alberti

Krijgsman met getrokken zwaard = Warrior with Drawn Sword (1808)
Jean-Eugène-Charles Alberti (Dutch, 1777-1843)
Oil on canvas
92.5 x 73 cm
Rijksmuseum Amsterdam

Krijgsman met lans en schild = Warrior with Lance and Shield (1808)
Jean-Eugène-Charles Alberti (Dutch, 1777-1843)
Oil on canvas
91.5 x 72.5 cm
Rijksmuseum Amsterdam

The Great Mistake by Jonathan Lee

New York : Knopf, 2021

Andrew Haswell Green was shot and killed in broad daylight outside his home in 1903 at the age of eighty-three. Jonathan Lee tells the story of Green—maybe the most important figure in the creation of modern New York City—someone who nonetheless remains relatively unknown. 

Green was instrumental in bringing together the boroughs of New York into what we now know as the modern city, a result dubbed by many as the great mistake. He was also instrumental in making possible such important public works as Central Park, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Natural History, and The New York Public Library. 

The Great Mistake opens with Green's murder. There is no question who committed the crime, so the focus becomes why the crime was committed. Told in alternating chapters, the novel follows Inspector McClusky's investigation of the murder while also supplying Green's back-story starting from his youth growing up on a farm in Massachusetts. The chapter titles are taken from the names of the gates for entry into Central Park—Boys' Gate, Children's Gate, Girls' Gate, Women's Gate, Engineers' Gate, Farmers' Gate, Gate of All Saints, Hunters' Gate, Mariners' Gate, Miners' Gate, Merchants' Gate, Naturalists' Gate, Woodman's Gate, Pioneers' Gate, Scholars' Gate, Warriors' Gate, Strangers' Gate, Inventors' Gate, Artisans' Gate, and Artists' Gate. Green insisted the gates be named for all those who came to New York to seek their fortune instead of naming them for the wealthy members of New York society. 

While Green was involved in very important work, that isn't the primary focus of the novel. What we learn in this novel is more about the man himself and his relationships. Recognizing his own homosexuality at an early age and then being shipped off to New York as an apprentice when his friend's mother perceives the situation, he learns to hide his desires. He repeatedly gets the message through the years that it's not acceptable—and it's actually quite dangerous—to be who he is. Even when he eventually meets his greatest friend and partner, Samuel J. Tilden, they seem unable to consummate their great love for fear of what it would mean if they were caught. It's the story of channelling the energy that might have gone toward that relationship into public works that were representative of the things they both valued—nature, the arts, and literature. It was important to Green, who grew up poor, to make all of these things available to everyone. These institutions stand as a monument to their great love.

Die Quelle by Ludwig von Hofmann

Die Quelle (1913)
Ludwig von Hofmann (German, 1861-1945)
Thomas Mann Archives,  Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich
Public domain via Wikimedia Commons

Hung in Thomas Mann's study and traveled with him to Switzerland, the United States and back again during his years of exile
from Germany.

 

The Magician by Colm Toibin

New York : Scribner, 2021

Like The Master before it, Toibin has centered his novel on an important literary figure. The Master gave us Henry James; The Magician presents Thomas Mann.

Opening in 1891 in Lübeck, Germany with a 16 year old Thomas, spanning sixty years, and ending in 1950 Los Angeles, Toibin presents Thomas' life in detail. Thomas publishes Buddenbrooks and Death in Venice to much acclaim, before World War I. The interwar years are complicated for Thomas with both his brother Heinrich and his children Klaus and Erika becoming quite vocal politically. With the rise of Hitler and the Mann's exile to Switzerland, Thomas doesn't feel that he can speak out against the Nazis—in part because he wants his books to remain in print in Germany, which he still considers home. His decision to remain mostly silent allowed him to continue to sell his works and support his family in an increasingly polarized world.

