List of gay novels prior to the Stonewall riots

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
American author Gore Vidal wrote the pioneering 1948 novel The City and the Pillar about a gay man coming of age. Vidal himself rejected the labels 'gay' and 'straight', believing all people were naturally bisexual.

While the modern novel format dates back at least as far as the 18th century, novels dealing with desire or relationships between men were rare during the early part of the 20th century, and nearly non-existent before then, due to the taboo nature of homosexuality at the time. Many early novels depicting (or even alluding to) homosexuality were published anonymously or pseudonymously, or like Maurice, sat unpublished until after the death of the author, reflecting authors' fear of opprobrium, censorship, or legal prosecution.

Works which are widely labeled "gay novels" generally feature overt gay attraction or relationships as central concerns. In some cases, the label may be applied to early novels which merely contain homosexual allusions or subtext, such as Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray. Works that feature only minor gay characters or scenes, such as the 1748 erotic novel Fanny Hill, are not included in this list.

Many authors of early gay novels were themselves gay or bisexual men, such as Oscar Wilde, Gore Vidal, and James Baldwin. Others were heterosexual, or of unknown identity, writing under a pseudonym. One popular and influential writer of early gay novels, Mary Renault, was a lesbian woman.

Through the second half of the 20th century, as homosexuality became more visible and less taboo, gay themes came to appear more frequently in fiction. This list includes only novels written (though not necessarily published) before 1969, the year of the Stonewall riots, which are widely seen as a turning point in the gay rights movement.

Identity of the first gay novel[]

Owing to varying criteria for what it means for a novel to be 'gay' (and, moreover, varying criteria for what makes a work of fiction a novel), there is no single work which is widely agreed to be the first gay novel. In 2014, the magazine The Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide conducted a reader survey seeking to identify the first gay novel. E.M. Forster's Maurice (written in 1913) received a plurality of 29% of votes. The next most popular selections were The City and the Pillar and The Picture of Dorian Gray, but votes were widely dispersed.[1]

Novels[]

