# What are the "gay novels of the 1940s and 1950s"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 7, 2012, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-gay-novels-of-the-1940s-and-1950s/636960 "2012-10-07T03:02:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2012, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-gay-novels-of-the-1940s-and-1950s/636960/1 "2012-10-07T03:02:28Z")
I was reading the wiki on Gore Vidal’s novel [“The City and the Pillar”](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_City_and_the_Pillar) and at the end this comment was noted. > [@](#): > > The City and the Pillar sparked a public scandal, including notoriety and criticism, not only since it was released at a time when homosexuality was commonly considered immoral, but also because it was the first book by an accepted American author to portray overt homosexuality as a natural behavior.[3] The controversial reception began before the novel hit bookshelves. Prior to its even being published, an editor at EP Dutton said to Vidal, “You will never be forgiven for this book. Twenty years from now you will still be attacked for it.”[5] Looking back in retrospect from 2009, it is considered by Ian Young to be “perhaps the most notorious of the gay novels of the 1940s and 1950s.”[7] What are these “gay novels”? ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2012, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-gay-novels-of-the-1940s-and-1950s/636960/2 "2012-10-07T03:17:52Z")
**Naked Lunch** and **Gentlemen’s Agreement** come to mind. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2012, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-gay-novels-of-the-1940s-and-1950s/636960/3 "2012-10-07T03:28:42Z")
The New York Times recent obituary of [Tereska Torres](http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/25/books/tereska-torres-writer-of-lesbian-fiction-dies-at-92.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all), author of _Women’s Barracks_, provides a fascinating look at the period. ---
**Author:** ![SantaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/da6949/32.png) [@SantaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SantaMan)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2012, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-gay-novels-of-the-1940s-and-1950s/636960/4 "2012-10-07T03:33:09Z")
I started to look up “Well of Loneliness” - but it has been around since the 20’s it appears. from Wiki: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay\_male\_pulp\_fiction](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay_male_pulp_fiction) Still, some gay pulps were published by mainstream publishers throughout the 1950s and early 1960s. These were often reprints of literary novels that involved references to homosexuality, such as Charles Jackson’s 1946 novel, The Fall of Valor, and Gore Vidal’s 1948 novel, The City and the Pillar, which first appeared in paperback in 1950. Likewise, Blair Niles’ 1931 novel Strange Brother appeared in paperback in 1952. ---
**Author:** ![SantaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/da6949/32.png) [@SantaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SantaMan)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2012, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-gay-novels-of-the-1940s-and-1950s/636960/5 "2012-10-07T03:34:23Z")
I started to look up “Well of Loneliness” - but it has been around since the 20’s it appears. from Wiki: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay\_male\_pulp\_fiction](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay_male_pulp_fiction) > [@](#): > > Still, some gay pulps were published by mainstream publishers throughout the 1950s and early 1960s. These were often reprints of literary novels that involved references to homosexuality, such as Charles Jackson’s 1946 novel, The Fall of Valor, and Gore Vidal’s 1948 novel, The City and the Pillar, which first appeared in paperback in 1950. Likewise, Blair Niles’ 1931 novel Strange Brother appeared in paperback in 1952. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2012, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-gay-novels-of-the-1940s-and-1950s/636960/6 "2012-10-07T03:42:50Z")
Naked Lunch, sure, but Gentlemen’s Agreement was about antisemitism. But, for some others, Harrison Dowd’s 'The Night Air", and Michael deForrest’s “The Gay Year”. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2012, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-gay-novels-of-the-1940s-and-1950s/636960/7 "2012-10-07T03:46:01Z")