A particularly strong moment in the novel happens around Thomas' request that his son who is still in Germany retrieve his journals from the safe in their home and send them to Thomas in Switzerland. For a period, the journals are lost and Thomas' concern manifests itself in a flashback based on an entry in the journals that makes clear Thomas' homosexuality. This section provides the strongest sense of what Thomas Mann may have been feeling, while the rest of the novel seems to be solely focused on what happened next.

While many reviewers contend that the novel is about Thomas Mann's secret sexuality, it actually plays a minor role. The focus of the novel is the day-to-day life of Thomas and his family, how they survive the social and political upheaval of the time, and how Thomas' decisions about what to say publicly (or not say publicly) allowed the family to survive World War II. 

Stylistically, The Magician is a novel, but structurally it reads like biography. In this way, I think the adherence to a linear chronological structure with chapters titled by location and year, doesn't allow the reader to learn much about Thomas Mann, the man. While reading, I wondered if a novel structured more specifically around the fear of the Nazis obtaining his journals and flashing back to various experiences through his life documented in the journals might have allowed the reader to have a sense of what Thomas felt about his own life and sexuality, or what or how he felt about his children's sexuality, three of whom would be considered part of the LGBTQ community today.

Nude Bathers by Ludwig von Hofmann

Nude Bathers (after 1937)
Ludwig von Hofmann (German, 1861-1945)

 

Alec by William di Canzio

New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2021

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the publication of E. M. Forster's Maurice, William di Canzio gives us Alec, a novel that both enhances and expands the original story. While it isn't strictly necessary to have read Maurice to understand Alec, the decisions Di Canzio has made seem more clear having read both and frankly, readers should do themselves the favor of reading both of these excellent novels.

In Maurice, Forster tells the story of Maurice's relationship with Clive both from Maurice's and from Clive's perspectives. But when it comes to Maurice's relationship with Alec, he only provides the story from Maurice's perspective, preferencing an upper class telling. 

Di Canzio has chosen to give voice to Alec in his novel, providing a brief telling of his younger years (as Forster did for Maurice) and then telling the story of Alec and Maurice meeting and falling in love, but this time from Alec's perspective. The author has even used some direct language from Maurice in this section to create a continuity between the works. Where I think Di Canzio excels is at providing believable alternatives to what Maurice thought was happening in the original text. 

One could really be satisfied with just this much of Alec, taking the reader to the point in time where Maurice ends. Di Canzio opts, however to take us further. He creates a life for the characters that is much more uplifting than Forster's ending, much less his abandoned 1914 epilogue. He takes them into World War I, an area we know from Forster himself that he was unable or unwilling to go.

Like Maurice, Alec is a romance. Di Canzio doesn't shy away from the sex either. In the early chapters the sex scenes read a bit like Victorian erotica but they begin to be described in a more modern way as our characters and the world experience the changes that WWI brings. This is a worthy companion piece, allowing us to spend just a bit more time with these classic characters.

Hemdanziehender Knabe = Boy Putting on Shirt by Helmut Kolle

Hemdanziehender Knabe = Boy Putting on Shirt (1924)
Helmut Kolle (German, 1899-1931)
Oil on canvas
92 x 65 cm.

Romance in Marseille by Claude McKay

New York : Penguin, 2020

Begun in 1929 and significantly expanded by 1932, Romance in Marseille failed to find a publisher. It has existed as two versions in manuscript form in two different archival collections until the 2020 publication as part of the Penguin Classics series.

The story centers around Lafala, a West African sailor who stows away on a ship out of Marseille headed for New York. Having been caught by the crew and held in an unheated area of the ship, he must have his lower legs amputated due to frostbite upon landing in New York. A lawyer helps him sue the shipping company for his loss of limbs due to his treatment and confinement onboard. After winning his case, he returns to Marseille a much richer man. 

Although Lafala's fortunes have changed, he returns to his life among the sailors, dockworkers, prostitutes and pimps of the Quayside in Marseille. Although now a celebrity of sorts, his newfound wealth means many are trying to separate him from it. The remainder of the book sees everyone take a side and numerous plots and counterplots work themselves out.