Year Title[a] Author[b] Country Notes
1870 Joseph and His Friend: A Story of Pennsylvania Bayard Taylor US The title characters have a close, affectionate friendship, but are not physically intimate, and both have romantic relationships with women. Scholars disagree as to whether the story should be understood as having a gay subtext.
1875 Adolf von Wilbrandt Germany [Fridolin's secret marriage] First German author presenting homosexuality in a positive light.
1881 The Sins of the Cities of the Plain[2] "Jack Saul" UK A pornographic novel purporting to be the memoirs of a male prostitute.
1888 O Ateneu[3] Raul Pompeia Brazil Depicts situational homosexuality among students in an all-male boarding school.
1889 A Marriage Below Zero Alan Dale US A melodrama told from the point of view of a woman whose marriage is threatened by her husband's love for another man. The story ends with her husband's suicide - an early occurrence of what would become a recurring trope of gay characters dying or facing otherwise unhappy endings.
1890 The Picture of Dorian Gray[2][1] Oscar Wilde UK The novel's allusions to homosexuality and homosexual desire were seen as scandalous when it was first published serially in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine. Wilde subsequently made several revisions to excise homoerotic themes before the work was published in book format. An unexpurgated version was published in 2011 which further included passages deleted by an editor at Lippincott's before initial publication.[4]
1893 Teleny, or The Reverse of the Medal[2] Anonymous UK Pornographic novel published anonymously. Believed to be the work of multiple authors, possibly including Oscar Wilde.
1895 Bom-Crioulo Adolfo Caminha Brazil The novel was the first major literary work on homosexuality to be published in Brazil, and one of the first to have a black person as its hero. The novel caused a stir upon its publication but was almost forgotten in the first half of the 20th century. In the second half of the 20th century, the novel has been republished several times in Brazil and translated into English, Spanish, German, French and Italian.
1902 The Immoralist André Gide France
1906 The Confusions of Young Törless[5] Robert Musil Austria-Hungary Depicts homosexuality in an Austrian boarding school. First English translation published in 1955. A German film adaptation was released in 1966.
1906 Imre: A Memorandum[6] "Xavier Mayne" (Edward Irenaeus Prime-Stevenson) US Notable for being among the earliest sympathetic portrayals of homosexuality. The main characters, lovers Imre and Oswald, are happy and united at the end of the story. Only a small printing of 500 copies was issued in Italy (Stevenson was an American writing in Europe). Reissued in 2003.
1906 Wings Mikhail Kuzmin Russia
1911  [es] Alberto Nin Frías Uruguay
Spain 		[The poisoned well]
1912 Death in Venice Thomas Mann Germany The main character, an aging writer, develops an infatuation with a beautiful adolescent boy. Subject of a number of adaptations, most notably a 1971 film by Luchino Visconti.
1913 In Search of Lost Time[1] Marcel Proust France Some critics surmise that the narrator is presented as a closeted homosexual. The first chapter of the fourth volume includes a detailed account of a sexual encounter between two men. Proust himself was gay, but not publicly.
1913 Alberto Nin Frías Spain [Marcos, lover of beauty]
1913* Maurice[1] E. M. Forster UK Written around 1913, but not published until 1971, following Forster's death. Forster's homosexuality was not publicly known during his lifetime.
1916 [2] John Gambril Nicholson UK Written sometime between 1896 and 1905, and privately printed in 1916.[2]
1917 The Loom of Youth[2] Alec Waugh UK Thought to be the first English-language work depicting homosexuality between students in boarding school. A best seller, in part because its subject matter provoked a scandal.[2]
1919 Bertram Cope's Year[7] Henry Blake Fuller US
1924  [es] Augusto D'Halmar Spain [Passion and death of the priest Deusto]
1925 The Counterfeiters André Gide France
1925 The Western Shore[5][7] US A story set at UC Berkeley, featuring a gay professor as a major character (possibly modeled after Crane), and other characters of ambiguous sexual orientation. Not commercially or critically successful.[5]
1925 [8] Germany [Symphony of the Eros]
1926 [8] John Henry Mackay Germany [Hustler]
1927 Confusion Stefan Zweig Germany
1927 [8] Hans Siemsen Germany [Forbidden love]
1927 [8] Germany [Happiness]
1928  [fr][5] Anonymous (Jean Cocteau) France A gay narrator recalls the course of his life, including his sexual awakening and attempts to come to terms with his sexuality. Some scholars have read it as autobiographical (Cocteau was gay). Rictor Norton interprets it as a sociological treatise on the injustice of homophobia.[9]
1928 [10]  [es] Spain [The angel from Sodom]
1931 Strange Brother Blair Niles US
1932 The Memorial Christopher Isherwood UK
1933 Better Angel[11] "Richard Meeker" (Forman Brown) US Reprinted as a pulp paperback in 1951 under the title Torment.
1933 [11] Charles Henri Ford France Set in the underground homosexual community in New York City and using stream of consciousness narration. Ford, an American, was unable to find a publisher in the US or UK, and the book was barred from being shipped there.
1933 Friedo Lampe Germany [At the edge of night] The book was prohibited by the nazis due to its homoerotic content.
1941 Reflections in a Golden Eye Carson McCullers US
1943 Our Lady of the Flowers Jean Genet France
1944 Les amitiés particulières Roger Peyrefitte France
1945 Brideshead Revisited Evelyn Waugh UK
1947 Querelle of Brest Anonymous (Jean Genet) France The story of a bisexual thief, prostitute and serial killer. Only 460 copies initially printed. An English translation was published in 1974.
1948 The City and the Pillar[1][5] Gore Vidal US
1948 Other Voices, Other Rooms[5] Truman Capote US
1948 Funeral Rites Jean Genet France
1949 Confessions of a Mask Yukio Mishima Japan
1949 The Thief's Journal Jean Genet France
1950 Quatrefoil: A Modern Novel "James Barr" (James Fugaté) US Among the first novels to favourably portray homosexuality.
1950 The Dog Star Donald Windham US
1951 Look Down in Mercy[2] Walter Baxter UK A British officer in the Burma campaign in World War II falls in love with his batman.
1951 Memoirs of Hadrian Marguerite Yourcenar France
1951 Parents' Day[12][13] Paul Goodman US
1952 Hemlock and After Angus Wilson UK
1953 Forbidden Colors Yukio Mishima Japan
1953 The Charioteer[1] Mary Renault UK Due to its positive portrayal of homosexuality, it was not able to be published in the US until 1959. Renault would continue to explore homosexual themes in her later novels - beginning with the 1956 The Last of the Wine - but using an Ancient Greek setting to evade censorship.
1954 Death in Rome Wolfgang Koeppen Germany A parody of Death in Venice where the protagonist does not die.
1956 Giovanni's Room[1] James Baldwin US
1956 The Last of the Wine Mary Renault South Africa Set in Athens at the end of the Peloponnesian War. The first of several historical novels that Renault would write which dealt with homosexuality in an Ancient Greek setting.
1958 The King Must Die Mary Renault South Africa
1958 A Glass of Blessings Barbara Pym UK
1958 A Room in Chelsea Square Anonymous (Michael Nelson) UK
1963 City of Night John Rechy US Follows a hustler in his travels across America. Includes discussion of the Cooper Do-nuts Riot, an early event in the gay liberation movement, seen as a precursor to the Stonewall riots.
1963 Making Do[12][13] Paul Goodman US
1964 Last Exit to Brooklyn Hubert Selby Jr. US
1964 A Single Man[1] Christopher Isherwood US
1964 Sorcerer's Apprentice François Augiéras France
1965 Midnight Cowboy James Leo Herlihy US
1966 Paradiso José Lezama Lima Cuba
1967 Lord Dismiss Us Michael Campbell UK
1965 Hubert Fichte Germany [The orphanage]
1968 Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone James Baldwin US A retrospective examination of the life and relationships of a bisexual black man from Harlem.

