James Kirchick at Barnes & Noble

My thanks to Richard Schaefers for the tip that James Kirchick will give a Secret City book talk at the Georgetown Barnes and Noble on Saturday, Oct. 11, at 6 p.m., on the occasion of National Coming Out Day.

Outage vs. outing

In Chapter 37 of Secret City: The Hidden History of Gay Washington, part of the section we'll discuss tomorrow night, James Kirchick discusses what he calls "outage": disclosing the homosexuality of individuals without their consent. We know that practice much better today as "outing," so I find it strange that Kirchick never uses that term in this chapter. (I haven't looked ahead yet to determine whether he does so later in the book; neither term appears in his index.)

The Wikipedia entry on the subject goes into more detail about the history, but here is the "money quote": "It is hard to pinpoint the first use of outing in the modern sense. In a 1982 issue of Harper's, Taylor Branch predicted that "outage" would become a political tactic in which the closeted would find themselves trapped in a crossfire. The article "Forcing Gays Out of the Closet" by William A. Henry III in Time (January 29, 1990) introduced the term "outing" to the general public."

One more appetizer for our Reagan discussion

Presumably, many of you have watched or read coverage of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's recent threat to punch out a fellow Trumplican. Mike Mazza kindly sent me a link to this Queerty article on the flap, which asks the $64,000 (or $64 million, in this case) question: "Is Scott Bessent overcompensating for something?"

Mike comments: "I think this would be another great appetizer for the "Reagan" chapters of Secret City. Reading these gay-themed Trump 2.0/MAGA stories after having finished Secret City really gives me that "everything old is new again" feeling!" Me, too, Mike!

Notes on the Reagan section of "Secret City"

As always, I'm grateful to Mike Mazza for sharing his extensive, detailed notes on James Kirchick's Secret City: The Hidden History of Gay Washington, to which we'll return on Sept. 17 to discuss the first half of the Reagan section (Chapters 33-37), the longest in the book. I'll go ahead and post all Mike's notes on the Reagan years now, in case you want to read ahead, but will also repost the notes on Chapters 38-41 in December when we discuss those, along with the rest of the book. Enjoy!

Note: The citations (e.g., loc 78, 8%, etc.) below refer to the Kindle edition, not the paperback.

Secret City—Reagan notes, updated.

Overall thoughts on the Reagan section:

—one of the most compelling and best written sections of the entire book so far.

—the story told here is a truly repulsive freak show. It’s an expose of the elitism, hypocrisy, self-indulgence, extravagance, selfishness, greed, and criminality of the privileged, yet closeted, gays who formed a big part of the human infrastructure of Reaganite conservatism.

— The often repugnant cast of closeted gay power brokers represent the spiritual and ethical heirs of Roy Cohn.

—this section of the book would make a great Netflix docudrama series—think “The Boys in the Band” meets “Dynasty,” with a sprinkling of “Real Housewives” trashiness.

—especially interesting is disgraced closeted gay Republican Congressman Bob Bauman: after his resignation, he keeps popping up like a pitiable opportunistic phantom.

—Arguably the key figure in this section is closeted gay conservative activist Terry Dolan.

—After reading this vulgar, absurdist soap opera, some readers might want to give themselves an enema, followed by s long, hot shower.

—The focus in these chapters is on elite, wealthy white gay men; this makes me wonder about the untold stories of LGBTQ+ people of color and poor or working class LGBTQ+ people during the Reagan era.

Ronald Reagan: p 489; loc 8948; 45%.

Chapter 33: “‘The Homosexual Thing’”: p 491; loc 8954; 45%.

—gay/bi rumors about potential Reagan running mate Jack Kemp: 494.

—introduces California Congressman Pete McCloskey: 495.

—conflict between McCloskey and fellow Republican Reagan.

—rumors of Reagan being controlled by a homosexual cabal: 498.

—Congressman Livingston’s panic over a perceived gay overture from think tank member Bouchey: 501.

Chapter 34: “The Manchurian Candidate”: p 502; loc 9160; 46%.

—former Democratic Congressman Allard K. Lowenstein introduced. Married and a father, but possibly gay or bi.

—Lowenstein shot to death: 503.

—William Best’s letter to McCloskey making accusations about homosexuals on Reagan’s staff: 505.

—McCloskey’s 13-page memo warning that Reagan might be a Manchurian candidate.

—McCloskey brings his info to Ben Bradlee of the Washington Post.

—Best shares rumor of a Reagan gay tryst with 17-year old William Seals: 510.

—my note: this is all some wild, weird stuff!

—Persistence of Kemp rumors.

—Anti-gay Marine misconduct at gay bar Equus: 513. McCloskey acts as arbitrator.

—Peter Hannaford, subject of gay rumors, does not join Reagan administration: 515.

Chapter 35: “An Enclosed and Enchanted Garden”: p 518; loc 9463; 48%.

—introduces Bob Gray, 1981 Inaugural Committee co-chair.

—Gray as “Reagan’s Capote”: 520.

—claim that incoming Reagan WH staff was full of gays.

—John Ford introduced.

—ironic tension between Reagan’s anti-gay evangelical constituency and his closeted gay “foot soldiers”: 521.

—Gray forms his own DC PR shop; his skill at navigating DC power as a gay man.

—Gray’s skill at designing facades: 522.

—Gray’s ironic close relationship to Ed Meese.

—Gray’s close relationship to Nancy Reagan: 524.

—Nancy as “First Fag Hag”: 525.

—Nancy as a camp icon; her many gay friends and image crafters.

—Craig Spence introduced: 527. His background as a journalist.

—Spence’s Japanese-American “Operation Sunshine” events; his skill as a Washington socialite.