McKay's dislike of the N.A.A.C.P.'s negative reviews of his 'shocking' work is hilariously highlighted when he includes a reference to a fictitious organization that is an obvious stand-in: The Christian Unity of Negro Tribes, or C.U.N.T. 

The extended text of 1932, sees the addition of two white characters, Big Blonde and Petit Frère. Big Blonde is a sailor who is known to prefer boys to girls and Petit Frère is his little friend, probably a teenage boy who works the ships. Among the inhabitants of Quayside, this is considered a normal relationship variation and is paid little attention. It was not uncommon for teenage boys to work ships and be coupled with sailors or act as prostitutes for the men onboard. The novel, Boy (1931), by James Hanley describes this exact situation in startling detail. 

Gassed by John Singer Sargent

Gassed (1919)
John Singer Sargent (American, 1856-1925)
Oil on Canvas
90½ x 240 in.
Imperial War Museums, London

Queers: Eight Monologues curated by Mark Gatiss

London : Nick Hern Books, 2017

Queers was published on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the 1967 Sexual Offences Act which partially decriminalized sex between men in England and Wales. It would not become law in Scotland until 1980 and Northern Ireland until 1982.

Gatiss has brought together eight monologues written by himself and seven other playwrights, each taking place around a critical person or at a critical moment in history to illustrate the lives of queers in the Commonwealth over the last 100 years. Covering Oscar Wilde, the issuing of the Wolfenden Report, the Sexual Offences Act of 1967, the rise of HIV/AIDS,  the 1994 lowering of the age of consent, and marriage equality. These are extraordinary snapshots, at times funny and heartbreaking. These brief yet compelling character studies show how much has changed and how little. 

The monologues were first performed on the stage on 28 July 2017 and 31 July 2017 at The Old Vic, London. They were also filmed as the BBC Studios production Queers on BBC Four.

The Man on the Platform

by Mark Gatiss

Set in 1917, pairs the bittersweet train platform parting of a young soldier and his Captain with a childhood memory of Oscar Wilde on the Reading platform on his way to prison.

The Perfect Gentleman

by Jackie Clune

A gentleman in 1929 shares her stories of passing, beginning with growing up a tomboy and playing the part of the husband when she and her friend played 'wedding.'

Safest Spot in Town

by Keith Jarrett

A black man in 1941 describes the places that gay men meet in the years leading up to and during the war.

Missing Alice

by Jon Bradfield

Alice tells of being married to a gay man and the life they forged together before the issuing of the 1957 Wolfenden Report.

I Miss the War

by Matthew Baldwin

In 1967, an older gay man reminisces about the excitement of meeting men when things were less open and things like the use of Polari kept men safe from Lilly Law.

More Anger

by Brian Fillis

A young actor in 1987, laments that his only roles are of gay men dying of AIDS, while simultaneously trying to navigate his own personal life and reluctance to get tested.

A Grand Day Out

by Michael Dennis

A 17-year-old boy is among those gathered outside the House of Commons as the vote is announced for the lowering of the age of consent to 18 in 1994.

Something Borrowed

by Gareth McLean

A man remembers all of the challenges and changes in his life and in society that lead up to the possibility of this day, his wedding day.

Queers | BBC America

October 11, 2017

Junglinge im Gartenpavillion by Friedrich Ahlers-Hestermann

Jünglinge im Gartenpavillion = Young Men in the Garden Pavillion (1904)
Frederich Ahlers-Hestermann (German, 1883-1973)
Oil on canvas
100 x 120.5 cm.

 

Maurice by E. M. Forster

New York : W. W. Norton, 1971

Maurice, published posthumously in 1971, is at its heart a coming of age novel and a coming out novel. The novel opens with Maurice Hall at age 14-and-a-half and just finishing up his prep school studies. When one of his teachers explains relations between men and women, Maurice doesn't feel it has much relevance to his life and says that he thinks he shall never marry.