See also[]

Notes[]

  1. ^ Citations in this column are for the purposes of verifying the work's status as a "gay novel".
  2. ^ Names in quotation marks are pseudonyms.

References[]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Schneider, Richard (30 October 2014). "What Was the First Gay Novel? A Readers' Survey". The Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Drewey Wayne Gunn (2014). Gay Novels of Britain, Ireland and the Commonwealth, 1881-1981: A Reader's Guide. ISBN 978-0786497249.
  3. ^ Kristal, Efraín (2005). "The lesbian and gay novel in Latin America". The Cambridge Companion to the Latin American Novel. ISBN 1139827057.
  4. ^ https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/apr/27/dorian-gray-oscar-wilde-uncensored
  5. ^ a b c d e f Slide, Anthony (2003). Lost Gay Novels: A Reference Guide to Fifty Works from the First Half of the Twentieth Century. Routledge. doi:10.4324/9780203057230. ISBN 9781136572081.
  6. ^ Cady, Joseph. "American Literature: Gay Male, 1900-1969". glbtq.com. p. 1. Archived from the original on February 21, 2015.
  7. ^ a b Cady, Joseph. "American Literature: Gay Male, 1900-1969". glbtq.com. p. 2. Archived from the original on February 21, 2015.
  8. ^ a b c d Claude J. Summers, ed. (2014). Gay and Lesbian Literary Heritage (2nd ed.). Routledge. ISBN 9781135303990.
  9. ^ Norton, Rictor. "Cocteau's White Paper on Homophobia". Retrieved 21 May 2021.
  10. ^ Bejel, Emilio (2000). "Positivist Contradictions in Hernández Catá's "El Ángel de Sodoma"". Anales de la literatura española contemporánea. 25 (1): 63–76. JSTOR 27741459.
  11. ^ a b Cady, Joseph. "American Literature: Gay Male, 1900-1969". glbtq.com. p. 3. Archived from the original on February 21, 2015.
  12. ^ a b Gunn 2016, pp. 79–80.
  13. ^ a b Rogoff, Leonard (1997). "Paul Goodman". In Shatzky, Joel; Taub, Michael (eds.). Contemporary Jewish-American Novelists: A Bio-critical Sourcebook. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood. p. 133. ISBN 978-0-313-29462-4. OCLC 35758115.

Bibliography[]

  • Gunn, Drewey Wayne (2016). Gay American Novels, 1870–1970: A Reader's Guide. McFarland. pp. 79–80. ISBN 978-1-4766-2522-5.
Retrieved from ""