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I Am Elijah Thrush
by James PurdyOn its surface, I Am Elijah Thrush is the story of Millicent De Frayne and her sensational half-century campaign to win the love of Elijah Thrush. Elijah, after ruining the lives of countless men and women, is finally in love “incorrectly, if not indecently,” with his great-grandson, Bird of Heaven. To support an unusual habit, a young Black man, Albert Peggs, reluctantly agrees to tell their remarkable story. It is in this telling that the ambitions, desires, and true natures of Elijah, Millicent, and Albert come to light. With a delicately controlled balance of whimsy and pathos, James Purdy gives us this comedy of the heroic, the tragic, and the truly bizarre.Met with critical bewilderment upon its initial publication fifty years ago, this new edition offers a Foreword by Robert J. Corber illuminating Purdy’s “complicated allegory” of objectification, desire, and race in the immediate post–civil rights moment.
The Man Without a Face
by Isabelle HollandCharles didn't know much about life ... until he met The Man Without a Face. "I'd never had a friend, and he was my friend; I'd never really, except for a shadowy memory, had a father, and he was my father. I'd never known an adult I could communicate with or trust, and I communicated with him all the time, whether I was actually talking to him or not. And I trusted him ...... Fourteen-year-old Charles desperately wants two things: a father and a way out. Little love has come his way until the summer he befriends a mysterious scarred man named Justin McLeod, nicknamed ""The Man Without a Face." Charles enlists McLeod's help as tutor for the St. Matthew's school entrance exams, his ticket away from the unpleasant restrictions of his home life. But more important than anything he could get out of a book, that summer Charles learns from McLeod a stirring life lesson about the many faces of love.
The Persian Boy: A Novel Of Alexander The Great: A Virago Modern Classic (The Novels of Alexander the Great #2)
by Mary RenaultA New York Times–bestselling novel of the ancient king of Macedon and his lover by the author Hilary Mantel calls &“a shining light.&”The Persian Boy centers on the most tempestuous years of Alexander the Great&’s life, as seen through the eyes of his lover and most faithful attendant, Bagoas. When Bagoas is very young, his father is murdered and he is sold as a slave to King Darius of Persia. Then, when Alexander conquers the land, he is given Bagoas as a gift, and the boy is besotted. This passion comes at a time when much is at stake—Alexander has two wives, conflicts are ablaze, and plots on the Macedon king&’s life abound. The result is a riveting account of a great conqueror&’s years of triumph and, ultimately, heartbreak.The Persian Boy is the second volume of the Novels of Alexander the Great trilogy, which also includes Fire from Heaven and Funeral Games.This ebook features an illustrated biography of Mary Renault including rare images of the author.&“Mary Renault is a shining light to both historical novelists and their readers. She does not pretend the past is like the present, or that the people of ancient Greece were just like us. She shows us their strangeness; discerning, sure-footed, challenging our values, piquing our curiosity, she leads us through an alien landscape that moves and delights us.&” —Hilary Mantel
The Poetry of May Sarton Volume Two: A Durable Fire, A Grain of Mustard Seed, and A Private Mythology
by May SartonThree compelling volumes of poetry from a feminist icon, poet, and author of the groundbreaking novel Mrs. Stevens Hears the Mermaids Singing.A Durable Fire: This collection borrows its title from Sir Walter Raleigh, who wrote, “Love is a durable fire / In the mind ever burning.” It is a fitting sentiment for a collection on solitude, wherein the author finds herself full of emotion even in seclusion. A Durable Fire is a transformative work by a masterful poet. A Grain of Mustard Seed: In this beautiful collection, Sarton explores dark and destructive femininity. She writes of “Crude power that forges a balance / Between hate and love,” finding an amalgam of dark and light within a single act. These graceful and nuanced poems join timeless ideas and specific moments in history. A Private Mythology: To celebrate her fiftieth birthday, Sarton embarked on a pilgrimage around the world. Traveling through Japan, India, and Greece, she captured her spiritual discoveries in this vivid collection of poetry. Arresting images and meditations on the differences between East and West are rendered in this “colorful, polished” winner of the Emily Clark Balch Prize (Kirkus Reviews).
