The Cambridge History of Gay and Lbian Lerature - November 2014
Contents:
- CHAPTER 11 - GAY AND LBIAN LERARY CULTURE THE 1950S
- 21 CLASSIC WORKS OF GAY LERATURE
- CLASSIC GAY MALE LERATURE
- 20 CLASSIC WORKS OF GAY LERATURE
- 37 - GAY MALE AND LBIAN PULP FICTN AND MASS CULTURE
- GAY LERATURE: POETRY AND PROSEGAY LERATURE: POETRY AND PROSE
CHAPTER 11 - GAY AND LBIAN LERARY CULTURE THE 1950S
On Friday, the Supreme Court led 5-4 that same-sex upl have a nstutnal right to wed, clearg the way for gay marriage natnwi. * gay literature 1950s *
”For many years, as gay rights activists have fought for equal opportuny, lbian and gay wrers have penned works that provi a richer unrstandg of the joys and challeng of their liv.
21 classic works of gay lerature:Jam Baldw: “Gvanni’s Room” -- a man disvers his sexual inty ParisDjuna Barn: “Nightwood” -- early postmorn fictn of women Paris loveAlison Bechl: “Fun Home: A Fay Tragiic” -- a graphic novel memoir of her troubled gay father and her own g out, recently adapted as a Tony award-wng Broadway showRa Mae Brown: “Rubyu Jungle” -- the 1973 tale of a young woman’s g of ageWilliam S.
21 CLASSIC WORKS OF GAY LERATURE
Gay, lbian, and bisexual characters e to the foreont the eight books. * gay literature 1950s *
Burroughs: “Naked Lunch” -- the landmark experimental novel’s gay sex scen ma the foc of a breakthrough obsceny trialRichard Elmann: “Osr Wil” -- bgraphy of the lively wrer whose gay relatnship got him sent to prison for “gross cency”E.
Forster: “Mrice” -- this love story, wrten when homosexualy was illegal England, was published posthumolyRadclyffe Hall: “The Well of Lonels” -- groundbreakg lbian novel of the 1920sE. Lynn Harris: “Invisible Life” -- an Ain Amerin law stunt’s sexual disveryAllen Gsberg: “Howl” -- the poem was subject to an obsceny trial part bee of s explic gay themJean Ge: “Our Lady of the Flowers” -- published 1944, portrays sexual adventur Paris’ crimal unrgroundAnthony M. ------------Armistead Mp: “Tal of the Cy” ma character Michael Tolliver’s life portrayed over a seri of novels set gay-iendly San FrancisPl Mote: “Borrowed Time: An AIDS Memoir” -- a breathtakg yet matter-of-fact, day-by-day acunt of the ath of his longtime partner om AIDSAnnie Proulx: “Brokeback Mounta” a story of wboys love, om the llectn “Close Range, ” which beme the Osr-wng filmJohn Rechy: “Cy of Night” -- a novel of gay street htlers the 1950sSappho: “The Complete Poems” -- women’s love poetry om the 7th century BCHubert Selby Jr.
As a rult of two major donatns to the Human Sexualy Collectn, Cornell now holds a major llectn of gay men’s pulp novels and seri fictn and has the begngs of a llectn of lbian pulp novels datg om the 1950s.
CLASSIC GAY MALE LERATURE
* gay literature 1950s *
Gee Fisher’s gift ntribut signifintly to Cornell’s overall holdgs the history of sexualy, and particular, to s llectn of lbian and gay paperback Lbian Popular Fictn Collectn ntas approximately one hundred pulp novels, primarily om the 1950s and 1960s. Many of the novels openly appeal to a heterosexual rear, and a signifint portn were wrten by men (or possibly unr male psdonyms) Gay Men’s Popular Fictn Collectn built om the Mart and Fisher donatns clus reprentativ om over 130 seri and more loosely nceived publishers’ l.
