Glances Backward: An Anthology of American Homosexual Writing, 1830–1920

412 Pages·2006·1.52 MB·English

by  James Gifford

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Glances Backward
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Glances Backward
An Anthology of American Homosexual
Writing 1830–1920
Edited by
James J. Gifford
broadview press
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©2007 James J. Gifford
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All rights reserved. The use of any part of this publication reproduced, transmitted in
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Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data
Glances backward : an anthology of American homosexual writing, 1830-1920 /
edited by James J. Gifford
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN-13: 978-1-55111-728-7
ISBN-10: 1-55111-728-2
1. Gay men’s writings, American. 2. Gays’ writings, American. 3. Homosexuality—
Literary collections. 4. American literature—19th century. 5. American literature—
20th century. I. Gifford, James J., 1946-
PS509.H57G53 2006 810.8’0920664 C2006-903347-1
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For Barbara, Jack, Dick, Rob, and Tommy
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Christmas card, 1887, discovered in a Syracuse, New York antiques shop
in the 1970s. See page 372.
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(cid:1)(cid:1)
“However displeasing to the reader, let it be affirmed that all real friendships
between men have a sexual germ.”
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THE INTERSEXES (1908), Edward Prime-Stevenson
From childhood’s hour I have not been
As others were; I have not seen
As others saw; I could not bring
My passions from a common spring.
(cid:1)(cid:1)
ALONE (1830), Edgar Allan Poe
Upon waking next morning about daylight, I found Queequeg’s arm thrown
over me in the most loving and affectionate manner. You had almost thought
I had been his wife.
(cid:1)(cid:1)
MOBY-DICK (1851), Herman Melville
“Ay,” said Pathie. “That has had more to do with it. I hope he will overtake
and win, for I love the boy. I keep my oldish heart pretty well locked against
strangers; but there is a warm cell in it, and in that cell he has, sleeping and
waking, made himself a home.”
“Ah, Doctor,” said Ruby, “you and I, for want of women to love, have to con-
tent ourselves with poetic rovers like Brent. He and Biddulph were balls,
operas, champagne on tap, new novels, flirtations, and cigars to me last winter.”
(cid:1)(cid:1)
JOHN BRENT (1861), Theodore Winthrop
“Oh, where is it? Don’t let me see it!” screamed Molly. And at this deeply fem-
inine remark, the Virginian looked at her with such a smile that, had I been
a woman, it would have made me his to do what he pleased with on the spot.
Upon the lady, however, it seemed to make less impression.
(cid:1)(cid:1)
THE VIRGINIAN (1902), Owen Wister
“He is dead,” he said simply.
Dead!
In a dazed way I walked up to the chair and coldly glanced at the face,
which, white and expressionless, looked to me unlike that which I had known
as my husband’s. The proprietor quietly went from the room and left me
alone with Arthur. On the mantel-piece my staring eyes saw a small bottle, on
which a label marked “laudanum” stood out with fearful clearness. Then I
realized it all. With an agonized cry I flung myself into the unresisting arms
of my husband. I kissed his cold, dead lips, his face, and the open, unseeing
eyes, as I would have kissed him in life, had he willed it so. Ah! he could not
ward me off now. He was mine, and I would cherish him forever.
Suddenly I sprang back, a horrible feeling of repulsion creeping over me.
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Just above Arthur’s head, on the wall, I saw two portraits, placed together in
a single frame. One represented my husband, happy and smiling; the other
showed the hateful features of Captain Dillington. My grief gave place to a
violent, overpowering sense of anger. Tearing the frame from the wall, I threw
it roughly to the floor. The glass broke with a crisp, short noise; but with my
feet I crushed it into atoms. Then stooping down, I picked up the pho-
tographs, and tore them into smallest pieces. In the same frenzied manner, I
went to the window, opened it, and gathering up the bits of glass—regardless
of the fact that they cut my hands until the blood flowed freely—I flung them
with the torn photographs from the window and looked from it until I saw
them scatter in all directions. Then turning away, and without another look
at the dead form in the chair, I left the room and the hotel.
(cid:1)(cid:1)
A MARRIAGE BELOW ZERO (1889), Alan Dale [Alfred J. Cohen]
The story starts in the Running-Pitch Place or Jah-dokonth. Hashjeshjim, the
son of the Fire, whose mother is a Comet, and Etsay-Hasteen, the first man,
who is the son of Night and whose father is Nah-doklizh, which is the blue
above the place where the Sun has set, were there; also Estsa-assun, who is the
first woman, whose mother is the Daybreak and whose father is Nahtsoi which
is the yellow light after the Sun has set; also Etsay-hashkeh or Coyote Man,
whose mother is Yah-zheh-kih, or the Dawn Light. The fifth who is there is
Begochiddy, the blue-eyed and yellow-haired god, the great god, whose moth-
er is a Ray of Sunlight, Shah-bekloth, and whose father is the Daylight, Shun-
deen; also Asheen-assun, the Salt Woman, whose mother was Tohe-estan, or
Water Woman, and whose father was Tsilth-tsa-assun, or Mountain Man. (He
looks like a woman but is a man.) These are the six people who were living
on the dark earth or first world, Jah-dokonth.
(cid:1)(cid:1)
NAVAJO ORIGIN MYTH (1942), Hastiin Klah
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Chapt
Contents
Introduction
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS xiii
INTRODUCTION xv
Part I: THE INTERSEXES
Edward Prime-Stevenson
From “Out of the Sun” (1913) 3
From The Intersexes(1908) 4
Part II: Two-Spirit People
Slim Curly
From “The Mothway Myth” (recorded 1930) 9
John Tanner
From A Narrative of the Captivity and Adventures of John Tanner(1830) 11
George Catlin
“Dance to the Berdashe” (1844) 13
Part III: Luck, Pluck, and a Kindly Mentor
Walt Whitman
“The Child’s Champion” (1841) 17
Selected Poems 25
Horatio Alger, Jr.
From Charlie Codman’s Cruise (1866) 26
Harry Enton
From Young Sleuth, the Keen Detective (1877) 30
Howard Pyle
From The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood (1883) 33
Part IV: Schooldays
Frederick Wadsworth Loring
From Two College Friends (1871) 43
Henry Blake Fuller
From The Allisonian Classical Academy (1876) 51
ix
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x Glances Backward
Charles Macomb Flandrau
From Harvard Episodes (1897) 59
Shirley Everton Johnson
From The Cult of the Purple Rose(1902) 62
Part V: The Oscar Model
Anonymous
“Wilde in Utica” (1882) 71
Earl Lind
“The Case of Oscar Wilde” (1918) 76
Part VI: Arcadia
Bayard Taylor
From Poems of the Orient (1855) 85
From The Poet’s Journal (1863) 88
From Joseph and His Friend (1870) 89
Charles Warren Stoddard
“Pearl-Hunting in the Pomotous” (1873) 93
Henry James
“The Great Good Place” (1909) 104
Part VII: The Domestic Homosexual
Howard Overing-Sturgis
From Belchamber (1905) 127
George Santayana
From Persons and Places(1986) 138
Part VIII: Haunted
Henry Blake Fuller
At St. Judas’s(1896) 149
Gertrude Atherton
“The Striding Place” (1896) 157
George Sylvester Viereck
From Nineveh and Other Poems (1908) 162
From The Candle and the Flame (1912) 165
Part IX: Purloined Popular Fiction
Bret Harte
“Tennessee’s Partner” (1869) 177
“Jim” (1870) 184