Shockproof Sydney Skate
by Marijane Meaker M. E. KerrA uniquely witty novel exploring sex, freedom, and the process of growing upSydney Skate considers himself shockproof. For as long as he can remember, he&’s known that his fashionable Manhattan mother is secretly a lesbian, although he&’s never let on that he knows. He spends his summer days caring for snakes at the local pet shop before leaving for college at Cornell, shrugging off his father&’s demands that he skip college and join the exciting world of swimming pool sales for suburbanites.Far from throwing himself into work, Sydney can&’t seem to keep his thoughts from wandering to women. He has memorized the sex scenes of every book he&’s ever read in order to better seduce the opposite gender. When he&’s called to help remove a snake from a bathtub that belongs to the gorgeous and sophisticated Alison Gray, everything changes. But nothing could prepare him for his glamorous mother sweeping the girl of his dreams off her feet.This hypnotizing coming-of-age story captures the timeless ecstasies and struggles of adolescence, and has been a classic of lesbian literature since it was first published in 1973. Hailed as the Catcher in the Rye of the seventies, Shockproof Sydney Skate exposes the confusion of its time and remains keenly relevant to the sexual absurdities of today.This ebook features an illustrated personal history of Marijane Meaker including rare images from the author&’s collection.
Against the Season: A Novel
by Jane RuleA decades-spanning novel of sisterhood and family secrets from an &“extraordinary writer&” (Katherine V. Forrest). Born lame, Amelia Larson lives in the house that has been in her family for generations. Now she has a decision to make: Should she honor the dying wish of her sister, Beatrice, to burn her diaries? There are sixty-nine in all: one journal for each year of Beatrice&’s life since the age of six. Beginning in 1913 and traversing World War I and beyond, the diaries become a moving counterpoint to Amelia&’s life as they unpeel layers of family history. As the past starts to impinge on the present, her relations—then and now—come to vivid life. Told from alternating points of view, Against the Season opens an illuminating window into small-town life. As the sins and secrets of a family are revealed through the sometimes-faulty lens of memory, it is a story about the seasons of life and the ties that bind us even beyond death.
The Goodby People
by Gavin LambertFirst published in 1971, The Goodby People is perhaps the greatest novel ever written about post-Manson, pre-Disney Los Angeles. "His elegant, stripped-down prose caught the last gasp of Old Hollywood in a way that has yet to be rivalled." (Armistead Maupin)"The bisexual draft dodger living on the skids, the glamorous young widow in search of enlightenment, the skinny gamine from out of town who wants to make it in the movies . . ."* These are the people who inhabit Gavin Lambert's mordant portrait of Southern California at the end of the 1960s: forever swapping addresses, lovers, and dreams. They live in extraordinary, suffocating wealth; or else flirting with a Mansonesque cult; or else in a fantasy where golden-age actresses make ghostly visitations to comment on their daily life. All that binds them together is their common sense of aimlessness--and the clear, judgment-free eye of a British author trying his best to be a friend to each. Cool, incisive, yet essentially kind, and very much ahead of its time, The Goodby People unfolds "in the yawning chasm between real life in Los Angeles and the fantasies manufactured by its dominant business" (*Gary Indiana), and stands as Gavin Lambert's masterpiece.
Greenland: A Novel
by David Santos DonaldsonA dazzling, debut novel-within-a-novel in the vein of The Prophets and Memorial, about a young author writing about the secret love affair between E.M. Forster and Mohammed el Adl—in which Mohammed’s story collides with his own, blending fact and fiction.In 1919, Mohammed el Adl, the young Egyptian lover of British author E. M. Forster, spent six months in a jail cell. A century later, Kip Starling has locked himself in his Brooklyn basement study with a pistol and twenty-one gallons of Poland Spring to write Mohammed’s story.Kip has only three weeks until his publisher’s deadline to immerse himself in the mind of Mohammed who, like Kip, is Black, queer, an Other. The similarities don't end there. Both of their lives have been deeply affected by their confrontations with Whiteness, homophobia, their upper crust education, and their white romantic partners. As Kip immerses himself in his writing, Mohammed’s story – and then Mohammed himself – begins to speak to him, and his life becomes a Proustian portal into Kip's own memories and psyche. Greenland seamlessly conjures two distinct yet overlapping worlds where the past mirrors the present, and the artist’s journey transforms into a quest for truth that offers a world of possibility.Electric and unforgettable, David Santos Donaldson’s tour de force excavates the dream of white assimilation, the foibles of interracial relationships, and not only the legacy of a literary giant, but literature itself.