The novel quickly moves through the public school years which are defined by maintaining a facade  to show adherence to the expected behavior. Maurice is aware of this in himself, but because he is equally aware of it in his classmates, he doesn't connect it directly to his sexuality. 

While at Cambridge, Maurice befriends Clive Durham who talks to him about his shunning of religion and  educates him on the Greek classics, in particular those which defend or describe male relationships—Plato's Symposium for instance. What should be an obviously increasing closeness between the two is not at all obvious to Maurice who is surprised when Clive suddenly professes his love. 

If anything is known about the book's storyline, it is the relationship between Maurice and Alec Scudder, the game keeper at Penge, the Durham estate. The arc of the book, however is Maurice's journey toward being ready for that relationship.  The confusion about one's feelings, the searching for a cure to one's feelings, the desire to be normal, are all too familiar for many future gay lives as well as the later novels that describe them. 
 

The problems of class are on full display in Maurice. Early in the novel, it is quite clear that Maurice doesn't spare a thought for the lower class, and in some cases is actively unkind to those who inhabit it. It isn't simply that different characters are from different classes, it's how it is possible for them to live based on their position and that they have to always consider it when making choices in their lives. While Clive and Maurice are ostensibly from the same class, Clive's family is landed and have served in government, so have a very different role than Maurice's family which runs a financial firm. And, of course Alec, who works in service, has yet different possibilities for his life. Maurice and Alec's relationship, while already complicated by sexuality also has the added layer of class difference.

Abinger Edition : 5
London : André Deutsch, 1999

1999 saw the publication of the Abinger edition of Maurice, which like all Forster titles in the series, presents the work based on all manuscripts and notes available on a particular work. The 1971 edition of Maurice uses the 1959 manuscript as its core with minor changes to deal with issues of consistency and punctuation. The Abinger edition uses the manuscripts from 1914, two different versions of the 1932 manuscript and two versions of the 1959 manuscript to present a version of the novel that reads more smoothly. As well, notes are provided that discuss and show the additions and subtractions from the text through time. 

A key piece from the original 1914 manuscript that was dropped early by Forster is an epilogue that gives the reader a window into Maurice and Alec's life five years on. When Maurice's sister, Kitty, runs into him, he is working with Alec as a woodsman. The chapter, written primarily from Kitty's point of view, makes it clear that Maurice's choice has left himself and his family in disgrace and that he is no longer in contact with them. While he and Alec seem as committed to one another as ever, their life is not easy. After running into Kitty, they decide they must move on. It is interesting to see that Forster was realistic about what the future might hold for his characters, but by eliminating the epilogue he gave the reader a more uplifting ending with possibilities for Maurice and Alec.

One of the important things about reading classics of gay literature is a consideration of gay legacy and understanding the history of those that came before. Maurice is a beautiful example of acknowledging the long history of gay men and culture through the use of classics of Greek literature within the storyline, showing Clive and Maurice trying to understand themselves and their feelings by knowing their history. As well, the basis of the novel grew out of of the relationship that Forster saw between Edward Carpenter and his working-class partner George Merrill. It is the honoring of gay men who came before while passing the torch to the next generation. 

Bibliographies & Ratings:  Young (1298*)

Bibliographies & Ratings II: Gunn (Britain 11b)

Murder by Jared French

Murder (1942)
Jared French (American, 1905-1988)
Egg tempera on plaster coated panel
43.18 x 36.83 cm
The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts

The End of My Life by Vance Bourjaily

New York : Scribner's, 1947

Published the same year as John Horne Burns' The Gallery, The End of My Life is also a novel about World War II and its effects on the men who served. Bourjaily's narrative is structured around four young men who aren't in the military but instead join up with an ambulance crew for the British military in Syria and Lebanon before the U.S. had joined the war. Each has his own reasons for serving, running toward something, running away from something, or simply trying to understand how to live in a world that is seemingly falling apart.

