Description

Book Synopsis
Glances Backward brings together in one volume a broad selection of nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century American writings about gay male love, including love stories, Westerns, ghostly tales, poetry, drama, essays, letters, and memoirs.

Many of these works, such as The Cult of the Purple Rose, the story of a gay alliance at 1890s Harvard, are reprinted here for the first time since their original publication. Henry Blake Fuller’s “Allisonian Classical Academy” has until now been available only in manuscript form.

In addition to works by lesser-known authors, selections by Henry James, Herman Melville, Walt Whitman, Horatio Alger, Jr., Jack London, and Willa Cather are included.

Trade Review
“Glances Backward breaks new ground in gay studies. The anthology explores the full range of writing about gay males from before the Civil War to just after the First World War. In its treatment of largely unknown and inaccessible texts—from overwrought expressions of romantic friendship to modern diatribes against homosexuals as poor insurance risks—it offers the best scholarly introduction to the period when homosexuality was just finding its voice. It is a landmark text, necessary not only for queer scholars but for any student of American literature.” — David Van Leer, University of California, Davis

“This is an astonishing array of writing about same-sex relations. James Gifford is a scholar who leaves no archival page unturned, and he has put together an anthology that all readers can turn to for discovery, delight, and a deeper appreciation of American history and culture.” — David Bergman, Towson University

“A recognizably ‘gay’ American culture is a lot older, and a lot richer, than we thought—and here is the archive to prove it! This anthology brings together for the first time the major and minor voices of queer American literature, who together represent an astonishing range of experience, hope, and desire.” — Eric Savoy, Universite de Montreal

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Introduction

Part I: THE INTERSEXES

Edward Prime-Stevenson
From “Out of the Sun” (1913)
From The Intersexes (1908)

Part II: Two-Spirit People

Slim Curly
From “The Mothway Myth” (recorded 1930)
John Tanner
From A Narrative of the Captivity and Adventures of John Tanner (1830)
George Catlin
“Dance to the Berdashe” (1844)

Part III: Luck, Pluck, and a Kindly Mentor

Walt Whitman
“The Child’s Champion” (1841)
Selected Poems
Horatio Alger, Jr.
From Charlie Codman’s Cruise (1866)
Harry Enton
From Young Sleuth, the Keen Detective (1877)
Howard Pyle
From The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood (1883)

Part IV: Schooldays

Frederick Wadsworth Loring
From Two College Friends (1871)
Henry Blake Fuller
From The Allisonian Classical Academy (1876)
Charles Macomb Flandrau
From Harvard Episodes (1897)
Shirley Everton Johnson
From The Cult of the Purple Rose (1902)

Part V: The Oscar Model

Anonymous
“Wilde in Utica” (1882)
Earl Lind
“The Case of Oscar Wilde” (1918)

Part VI: Arcadia

Bayard Taylor
From Poems of the Orient (1855)
From The Poet’s Journal (1863)
From Joseph and His Friend (1870)
Charles Warren Stoddard
“Pearl-Hunting in the Pomotous” (1873)
Henry James
“The Great Good Place” (1909)

Part VII: The Domestic Homosexual

Howard Overing-Sturgis
From Belchamber (1905)
George Santayana
From Persons and Places (1986)

Part VIII: Haunted

Henry Blake Fuller
At St. Judas’s (1896)
Gertrude Atherton
“The Striding Place” (1896)
George Sylvester Viereck
From Nineveh and Other Poems (1908)
From The Candle and the Flame (1912)

Part IX: Purloined Popular Fiction

Bret Harte
“Tennessee’s Partner” (1869)
“Jim” (1870)
Thomas Bailey Aldrich
“Marjorie Daw” (1873)
Henry Cuyler Bunner
“Our Aromatic Uncle” (1895)
Edward Prime-Stevenson
From Mrs. Dee’s Encore (1896)
Jack London
“The White Silence” (1899)
James Weldon Johnson
From The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man (1912)
Edward Prime-Stevenson
“Aquae Multae Non—” (1913)

