Daniel Menlsohn tails his rrponnce wh Mary Renlt, whose historil-fictn novels helped him unrstand himself as a wrer and a gay man.
Contents:
- MARY RENLT, THE BTSELLG GAY NOVELIST THE AGE OF MCCARTHYISM
- MARY RENLT AS THE FIRST GAY NOVELISTTHIS ARTICLE IS ONLY A PORTN OF THE FULL ARTICLE. IF YOU ARE ALREADY A PREMIUM SUBSCRIBER PLEASE LOG. IF YOU ARE NOT A PREMIUM SUBSCRIBER, PLEASE SUBSCRIBE FOR ACCS TO ALL OF OUR NTENT.
MARY RENLT, THE BTSELLG GAY NOVELIST THE AGE OF MCCARTHYISM
That The Charteer by Mary Renlt was read as a “gay novel” is monstrated by the fact that beme an stant btseller among homosexual rears * renault de gay *
It would be, as David Sweetman wr Mary Renlt: A Bgraphy, “the first openly [gay] novel by a ser wrer to be published Bra” sce World War II.
MARY RENLT AS THE FIRST GAY NOVELISTTHIS ARTICLE IS ONLY A PORTN OF THE FULL ARTICLE. IF YOU ARE ALREADY A PREMIUM SUBSCRIBER PLEASE LOG. IF YOU ARE NOT A PREMIUM SUBSCRIBER, PLEASE SUBSCRIBE FOR ACCS TO ALL OF OUR NTENT.
* renault de gay *
Dpe their misgivgs, The Charteer would lnch Renlt’s reer as a btsellg wrer boldly explorg gay them wh gay rears md— an era when police entrapment of gay men was roilg Bra, the “lavenr sre” purged gay workers om U. Lrie falls love wh chaste Andrew, but later rennects wh a former csh named Ralph at a gay party, and mt choose between the Platonic ial or imperfect gratifitn.
The Charteer stck a chord among gay rears the UK when Longmans agreed to publish 1953. ” Another advertisement for the book crowed, “steady sal for eight months, ” while hasteng to quote the Birmgham Post: “Miss Renlt’s treatment of the theme of homosexual love uld not be more hont, impartial, or sympathetic, or ls likely to offend agast moraly. ” As wh The Charteer, gay rears were hooked on the honty and openns The Last of the We.
Acrdg to Sweetman, her mailbox was crammed wh letters om gay men who thanked the thor for articulatg their sir; they shared their memori of timate iendships wh school mat and army buddi. By then, “gay bookshops San Francis had proment ‘Renlt' sectns, ” Sweetman wr. Her exploratns of the life and lov of Alexanr the Great—Fire From Heaven (1969) and The Persian Boy (1972), the latter her most gay-themed novel yet—had crics ghg over her realistic tails and psychologil analysis of the Macedonian kg, while her gay dience felt vdited her tellg of Alexanr’s timate relatnships wh Hephatn and Bagoas, the tular youth.