Freak is the most 'normal guy' of the bunch and has joined the ambulance crew to do his part after failing to pass the medical exam for entry into the military. Benny, a Jewish communist understands the importance of the war and what it means for the future of the world, but particularly the future of the Jewish people and himself. Rod is a night club musician who doesn't stay in one place for long and doesn't seem to make lasting connections.  Finally, Skinner Galt is the main character through whose eyes we see the action of the novel and feel the struggle of the characters.

Homosexuality is frankly acknowledged by all of the characters and it is understood that there are plenty of gay men in the military. Although it happens away from the action of the novel, Rod's relationship with one of the gay men in the ambulance outfit is offered in all its complexity. Rod isn't comfortable with what it means for him, particularly what it means for his mental health but at the same time he describes his feelings as love. So while the characters follow the gayness as illness paradigm of the time, they are also allowing for the relationship to be based on an emotional connection, not simply a physical or sexual one.

At its core, this novel is an exploration of what it means to be human. We like to think that we are all acting as individuals so what we do only affects ourselves. We don't like to acknowledge that our collective actions reflect on humanity as a whole. In Skinner's case, he doesn't get to separate himself from the consequences of war just because he drove an ambulance instead of firing a gun. As Benny points out toward the end of the novel, no human being is an exception to humanity.

Bibliographies & Ratings: Cory (IV); Garde (P, 117***); Mattachine Review (IV); Young (3259*)

Bibliographies & Ratings II: Gunn (American 37b); Levin (69); Slide (7)

Rough Trade by Arthur Lett-Haines

Rough Trade (1935)
Arthur Lett-Haines (English, 1894-1978)
Watercolor and crayon on paper
26.7 x 21.6 cm.

 

Sojourn Among Shadows by Murrell Edmunds

Caldwell, ID : Caxton, 1936

Sojourn Among Shadows opens with a young man in a park listening to live music. He is soon joined by a stranger, an older man, who eventually gets his attention and has a story to tell. He claims the story is not about himself, but he uses the first person just for the ease of the telling. They meet in the park over the course of several days as he relays his story. 

The story's young protagonist grows up the son of a preacher who is less than godly in his behavior. His mother dies and he is rescued from his abusive father by his uncle, Tom. Uncle Tom feels it important to get him away from his father but doesn't see himself as a person fit for him to be with. The boy's father often argued with his wife regarding Uncle Tom's 'degeneracy' and she would point out that it was his god that had created Uncle Tom. Hoping to protect the young man from his 'vagabond life', Uncle Tom places him with a family only to later learn that he has seen the truth of the world even in isolation.

The novel is complicated by the author's decision not to provide names for most of the characters. Some characters are eventually named, but names are offered as an aside after the bulk of the action involving them has passed. The only character that from the start is given a name is Uncle Tom, and this is maybe not completely surprising. Edmunds tackled controversial issues in his life and in his writings, having been a strong voice against Jim Crow laws. Written in the form of a fable, this novel, while not a true defense of homosexuality, does argue all humans are born as their creator intended. Using the name Uncle Tom for one of his characters and also making that character gay may be a way of showing a connection between the challenges faced by both blacks and gays.

Bibliographies & Ratings: Young (1135)

Atlas by Karl Sterrer

Atlas (1910)
Karl Sterrer (Austrian, 1885-1972)

Bibliographies of Gay Literature II

In 2014, I posted about a handful of early 20th century bibliographies of gay literature, covering novels, short stories, plays and in some cases biography and biographical fiction. Those publications not only tried to provide a list of titles but also described them through various ratings systems to declare the extent of the gay content and/or the nature of the content. A number of other bibliographies that are more descriptive in nature, and focus exclusively on the novel have also been published and are presented here. A single work focused entirely on plays has also been included as it can be thought of as the third part in a mammoth undertaking covering British Commonwealth and American novels and plays by Drewey Wayne Gunn.  This batch of bibliographies focus more on thumbnail sketches, and in some cases more lengthy analysis, of the storyline as opposed to boiling things down to a single rating. Using resources from both groups of bibliographies together can provide a more complete picture of an individual novel or play.