Bis formula erotic seri, recent gay popular wrg has branched to the genr of historil romance, short stori, science fictn and fantasy, tective fictn, and adolcent “problem books. ”While all books are cultural artifacts, gay men’s popular fictn ntas raly and affirmg edorial prefac, direct solicatn of rears’ lik and dislik, and highly specific marketg that give the term “cultural artifact” addnal immediacy and tert.
” The chronologil range of the Gay Men’s Popular Fictn Collectn mak possible to trace broad chang generic nventns, the implied rears or nsumers, marketg strategi, and ultimately sexual and polil iologi.
20 CLASSIC WORKS OF GAY LERATURE
Coverg a span of forty years and enpassg a variety of genr, the Avon books prent a rerd of changg perceptns of the gay man as fictive subject and real-life nsumer. The llectn reflects profound historil chang the public regnn of gay men and their own self addn to popular fictn, Gee Fisher’s gift of the Elysian Fields Bookstore clus other books and mancripts, which enabled the Library to strengthen s llectn of 19th and 20th century human sexualy materials.
The gift reprents a dramatic addn to holdgs the fields of lbian and gay liberatn texts, ntemporary lbian and gay fictn, and amic terpretatns of homosexualy, bisexualy, and heterosexualy. Gee Fisher’s own personal and bs fil reflect the life of a man voted to the reprentatn of gays prt a Cornell graduate stunt English Lerature, San Lynch was award a three month fellowship 1991 to anize and analyze Cornell’s llectns of lbian and gay popular fictn. But this narrow range—books set between 1950 and 1969—showed thors navigatg a world jt before the gay rights movement gaed strength, and imagg different kds of liv for their LGBTQ characters.
37 - GAY MALE AND LBIAN PULP FICTN AND MASS CULTURE
But the relatnship between the gay love terts—Sammy, one of the ma characters, and Tracy, the rad voice of the ic book character Sammy helped create—is a tragic and val part of this sweepg historil Price of Saltby Patricia Highsmh. The origal 1964 Kirk review of the book not, “the homosexual has never appeared more wretchedly alone than he do here through his own admissns”— a lonely and sad lens, but also a betiful of Nightby John Rechy. This highly stylized novel—set mid-20th-century Greenwich Village—is a morn-day retellg of an 1846 Balzac novel, La Coe Bette, which had a distct homoerotic subtext.
Schulman’s takeoff is more straightforward, wh a middle-aged Bette and her gay neighbor Earl vtigatg the new paths toward eedom that their liv might take a new era of civil to go eper to the history of LGBTQ activism? In honor of LGBTQ History Month, celebrated every October, here are books that aim to shed light on and clarify signifint historil moments that rmed and shaped the morn lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer rights movement.
GAY LERATURE: POETRY AND PROSEGAY LERATURE: POETRY AND PROSE
"The Gay Revolutn: The Story of the Stggle" by Lillian FarmanA thorough troductn to the history of the gay and lbian civil rights movements, this book chronicl the early stggl of LGBTQ dividuals om the 1950s to prent day g a pilatn of enlighteng terviews wh policians, ary officials and members of the muny. "When We Rise: My Life the Movement" by Cleve JonThis semi-tobgraphil acunt follows Cleve Jon as he explor his inty as a gay man the 1950s, disvers a muny and a e through his mentor, Harvey Milk, and p wh the ravagg effects of the AIDS epimic.
"Sister Outsir: Essays and Speech" by Audre LorA celebratn of tersectnaly, black lbian poet and femist Audre Lor analyz the prence of ageism, sexism, racism, classism and homophobia her own life through a llectn of lyril says and speech. "The Men wh the Pk Triangle" by Hez Heger (Used)In lurid tail, Hez Hager unfolds the te story of Josef Kohout — a man who was imprisoned a Nazi ncentratn mp for beg gay — and effectively remds the world of the torture gay dividuals suffered at the hands of the Nazi regime. JohnsonWh the help of classified documents and terview wh ary officials, David Johnson argu that Senator Joseph McCarthy was jt as guilty of promotg anti-Communism paranoia as he was spirg polici that nsired homosexualy a threat to natnal secury.