Gay American Novels, 1870–1970

Examining the development of gay American fiction and providing an essential reading list, this literary survey covers 257 works—novels, novellas, a graphic story cycle and a narrative poem—in which gay and bisexual male characters play a major role. Iconic works, such as James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room and Christopher Isherwood’s A Single Man, are included, along with titles not given attention by earlier surveys, such as Wallace Thurman’s Infants of the Spring, Dashiel Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon, Julian Green’s Each in His Darkness, Ursula Zilinsky’s Middle Ground and David Plante’s The Ghost of Henry James. Chronological entries discuss each work’s plot, significance for gay identity, and publication history, along with a brief biography of the author.

Drewey Wayne Gunn is a professor emeritus of English at Texas A&M University–Kingsville. He is the author, editor or translator of twelve previous books, including two Lambda Literary Award finalists.

Drewey Wayne Gunn
Format: softcover (7 x 10)
Pages: 200
Bibliographic Info: bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2016
pISBN: 978-0-7864-9905-2
eISBN: 978-1-4766-2522-5
Imprint: McFarland

Table of Contents

Authors by Entry Number vii
Introduction 1
The Novels 5
Postscript: Novels 1971–1981 183
General Bibliography 187
Index 189

“readable and smoothly written entries…the compilation can be successfully used as a collection-development tool by librarians wishing to assess and improve their holdings in the highly diverse genre of gay American fiction…highly recommended”—Choice; “does not dismiss a book for being too lowbrow or too highbrow…the reader who is looking to mine the early gay literature will find a fair number of gems”—The Gay & Lesbian Book Review; “readers will be quite satisfied…a wide range of genres encompassing the gay character and themes, ranging from murder mysteries to historical romances to westerns and beyond…introduction does an excellent job of detailing the history and parameters of the literature”—ARBA.