Kathleen and Frank: The Autobiography of a Family (Fsg Classics Ser.)
by Christopher IsherwoodA pivotal book in Isherwood's career that reveals as much about him as the parents he set out to portrayKathleen and Frank is the story of Christopher Isherwood's parents—their meeting in 1895, marriage in 1903 after his father had returned from the Boer War, and his father's death in an assault on Ypres in 1915, which left his mother a widow until her own death in 1960. As well as a family memoir, it is a social history of a period of striking change, and a portrait of the world that shaped Isherwood and that he rejected.
Maurice
by E. M. ForsterNovel written in 1913 that describes the long and difficult process by which a typical product of middle-class suburbia realizes that he is a homosexual.
Maurice (Penguin Classics Ser.)
by E. M. ForsterWritten in 1914 by the Nobel Prize–nominated author of Howard&’s End, this intimate portrait of homosexual desire &“seems as relevant as ever&” (The Guardian). From early adolescence to his college years at Cambridge and into professional life at his father&’s firm, Maurice Hall plays the part of the conventional Englishman. All the while, he harbors a secret wish to lose himself from society and embrace who he truly is. Maurice&’s first love, Clive Durham, introduces him to the ancient Greeks who embraced same-sex attraction. But when Clive marries a woman, Maurice is distraught enough to seek a hypnotist who might &“cure&” him of his homosexuality. In his quest to accept his true self, Maurice must ultimately go against the grain of society&’s unspoken rules of class, wealth, and politics. Though Forster completed Maurice in 1914, he left instructions for it be published only after his death. Since its release in 1971, Maurice has been widely praised and adapted for major stage productions as well as the 1987 Oscar-nominated film adaptation starring Hugh Grant and James Wilby. &“The work of an exceptional artist working close to the peak of his powers.&” —The New York Times
On Being Different: What It Means to Be a Homosexual
by Merle MillerOriginally published in 1971, Merle Miller's On Being Different is a pioneering and thought-provoking book about being homosexual in the United States. <P> Just two years after the Stonewall riots, Miller wrote a poignant essay for the New York Times Magazine entitled "What It Means To Be a Homosexual" in response to a homophobic article published in Harper's Magazine. Described as "the most widely read and discussed essay of the decade," the article was developed into the remarkable short book On Being Different - one of the earliest memoirs to affirm the importance of coming out.
One for the Gods: The Lord Won't Mind, One For The Gods, And Forth Into Light (The Peter & Charlie Trilogy #2)
by Gordon MerrickIn the follow-up to the gay romance bestseller The Lord Won&’t Mind, Peter and Charlie&’s marriage is put to the test when a young Frenchman enters their livesAfter a decade together in a steady, happy relationship, a trip to the sun-baked Mediterranean is exactly what Peter and Charlie need. Peter, now an art dealer, and Charlie, an artist, travel to the Riviera to attend to some business. However, once there, they meet a man who pushes their fidelity to the breaking point—and past it. In this, the second novel of the bestselling Peter & Charlie Trilogy, Gordon Merrick picks up with the couple&’s lives a few years after The Lord Won&’t Mind and in smart and scintillating fashion explores the ways the years can twist and warp a relationship. When their trip continues on a yacht through the Greek islands, Peter creates what he hopes is a good plan to mend their cracked bond, but instead may have created something that will rip them apart forever.
Prayers for Bobby: A Mother's Coming to Terms with the Suicide of Her Gay Son
by Leroy AaronsBobby Griffith was an all-American boy ...and he was gay. Faced with an irresolvable conflict--for both his family and his religion taught him that being gay was "wrong"--Bobby chose to take his own life. Prayers for Bobby, nominated for a 1996 Lambda Literary Award, is the story of the emotional journey that led Bobby to this tragic conclusion. But it is also the story of Bobby's mother, a fearful church goer who first prayed that her son would be "healed," then anguished over his suicide, and ultimately transformed herself into a national crusader for gay and lesbian youth. As told through Bobby's poignant journal entries and his mother's reminiscences, Prayers for Bobby is at once a moving personal story, a true profile in courage, and a call to arms to parents everywhere.