_The Heart is a Lonely Hunter_ (1940) - Carson McCullers _Our Lady of the Flowers_ (1942) - Jean Genet _In Youth is Pleasure_ (1945) - Denton Welch _The Fall of Valor_ (1946) - Charles Jackson _Other Voices, Other Rooms_ (1948) - Truman Capote _Confessions of a Mask_ (1949) - Yukio Mishima _Lucifer With a Book_ (1949) - John Horne Burns _The Thief’s Journal_ (1949) - Jean Genet _Quatrefoil_ (1950) - James Barr _Finistere_ (1951) - Fritz Peters _Parents’ Day_ (1951) - Paul Goodman _Hemlock and After_ (1952) - Angus Wilson _Let It Come Down_ (1952) - Paul Bowles _The World in the Evening_ (1954) - Christopher Isherwood _Yesterday Will Make You Cry_ (1955) - Chester Himes _Giovanni’s Room_ (1956) - James Baldwin _Jamie Is My Heart’s Desire_ (1956) - Alfred Chester _Sam_ (1959) - Lonnie Coleman _Another Country_ (1962) - James Baldwin _City of Night_ (1963) - John Rechy _A Single Man_ (1964) - Christopher Isherwood _Totempole_ (1965) - Sanford Friedman ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2012, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-gay-novels-of-the-1940s-and-1950s/636960/8 "2012-10-07T04:17:27Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > Naked Lunch, sure, but Gentlemen’s Agreement was about antisemitism. But, for some others, Harrison Dowd’s 'The Night Air", and Michael deForrest’s “The Gay Year”. According to my old film professor, the book on which the film was based was about discrimination against homosexuals (I have not read it). The movie changed it to antisemitism. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2012, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-gay-novels-of-the-1940s-and-1950s/636960/9 "2012-10-07T04:25:53Z")
> [@Krokodil](#): > > According to my old film professor, the book on which the film was based was about discrimination against homosexuals (I have not read it). The movie changed it to antisemitism. Not true. You MAY be thinking of the movie _ **Crossfire** _, starring Robert Young and Robert Mitchum. In the book, a soldier kills a homosexual; in the movie, he kills a JEw. ---
**Author:** ![Jaledin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Jaledin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaledin)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2012, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-gay-novels-of-the-1940s-and-1950s/636960/10 "2012-10-07T05:13:59Z")
Not really gay, I guess, but /the recognitions/ from 1954 or so did have Recktall Brown and Basil Valentine – both major gay characters and both given choice lines. Not unsympathetic characters, not bad guys, not stereotypical mincing types. In fact I think basil valentine has one of my favorite lines from a recent novel. On seeing a she-dog licking herself or whatever dogs do, he says, “The one really unbearable thing about females, isn’t it. All of them, always so wet.” Classic. I even looked it up to make sure I didn’t get it wrong. P. 235 of the paperback. Eta didn’t see mention of /crossfire/ above. +1 – astonishing movie, and deservedly famous. Not a message movie like advise and consent, but significant in its sympathy towards a persecuted homosexual. Shit I forgot it was a Jew. Never mind. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2012, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-gay-novels-of-the-1940s-and-1950s/636960/11 "2012-10-07T06:07:22Z")
> [@Jaledin](#): > > Not really gay, I guess, but /the recognitions/ from 1954 or so did have Recktall Brown and Basil Valentine – both major gay characters and both given choice lines. Not unsympathetic characters, not bad guys, not stereotypical mincing types. Brown is the major villain of the novel. He’s the one who corrupts Wyatt and gets him to betray his principles and become an art forger. How’s he not the bad guy? ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2012, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-gay-novels-of-the-1940s-and-1950s/636960/12 "2012-10-07T12:50:52Z")
From the Retronaut blog: [Lesbian Pulp Fiction 1935-1958](http://www.retronaut.co/2011/05/lesbian-pulp-fiction-1935-1958/) ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2012, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-gay-novels-of-the-1940s-and-1950s/636960/13 "2012-10-07T13:11:31Z")
The Lost Weekend by Charles Jackson (1944?). Same book the movie was made from. The drunkard was, at least in his youth, homosexual. ---
**Author:** ![Jaledin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Jaledin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaledin)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2012, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-gay-novels-of-the-1940s-and-1950s/636960/14 "2012-10-07T15:03:25Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > Brown is the major villain of the novel. He’s the one who corrupts Wyatt and gets him to betray his principles and become an art forger. How’s he not the bad guy? I don’t know…he’s just this art guy. Besides, I think it’s Brown who has the bit about “originality is a device that in talented people use to impress the untainted, and protect themselves from talented people.” You got to root for Brown. Fine, maybe a Milton Satanish guy. It’s been four years maybe five since I last read the novel, though, and there’s a lot in there to remember for an old man, so don’t beat me too hard, master. ---
**Author:** ![jordanr2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/838e76/32.png) [@jordanr2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jordanr2)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2012, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-gay-novels-of-the-1940s-and-1950s/636960/15 "2012-10-07T17:48:37Z")
There’s a recent book all about the writers of this period: Christopher Bram’s _Eminent Outlaws: the Gay Writers Who Changed America_. Might be of interest.