Indianapolis : Bobbs-Merrill, 1977

Playing the Game : The Homosexual Novel in America
Austen, Roger
Indianapolis : Bobbs-Merrill, 1977

Austen provides information about the publications he covers in a prose style as opposed to a list. Structured into chapters covering chronological segments of history, novel storylines are discussed and played off of one another. 

•  The Dim Past (1870-1929)

•  The Thirties

•  The Forties

•  The Fifties

•  Since 1960

The Selected Bibliography (1870-1965) offered at the end of the text provides a quick list of the titles covered in the preceding chapters. 

New York : Garland, 1991

The Gay Novel in America
Levin, James
New York: Garland Publishing, 1991

Structurally, Levin's The Gay Novel in America owes much to Austen's 1977 work. Also structured into prose chapters covering segments of literary history, but more fully fleshing out the earliest literature, Levin also pushes forward to the 1980s.

•  Locked in Victoria's Closet

•  Butterflies, Pansies, Twilight Men, and Strange Brothers

    —The Novel Between the Wars

•  Postwar Permissiveness: 1946-1950

•  Homosexuality in the Freudian Fifties

•  The Sixties: Time of Transition

•  Politics, Power, and Pride

•  The Enigmatic Eighties

The Notes section at the end of each chapter also serves as a quick list of titles discussed within the chapter.

New York : Harrington Park Press, 2003

Lost Gay Novels : A Reference Guide to Fifty Works from the First Half of the Twentieth Century

Slide, Anthony

New York : Harrington Park Press, 2003

Slide offers a narrower list of titles, limiting the bibliography to fifty, but provides a lengthy entry of 3-5 pages for each title. Major storylines and themes are discussed as well as providing biographical information on the authors. Titles are listed in alphabetical order by author but an appendix also provides the titles and authors in chronological order. Some of the commentary on the relative literary quality is a bit harsh towards the works discussed, but the value of the remaining content is not diminished. One can certainly argue how truly lost some of these titles are but highlighting those that may be known to some of us is of benefit to all who are interested in gay novels from the early 20th century.

Jefferson, NC : McFarland, 2014

Gay Novels of Britain, Ireland and the Commonwealth, 1881-1981 : A Reader's Guide

Gunn, Drewey Wayne

Jefferson, NC : McFarland, 2014

Gunn's British Commonwealth bibliography, covering one hundred years, consists of numbered entries arranged in chronological order from 1881 to 1981, marking the end of the pre-AIDS era.  Many entries cover multiple titles and are grouped in one of two ways ; multiple titles published within a short time-frame with a common element or theme or multiple titles by the same author covering a longer time frame. Short biographical entries are provided for many authors. A postscript provides a general sketch of politics and publishing after 1981.

Jefferson, NC : McFarland, 2016

Gay American Novels, 1870-1970 : A Reader's Guide

Gunn, Drewey Wayne

Jefferson, NC : McFarland, 2016

Gunn's American bibliography, covering one hundred years, consists of numbered entries arranged in chronological order from 1870 to 1970, marking the end of the pre-Stonewall era.  Many entries cover multiple titles and are grouped in one of two ways ; multiple titles published within a short time-frame with a common element or theme or multiple titles by the same author covering a longer time frame. Short biographical entries are provided for many authors. A postscript provides a sketch of major works from 1971-1981, ending where his British Commonwealth bibliography does, at the end of the pre-AIDS era.

Jefferson, NC : McFarland, 2017

For the Gay Stage : A Guide to 456 Plays, Aristophanes to Peter Gill

Gunn, Drewey Wayne

Jefferson, NC : McFarland, 2017

Gunn's bibliography of plays covers a the huge time period from the 5th century BCE through 2014. Consistent with his earlier bibliographies for British Commonwealth and American novels, numbered entries are arranged in chronological order and provide the play's storyline and information about production history.  Play entries have been grouped into the following chapters opening with a brief list of major gay historical or cultural events from the period. 