The Vampires (Books That Changed the World)
by John RechyThe award-winning, New York Times–bestselling author of City of Night delivers a novel of manipulation, sexuality, and the supernatural. On a beautiful private island somewhere in the Caribbean, the rituals of witchcraft and Satanism suddenly take over the lives of a group of people, exposing and shaping their destinies. Richard, a millionaire who is the epitome of male beauty, is the host to a gathering of carefully selected friends for the purpose of a bizarre confrontation—unknown to them. These odd guests arrive from all corners of the globe by helicopter and speedboat and discover that they are strangely bound together by hate or love or an evil fascination. In the guise of a search for truth, the invited guests are by turns victims and victimizers during a ritual ceremony of evil. Utilizing the techniques of film—close-ups, long-shots, and sudden shifts of scene, garish flashes of colors—John Rechy blends the supernatural ingredients, violent sexuality, and depraved rites with the lush beauty of a sea island to create a world whose superficial beauty conceals dark and violent forces close beneath its surface. Praise for John Rechy &“Rechy shows great comic and tragic talent. He is truly a gifted novelist.&” —Christopher Isherwood, author and playwright &“His tone rings absolutely true, is absolutely his own, and he has the kind of discipline which allows him a rare and beautiful recklessness. He tells the truth, and tells it with such passion that we are forced to share in the life he conveys. This is a most humbling and liberating achievement.&” —James Baldwin, novelist, playwright, and activist &“His uncompromising honesty as a gay writer has provoked as much fear as admiration . . . John Rechy doesn&’t fit into categories. He transcends them. His individual vision is unique, perfect, loving and strong.&” —Carolyn See, author of Dreaming: Hard Luck and Good Times in America
All This Could Be Different: Finalist for the 2022 National Book Award for Fiction
by Sarah Thankam Mathews'An extraordinary novel, spiny and delicate, scathingly funny and wildly moving' Lauren Groff, author of Fates and Furies'Sarah Thankam Mathews' prose is undeniable . . . she captures the sneaky, unsaying parts of longing' Raven Leilani, author of Luster'Some books are merely luminous . . . this one is iridescent' Susan Choi, author of Trust Exercise'This is not a story about work or precarity. I am trying, late in the evening, to say something about love, which for many of us is not separable from the other shit.'This is a novel about being young in the 21st century.About being called a 'rockstar' by your boss because of your Excel skills.About staying up too late buying furniture online, despite the threat of eviction hanging over you.About feeling like all your choices are mortgaged to the parents that made your life possible.About the excitement of moving to a new city: about gay bars, house parties and new romances.About a group of friends - about Sneha, Tig and Thom - and how that can become a family.About love and sex and hope.About knowing that all this could be different.
The Anatomy of Desire: 'Reads like your favorite podcast, the hit crime doc you'll want to binge' Josh Malerman
by L.R. DornDesire. Love. Betrayal. Murder?With followers numbering in the hundreds of thousands, a hot group of friends, and a famous boyfriend, the glamorous life that fitness influencer Cleo has always wanted is within her grasp.Then just before joining her boyfriend for a holiday in the mountains, Cleo and a young woman named Rebecca set off in a canoe on a deserted lake. An hour later, Rebecca is found dead in the water and Cleo has gone missing.When word gets out, Cleo is going viral, but for all the wrong reasons. Who was the girl in the canoe? And did Cleo have anything to do with her death? If Cleo is innocent, why did she try to run? Charged with murder, this social media influencer's biggest platform is no longer Instagram, it's the witness stand...A gripping and original psych suspense novel for the social media era - perfect for fans of You, Good Me Bad Me and the hit podcast Serial.