Part X: Of Hearts Thrown Open

Fitz-Greene Halleck
Selected Poems
James Whitcomb Riley
“Good-Bye, Jim” (1893)
Bliss Carman and Richard Hovey
From Songs from Vagabondia (1894)
Edward Perry Warren
From Itamos (1903)
George Edward Woodberry
From Selected Poems
Trumbull Stickney
Selected Poems
George Cabot Lodge
From Poems and Dramas (1911)
George Santayana
Selected Poems

Part XI: Doctors, Case Studies, and Erotopaths

James Mills Peirce
From Sexual Inversion “Letter from ‘Professor X’” (1897)
Claude Hartland
From The Story of a Life (1901)
Willa Cather
“Paul’s Case: A Study in Temperament” (1905)
William Lee Howard
“Effeminate Men and Masculine Women” (1900)
“The Sexual Pervert in Life Insurance” (1906)
Earl Lind
From The Autobiography of an Androgyne (1918)

Part XII: Men in Groups

Josiah Flynt Willard
Homosexuality Among Tramps (1897)
Morris Schaff
From The Spirit of Old West Point (1907)
Alexander Berkman
From Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist (1912)

Part XIII: To You Alone

Herman Melville
Two Letters to Nathaniel Hawthorne (1851)
Francis Davis Millet
Letters to Charles Warren Stoddard (1875)
Bernard X.
“A Merry Christmas” (1887)
Clyde Fitch
Letter to DeWitt Miller (1891)
George Sylvester Viereck
Letter to George E. Woodberry (ca. 1912)

Bibliography and Suggestions for Further Reading
Sources

Glances Backward: An Anthology of American

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    A Paperback / softback by James J. Gifford

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      Publisher: Broadview Press Ltd
      Publication Date: 30/09/2006
      ISBN13: 9781551117287, 978-1551117287
      ISBN10: 1551117282
      Also in:
      Anthologies ELT & Literary Studies Literature: history and criticism History of the Americas

      Description

      Book Synopsis
      Glances Backward brings together in one volume a broad selection of nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century American writings about gay male love, including love stories, Westerns, ghostly tales, poetry, drama, essays, letters, and memoirs.

      Many of these works, such as The Cult of the Purple Rose, the story of a gay alliance at 1890s Harvard, are reprinted here for the first time since their original publication. Henry Blake Fuller’s “Allisonian Classical Academy” has until now been available only in manuscript form.

      In addition to works by lesser-known authors, selections by Henry James, Herman Melville, Walt Whitman, Horatio Alger, Jr., Jack London, and Willa Cather are included.

      Trade Review
      “Glances Backward breaks new ground in gay studies. The anthology explores the full range of writing about gay males from before the Civil War to just after the First World War. In its treatment of largely unknown and inaccessible texts—from overwrought expressions of romantic friendship to modern diatribes against homosexuals as poor insurance risks—it offers the best scholarly introduction to the period when homosexuality was just finding its voice. It is a landmark text, necessary not only for queer scholars but for any student of American literature.” — David Van Leer, University of California, Davis

      “This is an astonishing array of writing about same-sex relations. James Gifford is a scholar who leaves no archival page unturned, and he has put together an anthology that all readers can turn to for discovery, delight, and a deeper appreciation of American history and culture.” — David Bergman, Towson University

      “A recognizably ‘gay’ American culture is a lot older, and a lot richer, than we thought—and here is the archive to prove it! This anthology brings together for the first time the major and minor voices of queer American literature, who together represent an astonishing range of experience, hope, and desire.” — Eric Savoy, Universite de Montreal

      Table of Contents

      Acknowledgements
      Introduction

      Part I: THE INTERSEXES

      Edward Prime-Stevenson
      From “Out of the Sun” (1913)
      From The Intersexes (1908)

      Part II: Two-Spirit People

      Slim Curly
      From “The Mothway Myth” (recorded 1930)
      John Tanner
      From A Narrative of the Captivity and Adventures of John Tanner (1830)
      George Catlin
      “Dance to the Berdashe” (1844)