•  Pre-Modern, 5th c. BCE-18th c. CE

•  Early Modern, 1881-1943

•  Post-World War II, 1945-1969

•  Post-Stonewall, 1970-1981

•  AIDS, 1982-1989

•  Early Nineties, 1990-1994

•  Pre-Millennium, 1995-2000

•  Early Contemporary, 2001-2007

•  Recent Contemporary, 2008-2014

The East Window by Edward Brian Seago

The East Window (1944)
Edward Brian Seago (English, 1910-1974)
Oil on hardboard
48.8 x 37 cm
Norfolk Museums Service

The Charioteer by Mary Renault

New York : Pantheon, 1959

First published by Longman (London) in 1953, Mary Renault's US publisher at the time would not release The Charioteer due to its frank depiction of homosexuality and its message that gay men could have a life together. Finally released in 1959, the dustjacket labels it a 'contemporary novel' since her first two novels set in ancient Greece (The Last of the Wine and The King Must Die) had already been released in the US to great success.

At its core, The Charioteer is a coming of age novel in which gay men must find their way in the world  during World War II, a time when nothing seems sure. In particular it focuses on the transition from the school/university years—which have been interrupted by the war—to adult life with the world falling apart and both everything and nothing seem possible. 

The opening chapter explains Laurie's early life with his mother while the second chapter places our characters in a classic boarding school with its expected overly close relationships and crushes. With this grounding, we come to the present time. Recuperating from his injuries at Dunkirk, Laurie is in hospital having had numerous surgeries to try to correct his leg injury. He knows that he is gay and more completely accepts his gayness inside his own head (or when high on pain mediation). Outwardly he is more guarded and flies under the radar. 

When a group of conscientious objectors are given duties at the hospital, Laurie immediately is drawn to, and befriends Andrew, a Quaker. They spend a lot of time together and develop real feelings for one another. The problem is that Laurie isn't sure Andrew understands the nature of these feelings. He keeps them to himself in order to protect what he perceives as Andrew's innocence and his chance to be 'normal.'

After meeting a fellow member of the military in town and realizing that they know someone in common, Laurie is invited to what amounts to a gay house party. The party is quite full of drama, but he does meet again after many years, Ralph, the boy he had a crush on in school and who was sent down after a sexual scandal. After a rocky reconnection, they begin forging a friendship and his feelings are rekindled. Laurie finds that he loves both Ralph and Andrew and doesn't really know how to reconcile his feelings or come to a conclusion about what is possible for his life as a gay man. 

Renault portrays gay life from an insider's perspective, being more frank and honest about the variety of gay men than would have been common at the time. While at the party, Laurie contemplates his feelings about the life he is witnessing. He struggles with wanting a real life, not a frivolous one as he perceives the ones around him. 

"After some years of muddled thinking on the subject, he suddenly saw quite clearly what it was he had been running away from; why he had refused Sandy's first invitation, and what the trouble had been with Charles. It was also the trouble, he perceived, with nine-tenths of the people here tonight. They were specialists. They had not merely accepted their limitations, as Laurie was ready to accept his, loyal to his humanity if not to his sex, and bringing an extra humility to the hard study of human experience. They had identified themselves with their limitations; they were making a career of them. they had turned from all other reality, and curled up in them snugly, as in a womb." (p.132)

Later when Laurie contemplates how to live in this gay world, he identifies a break we still too often see today between effeminate gay men and those who pass. 

"There was a man at Oxford. ... He kept telling me I was queer, and I'd never heard it called that before and didn't like it. The word, I mean. Shutting you away, somehow; roping you off with a lot of people you don't feel much in common with, half of whom hate the other half anyway, and just keep together so that they can lean up against each other for support." (p.152-3)

 Renault has offered up a compelling coming of age novel which frankly addresses the realities and difficulties of forging a life as a gay man in England in the 1940s. 

Bibliographies & Ratings: Cory (IV); Garde (P, 117***); Mattachine Review (IV); Young (3259*)