And Chaos Died
by Joanna RussJoanna Russ, famous for her feminist sci-fi novel The Female Man (1975), weaves together a bizarre (and difficult) novel filled with strange images, peculiar characters, and a fragmented/layered/bewildering narrative structure. And Chaos Died (1970) is a startlingly original take on the staple sci-fi themes of telepathy and overpopulation.
Autobiography of an Androgyne
by Earl LindAutobiography of an Androgyne (1918) is an autobiography by Earl Lind. Accompanied by an introduction by Dr. Alfred W. Herzog, Lind’s autobiography―intended for a clinical audience―has been recognized as a pioneering work in the history of transgender literature. Throughout his life, Lind was forced to justify and defend his existence from puritanical authorities who refused to even recognize the reality of his identity as an androgyne. In the first of his trilogy of autobiographical works, he not only demands recognition, but exposes the denial of his existence as nothing but hatred and fear. “Androgynes have of course existed in all ages of history and among all races. In Greek and Latin authors there are many references to them, but these references are not always understood except by the few scholars who are themselves androgynes or at least passive sexual inverts. […] [T]hese men-women, because misunderstood, have been held in great abomination both in the middle ages and in modern times, but the prejudice against them was not so extreme in antiquity, and a cultured citizen having this nature did not then lose caste on this account.” Situating his own identity within this history of oppression, Lind makes the case for recognizing the presence of androgynes in all human societies. Ever since he was a child, Lind identified as feminine and was keenly aware of his homosexual desires, gaining a reputation among the local boys and soon turning to girls for friendship and understanding. In a world that saw androgynes as both corrupt and willfully different, Lind sought to increase understanding and to explain through scientific, historical, and personal evidence why his identity was congenital, and therefore natural. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Earl Lind’s Autobiography of an Androgyne is a classic work of transgender literature reimagined for modern readers.
De Profundis
by Rita Correia Isabel Robalinho Miguel Vale de Almeida Oscar WildeNo Verão de 1891, Wilde é apresentado ao jovem Lord Alfred Douglas, familiarmente conhecido como Bosie, estudante de Oxford com aspirações literárias, filho do Marquês de Queensberry. Inicia-se então a tempestuosa amizade que culminará no julgamento e condenação de Oscar Wilde a dois anos de trabalhos forçados, em 1895. A longa carta dirigida a Lord Alfred Douglas foi escrita durante os últimos meses que Wilde passou na prisão de Reading. Esta carta não foi enviada a Bosie da prisão, mas confiada a Robert Ross, amigo de Wilde, várias vezes mencionado ao longo do texto, que dela mandou fazer duas cópias, de acordo com a vontade de Oscar Wilde. Uma das cópias teria como destinatário Lord Alfred Douglas, que sempre negou tê-la recebido, a segunda foi deixada em testamento ao filho de Wilde, Vyvyan Holland.
Fadeout: Dave Brandstetter Investigation 1 (Dave Brandstetter)
by Joseph HansenAfter forty years, Hammett has a worthy successor' The TimesDave Brandstetter stands alongside Philip Marlowe, Sam Spade and Lew Archer as one of the best fictional PIs in the business. Like them, he was tough, determined, and ruthless when the case demanded it. Unlike them, he was gay. Joseph Hansen's groundbreaking novels follow Brandstetter as he investigates cases in which motives are murky, passions run high, and nothing is ever as simple as it looks. Set in 1970s and 80s California, the series is a fascinating portrait of a time and a place, with mysteries to match Chandler and Macdonald.In Fadeout, Dave is sent to investigate the death of radio personality Fox Olsen. His car is found crashed in a dry river bed. But there is no body - and as Dave looks deeper into his life, it seems as though he had good reasons to disappear.
Fadeout (Dave Brandstetter #1)
by Joseph HansenDave Brandstetter stands alongside Philip Marlow, Sam Spade and Lew Archer as one of the best fictional PIs in the business. Like them, he was tough, determined, and ruthless when the case demanded it. Unlike them, he was gay. <P> Joseph Hansen's groundbreaking novels follow Brandstetter as he investigates cases in which motives are murky, passions run high, and nothing is ever as simple as it looks. Set in 1970s and 80s California, the series is a fascinating portrait of a time and a place, with mysteries to match Chandler and Macdonald. <P> In Fadeout, Dave is sent to investigate the death of radio personality Fox Olsen. His car is found crashed in a dry river bed. But there is no body - and as Dave looks deeper into his life, it seems as though he had good reasons to disappear.
