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