QUOTE(Jothika @ Nov 20 2004, 08:33 PM)
So...nary an openly gay/lesbian author has published in modern times besides Mary Wings, Carla Trujillo, and Lorca? :o
No, there are many. After the Oscar Wilde trials of the late 1800s, gay writers tended to go underground in many countries. But still there were people like Proust, Gide, Virginia Woolf, Forster (whose gay novel Maurice, finished in 1914 was not published until after his death in 1971) and Thomas Mann (Death in Venice). Then there were Christopher Isherwood, Tennessee Williams, Carson McCullers, Yukio Mishima, Truman Capote, James Baldwin (see especially Giovanni's Room and Another Country), and Gore Vidal. Vidal is an interesting case in the history of homophobia in intellectual America. He was lionized in literary circles after the publication of his first novel Williwaw--a war novel with no apparent gay elements. In 1948 he published his third novel The City and the Pillar. It was openly gay and nearly destroyed his writing career (at the age of 23). He was trashed in the most vituperative language by the New York Times (!) and other publications and had to go underground, writing under various pseudonyms in order to generate income from his writings. More recent writers include among others Edmund White, David Leavitt, Jeanette Winterson, Alan Hollinghurst and Armistead Maupin, whose uplifting Tales of the City novels have delighted readers with their humor and memorable characters. And on a topical note, given that the film Alexander has just been released, there are the historical novels of Mary Renault--a woman who specialized in depicting the gay male point of view. Her novels about Alexander the Great include Fire From Heaven and The Persian Boy.
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How the Homosexuals Saved Civilization...
by Cathy Crimmins
