Leopard in the Grass by Desmond Stewart

London : Euphorion, 1951

The setting for Leopard in the Grass is Cyropolis, Media in the years after the second World War. The British have relinquished control of the Middle-Eastern country to the native peoples but still have a significant presence in business and industry. 

John Stirling, a young British archaeologist has arrived in Cyropolis with the intention of working for the local government on archaeological digs. The locals however, think of an archaeologist as the thinnest euphemism for British agent.

John meets Sophie Abbas, a Jewish divorcée returning home from the United States and they quickly fall into a sexual relationship. While Sophie is looking for a relationship, John seems to enjoy the sex for what it is but isn't interested in attachment. Instead, he often thinks of the relationships he had with other boys during his school days. 

Owing to Britain's former colonization of the area, British citizens living in Cyropolis continue to hang together within their own enclave and within their own clubs. It becomes clear to John that he is expected to follow along.

When John finds himself in the middle of a political demonstration on the streets of Cyropolis, he is rescued by a young local and brought to his employer's car. John becomes friends with Q, the gay British artist who saved him. Q hasn't joined with the others in their clubs and has been ostracized because they believe he has 'gone native.' To be clear, it isn't the fact that Q is gay that is a problem for the other British citizens, for there are others who are as well, but it's his embrace of the local culture that seems to be the issue.

When Nimr, a Bedouin man who Q took in as a child (and seems to have had a sexual relationship with), returns after having been dismissed by Q in favor of a younger choice, Q, Sophie, and John find themselves in the middle of a drama that is both personal and illuminates the terrible consequences of colonialism.

Bibliographies & Ratings: Cory (III); Garde (OTP, a**); Mattachine Review (III); Young (3645)

Bibliographies & Ratings II: Gunn (British 45a)

Finistère by Fritz Peters

New York: Farrar, Straus, 1951

Finistère was promoted as a divorce novel—focusing on the detrimental effects of divorce on children. While that may have been the company line and no-doubt created an opening for larger acceptance of the work, it cannot be denied that the focus of the novel is a gay relationship—an adolescent's first love and his family's response to it. An odd sort of boarding school novel, the story of the tragedy of divorce, and a classic of gay literature, Finistère has appeared in more editions than any other fictional work by Fritz Peters.

Peters' second novel focuses on the tumultuous adolescence of Matthew Cameron. As Gore Vidal noted in his much quoted book review in The Saturday Review of Literature (Murder of Innocence, v.34:no.8, p.13, February 24, 1951), the first third of this book lays out the many betrayals experienced by young Matthew. The middle third lays out the story of Matthew's relationship with Michel, and the final third follows the rapid disintegration of Matthew's world. 

It is the summer of 1927. Thirteen-year-old Matthew's parents are divorcing and he and his mother are relocating to Paris. She has decided Matthew is too attached to her and to Scott Fletcher, a close friend of the family so Matthew is to be enrolled in the boarding school, St. Croix École des Garçons. Soon after Matthew's arrival at the school, André, a classmate, shares some dirty pictures with him and they become friends. The headmaster approves of them sharing a room and before long they are having a sexual relationship—a relationship about which Matthew feels quite guilty.

While with his family at the Christmas holiday, Matthew meets his mother's new 'friend', Paul Dumesnil. While Paul makes an effort to include him in conversations and activities, Matthew now feels like an outsider. As a condition of his parents divorce, Matthew isn't permitted to see his father until he reaches age 16. His father effectively disappeared from his life, and now he feels he is losing his mother as well. 

By the following fall 1928, his mother marries Paul. Scott, whom Matthew has idolized for years, has become engaged to Françoise. Scott, who had always been available to him is now focused on his relationship with Françoise and seems to have no time for him. Françoise seems to be the only adult who recognizes Matthew's attachment to Scott for what it is.

After a summer with his family, Matthew returns to school in the fall of 1929, to discover that André has gone, having moved to a different school. Alone and without support from any of his relationships, he feels lost. Michel Garnier, a new athletic coach, has joined the school and upon the boys' first outing for a swim in the Seine, Matthew swims too far and seems to give in to the current pulling him under. The relationship with Michel begins after he saves the drowning Matthew and helps to nurse him back to health. Their relationship brings Matthew back to life, feeling true love for the first time without all of the guilt he felt about his relationship with André. However, Matthew is innocent and this idealized first love can't insulate him from the cruelty of the world or of the adults in his life. 

It is no surprise that the ending of a gay novel from this time is likely to end tragically—most (but not all) did. As might be surmised by the many editions over the years, Finistère was popular among gay men despite the ending. The central message of the novel isn't that gay people are bad, or in this case, the problem isn't that Matthew is gay. The problem is that the adults in Matthew's life are incapable of supporting him. 

TOP ROW FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: [1] London : Victor Gollanz, 1951   [2] New York : Signet/NAL, 1952   [3] Fin de la Tierra, Spanish translation by A. S. Glanz, Buenos Aires : Editorial Dintel, 1953   [4] The World at Twilight, New York : Lancer Books, 1964
[5] New York : Lancer Books, 1966   [6] London : Victor Gollanz, 1966.
⸻
BOTTOM ROW FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: [7] New York : Lancer Books, 1968   [8] London : Panther, 1969   [9] Los Angeles : Seeker
Press, 1985   [10] New York : Plume/NAL, 1986   [11] Vancouver : Arsenal Pulp Press, 2006.

