Last week (Dec. 6, to be exact), Michael Dirda devoted his weekly Book World column in the Washington Post to a fascinating survey of literature from the British 1890s, which he rightly calls "the first colorful flowering of modern gay culture." Many, perhaps even most, of the figures he references will already be familiar to you, my fellow Bookmen, but Dirda includes several authors I'd never heard of—but plan to check out.
On a very much related note: Next month I'll issue the semiannual call to nominate titles for our next reading list. I'm pretty sure I'll be recommending at least a couple of the books Dirda discusses here.
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2 comments:
Thanks for this Steve. I noticed that Oscar Wilde gave a tribute to Ernest Dowson after his death early in the year that Wilde himself died (I'm still reading the Ellmann biography). The line from the poem "Non sum qualis eram bonae sub regno Cynarae" - "I have always been faithful to you Cynara! in my fashion" made me think of Cole Porter's song (surely that's where he got it from?). And I see from the same poem Margaret Mitchell took "gone with the wind." Love finding this kind of stuff!
Thanks for sharing your serendipitous discoveries with us, Robert!
Steve
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