For The Pleasure of His Company: An Affair of The Misty City
by Charles Warren StoddardFor the Pleasure of His Company: An Affair of the Misty City (1903) is a novel by Charles Warren Stoddard. Published toward the end of Stoddard’s career as a poet and travel writer whose friends included Mark Twain and Ambrose Bierce, For the Pleasure of His Company: An Affair of the Misty City is a pioneering novel that explores the ambitions of a young artist while illuminating the struggles of gay men in a society that failed to accept them as equals. At 25 years of age, Paul Clitheroe is “master of himself, but slave to fortune.” A struggling writer, he lives a life of ennui and excess, looking for love and success without being sure of the shape of either. In the Misty City, he has begun making a name for himself among local editors and readers, finally finding publication for his work. Despite this modest success, he remains unsatisfied, unsure of himself, and increasingly restless. Are his mixed feelings merely a symptom of his poetic outlook, or something else altogether? When the debonair Foxlair invites Paul to join him on a voyage to the South Seas, a land of promise where gay men can live without fear of reprisal, he wonders if there is a place for him after all. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this book is a classic work of American literature reimagined for modern readers.
The Lord Won't Mind: The Lord Won't Mind, One For The Gods, And Forth Into Light (The Peter & Charlie Trilogy #1)
by Gordon MerrickThe classic gay love story that spent sixteen weeks on the New York Times bestseller list is as gripping and sexy today as it was when it hit the bookshelves more than forty years ago <P> Charlie Mills always played the role of the good grandson, and his grandmother rewarded him for it handsomely in the form of all the gifts, money, and attention a boy could want. Entering college in the late 1930s, Charlie just has to keep doing what his grandmother expects of him in order to continue to receive her gifts. He has to find a nice girl, get married, and have a few kids. Then one summer, he meets Peter Martin. Peter is everything that Charlie has ever wanted. Despite all the obstacles, Charlie immediately craves and pursues Peter, who happily obliges him. As they grow closer, Charlie is forced to choose between two options: complying with the expectations of society and family, or following the call of true love. In this, the first book of the Charlie & Peter Trilogy, Gordon Merrick creates an enduring portrait of two young men deeply in love, and the tribulations they endure to express themselves and maintain their relationship.
The Peter & Charlie Trilogy: The Lord Won't Mind, One for the Gods, and Forth into Light (The Peter & Charlie Trilogy #2)
by Gordon MerrickA passionate love story unfolds between two young men in the 1930s in this “wildly sexy” New York Times bestseller and its two sequels (The Advocate). The Peter & Charlie Trilogy—with its explicit sex scenes and positive affirmation of coming out—is “one of gaydom’s great guilty pleasures” (The Advocate). All three groundbreaking works of gay fiction are collected here, including The Lord Won’t Mind, which stayed on the New York Times bestseller list for sixteen weeks. The Lord Won’t Mind: Charlie Mills wants to be a good boy. That way, his grandmother will give him all the gifts and money he could want. But remaining in her good graces as he heads off to college means finding a nice girl to marry. He wasn’t counting on Peter Martin stepping off a train and into his life. The passion between the two men is undeniable, yet making it last will come at a great price—and there are those who will do anything to make them pay. One for the Gods: It’s ten years later, and Peter and Charlie are shipping off to the sunny Mediterranean for a little business and a lot of pleasure. While traveling from Saint-Tropez to Athens to Mykonos, they meet a sexy French playboy who’s eager to make waves. Suddenly, Peter and Charlie find themselves on a voyage of self-discovery that could change their relationship forever. Forth Into the Light: It’s no surprise Peter and Charlie—two men with the looks of Adonis and Narcissus—have chosen a Greek island for their home. But their lives are far from tranquil: The village is rampant with deceit and lust; beguiling Martha is plotting to steal Charlie away from Peter; and passionate, young Jeff repeatedly tests the couple’s fidelity. The tale of Peter and Charlie’s love has spanned years and the globe, but it could all come to a crashing end on these lush shores.