Matthew's Happy Ending

Tobias Schneebaum (1922-2005), in his introduction to the 2003 re-release of his 1979 work Wild Man (University of Wisconsin Press), discusses the reception of his early work's gay themes and the ways in which authors, such as Gore Vidal and Fritz Peters conformed to expectations of publishers of the time. In 1965, a new edition of the 1948 novel The City and the Pillar was released "in order to return to it the strength, the temperament and the animus that Vidal had wanted in the first place." Schneebaum further states that Fritz Peters was forced by his editor to change his original happy ending for Finistère to "an ending that was tragic, to conform with contemporary ideas concerning what interested the public and what was obscene." 

Fritz Peters correcting galley proofs of his second novel, Finistère
November 27, 1950  [cat 3119-0007]
Private Collection

As Fritz Peter's novels were published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux, the business files related to his work are included in the Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Inc. collection at the Manuscripts and Archives Division, New York Public Library. When I spent the day with the collection on December 14, 2002, I found that the collection did not include any manuscript material nor was there any correspondence that suggested a back-and-forth regarding the ending of Finistère. The files about this novel were limited to a copy of the original contract, lengthy and  ongoing correspondence regarding the republication of Finistère by publishers other than FSG, and correspondence with reviewers and prospective reviewers of Finistère.

Columbia University Libraries announced in the Our Growing Collections column in Columbia Library Columns (v.13:no.2 1964:February, p.55) that "Mr. Fritz Peters has presented the manuscript of his novel, Finistère, published in New York in 1951." Interestingly it was listed under the section for medical library gifts. It is now housed in Columbia's Rare Book and Manuscript Library within the collection, General Manuscripts, 1789-2013. The type-written manuscript with minor changes in ink follows the published work, including the tragic ending.

If there was an original happy ending to Finistère, it appears to have been lost to history. What might Matthew's life have looked like, had Fritz Peters been free of the cultural and moral restrictions of mid-twentieth century American publishing?

Bibliographies & Ratings: Cory (IV); Garde (Primary, **); Mattachine Review (IV); Young (3019/3020,*)

Bibliographies & Ratings II: Austen (174); Gunn (American 54a); Levin (121)

The Captain by Russell Thacher

New York : Macmillan, 1951
Dustjacket: John O'Hara Cosgrove II

The Captain (actually a Lieutenant in the U.S. Naval Reserve) is in charge of an LST (Landing Ship, Tank) and tasked with delivering Marines and their equipment to the deadly beach of Kia Orta on the Pacific front during World War II. He's not what you would call regular military. He doesn't do things by the book, but does what's necessary to get things done and protect the men in his charge. This doesn't sit well with top brass leading the invasion force.

In the middle of preparing for this assault on the Japanese,  he must also deal with a number of issues among his crew. From the near mutinous behavior of his engine crew to an African-American steward, Buck, whose skills are better used on deck with artillery, but isn't accepted by the other men due to his race.

Central to the story is an ongoing relationship between Gunnery Officer, Gilchrist, who after receiving a dear john letter develops a close relationship with Espisito, the Bosun's Mate. The relationship is already a challenge due to the difference in rank, but is doubly problematic for the captain since it becomes a topic of gossip among everyone on board. Stories of reciting poetry (Whitman) and spending time together in dark corners of the ship make it impossible for the Captain to ignore.

The Captain was well received when it was published in 1951. It's fascinating that the gay storyline is present throughout the book but is summarily ignored by reviewers of the time.


Bibliographies & Ratings: Cory (III); Garde (OTP, a, **); Mattachine Review (III); Young (3768)

The Promising Young Men by George Sklar

New York: Crown Publishers, 1951

Stevie Kropa grew up poor and saw his tennis talent as a way to  achieve his goal of becoming a doctor. He learns quickly that although the tennis organization provides for him, they get much more out of it than he does. His wife Kay doesn't understand why, given all of the special treatment he gets as a tennis player, he still wants to go to school.  This tension destroyed his marriage. An older, more experienced player, Calder, takes Stevie under his wing, but is tennis all he has in mind?

Although not the primary storyline, Calder's homosexuality plays an important role in the journey of Stevie. While he is surprised to discover this aspect of Calder and he does distance himself for a period of time, the mentoring he received was what helped him to succeed. After the war they meet again, not as a gay man and a straight man, but as two former 'promising young men' who have survived.

Bibliographies & Ratings: Cory (II); Garde (OTP, a, **); Mattachine Review (III); Young (3542)

The Grotto by Grace Zaring Stone

New York: Harper & Brothers, 1951

The dust jacket declares Ms. Stone "...the first novelist who has dared to write frankly about a tragic problem--the struggle of a mother to save her son from becoming a homosexual."

Written with a decidedly Freudian bent, this is the story of a widow, Celia Thorne and her teenage son Evan. While traveling in Italy they become stranded due to striking ship staff. When she is offered the chance to stay with an old friend, Wilfred Foliot at a villa on the coast of Italy, she happily accepts. While waiting for the strike to be resolved she is forced to come to terms with Evan growing up and his possible homosexuality.

Grace Zaring Stone is most well known for her 1939 novel Escape. She used the pseudonym Ethel Vance to avoid jeopardizing her daughter who was living in occupied Europe during World War II.

Bibliographies & Ratings: Cory (IV); Garde (Primary, **); Mattachine Review (IV); Young (3663, *)