      Part III: Luck, Pluck, and a Kindly Mentor

      Walt Whitman
      “The Child’s Champion” (1841)
      Selected Poems
      Horatio Alger, Jr.
      From Charlie Codman’s Cruise (1866)
      Harry Enton
      From Young Sleuth, the Keen Detective (1877)
      Howard Pyle
      From The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood (1883)

      Part IV: Schooldays

      Frederick Wadsworth Loring
      From Two College Friends (1871)
      Henry Blake Fuller
      From The Allisonian Classical Academy (1876)
      Charles Macomb Flandrau
      From Harvard Episodes (1897)
      Shirley Everton Johnson
      From The Cult of the Purple Rose (1902)

      Part V: The Oscar Model

      Anonymous
      “Wilde in Utica” (1882)
      Earl Lind
      “The Case of Oscar Wilde” (1918)

      Part VI: Arcadia

      Bayard Taylor
      From Poems of the Orient (1855)
      From The Poet’s Journal (1863)
      From Joseph and His Friend (1870)
      Charles Warren Stoddard
      “Pearl-Hunting in the Pomotous” (1873)
      Henry James
      “The Great Good Place” (1909)

      Part VII: The Domestic Homosexual

      Howard Overing-Sturgis
      From Belchamber (1905)
      George Santayana
      From Persons and Places (1986)

      Part VIII: Haunted

      Henry Blake Fuller
      At St. Judas’s (1896)
      Gertrude Atherton
      “The Striding Place” (1896)
      George Sylvester Viereck
      From Nineveh and Other Poems (1908)
      From The Candle and the Flame (1912)

      Part IX: Purloined Popular Fiction

      Bret Harte
      “Tennessee’s Partner” (1869)
      “Jim” (1870)
      Thomas Bailey Aldrich
      “Marjorie Daw” (1873)
      Henry Cuyler Bunner
      “Our Aromatic Uncle” (1895)
      Edward Prime-Stevenson
      From Mrs. Dee’s Encore (1896)
      Jack London
      “The White Silence” (1899)
      James Weldon Johnson
      From The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man (1912)
      Edward Prime-Stevenson
      “Aquae Multae Non—” (1913)

      Part X: Of Hearts Thrown Open

      Fitz-Greene Halleck
      Selected Poems
      James Whitcomb Riley
      “Good-Bye, Jim” (1893)
      Bliss Carman and Richard Hovey
      From Songs from Vagabondia (1894)
      Edward Perry Warren
      From Itamos (1903)
      George Edward Woodberry
      From Selected Poems
      Trumbull Stickney
      Selected Poems
      George Cabot Lodge
      From Poems and Dramas (1911)
      George Santayana
      Selected Poems

      Part XI: Doctors, Case Studies, and Erotopaths

      James Mills Peirce
      From Sexual Inversion “Letter from ‘Professor X’” (1897)
      Claude Hartland
      From The Story of a Life (1901)
      Willa Cather
      “Paul’s Case: A Study in Temperament” (1905)
      William Lee Howard
      “Effeminate Men and Masculine Women” (1900)
      “The Sexual Pervert in Life Insurance” (1906)
      Earl Lind
      From The Autobiography of an Androgyne (1918)

      Part XII: Men in Groups

      Josiah Flynt Willard
      Homosexuality Among Tramps (1897)
      Morris Schaff
      From The Spirit of Old West Point (1907)
      Alexander Berkman
      From Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist (1912)

      Part XIII: To You Alone

      Herman Melville
      Two Letters to Nathaniel Hawthorne (1851)
      Francis Davis Millet
      Letters to Charles Warren Stoddard (1875)
      Bernard X.
      “A Merry Christmas” (1887)
      Clyde Fitch
      Letter to DeWitt Miller (1891)
      George Sylvester Viereck
      Letter to George E. Woodberry (ca. 1912)

      Bibliography and Suggestions for Further Reading
      Sources

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