—shady nature of “Operation Sunshine”—cover for espionage?

—commercialization of (white) homoerotic imagery during Reagan era: 533.

—acronyms of the gay Reaganite elite: RPG, BLOW, GATT.

—young gay Reaganites and Brideshead Revisited: 534.

—“a refined yet repressed aristocratic homosexuality.”

Chapter 36: “Sodom-on-the-Potomac”: p 536; loc 9804; 49%.

—Martin Price and the “Deep Backgrounder” tabloid.

—former CIA employee Victor Marchetti introduced.

—NBC report on alleged threat of gay prostitution connected blackmail: 538.

—Dan Bradley becomes the highest ranking government official to come out of the closet: 539.

—Deep Backgrounder as muckraking, sensationalistic alternative press with a focus on the elite gay DC closet.

—congressional page Leroy Williams introduced: 541.

—Williams’ closeted homosexually, alcohol and cocaine use.

—CDC report on deadly Kaposi’s sarcoma among gay men: 542.

—page Jeffrey Opp introduced: 543.

—Richard Kind and Friendly Models, a DC-area gay escort service.

—Price’s claim of surveillance conducted by Friendly Models employees upon clientele: 544.

—Friendly raided by police and FBI.

—police raid Stables, another gay prostitution service; fears about client lists of these businesses.

—Leroy Williams makes shocking homosexual allegations in CBS news national report: 546.

—bachelor Republican Congressman Larry Craig issues a preemptive denial.

—fear of closeted gay government employees’ vulnerability to foreign agents: 548.

—Deep Backgrounder outs Bob Gray: 549.

—inconsistencies in Leroy Williams’ claims: 550. He recants.

—Price founds an anti-gay PAC: 552. His apocalyptic anti-gay attitude. His unexpected death.

Chapter 37: “‘I don’t have it. Do you?’”: p 553; loc 10129; 51%.

—AIDS pandemic.

—tainted Tylenol scare: 556.

—Randy Shilts’ assessment of the failure of American institutions to address AIDS: 556.

—Terry Dolan introduced. Conservative PAC chair.

—Dolan’s double life as a closeted gay conservative: 559.

—his organization’s anti-gay rhetoric.

—Larry Kramer vs Dolan: 560.

—Weyrich organization’s 680-page anti-gay political book: 561. My note: like Protocols of the Elders of Zion?

—conflict between Weyrich and Dolan.

—Deep Backgrounder essentially outs Dolan: 562.

—rise of “outage” (“outing”): 562.

—hypocrisy of both closeted conservative gay professionals and those who benefited from their skills; “minuet of mutual hypocrisy and deceit”: 564.

—Congressman Gerry Studds introduced: 564.

—After scandal, he becomes the first openly gay member of Congress.

—Studds survives censure and wins re-election: 566.

Chapter 38: “‘Them’ Is ‘Us’”: p 567; loc 10389; 52%.

—Bob Bauman comes out of the closet in a speech.

—CAIR, organization trying to make Republican Party more gay friendly.

—Rock Hudson and the Reagans: 569. Larry Kramer calls out Nancy.

-“the era’s decadence and hypocrisy”: 571.

—impact and stigma of AIDS.

—Rock Hudson’s AIDS diagnosis made public: 573.

—inappropriate jokes about AIDS and homosexual in the Reagan WH: 575.

—Reagan ignores AIDS crisis in his memoir: 577.

—Bill Buckley, his wife Pat, and her gay male companions: 579.

—Bill Buckley’s vile suggestion, in a 1986 column, that all people with AIDS be tattooed as a warning sign.

—John Ford stands up to an attempt to blackmail him with a threatened outing to Secretary of Agriculture John Block: 582.

Chapter 39: “‘Our Sebastian’”: p 583; loc 10693; 54%.

—young death of gay conservative activist Terry Dolan.

—controversy over reporting AIDS as Dolan’s cause of death.

—WH speechwriter Tony Dolan’s problematic eulogy for his brother; Brideshead Revisited reference.

—separate memorial to Dolan held; attended by gay conservatives: 588.

—The Washington Post’s Bradlee decides to pursue the Dolan story: 589.

—Tony Dolan tries to convince Post reporter Elizabeth Kastor to abandon her article about Terry Dolan: 590. He continues his attempts to stop the article.

Chapter 40: “Mr. Green”: p 594; loc 10898; 55%.

—introduces Carl “Spitz” Channell, founder of conservative activist group.

—Channell attends a pro-Contra presentation by Oliver North.

—Channell: a gay man who had started his career working for Terry Dolan’s NCPAC: 595.

—Channell’s anti-Communist zeal: 596.

—He starts his own Channell Corporation. Bauman visits his office.

—Channell’s efforts in the work to raise money to support the Contras in Nicaragua.

—Channell and Oliver North: 597.

—Reagan signs a letter endorsing the work of Channell’s organization: 599.

—Channell’s staff: “‘Those gay boys of Oliver North’s’”: 599.

—gay staffers on Republican campaigns: 600.

—“‘a perverse form of self-esteem’” comment on gay staff of right wing politicians (p 600); my note: cf Bill Maher’s comment to Larry King that “hating yourself can be the greatest love of all.”

—the ugly side of Channell : 601.

—Margaret Scattergood’s activities after the death of her partner Florence Thorne: 602.

—Channell and Fawn Hall: 603.

—Grifting by Channell? He pleads guiltily and fingers Oliver North. Role of “Fruit Loop” in the scandal. Irony of the elitist closeted gay cabal within the Iran-Contra scandal.

Chapter 41: “The Wonderful, the Creative, and the Brave”: p 607; loc 11,137; 56%.

—introduces Republican Congressman Stewart B. McKinney: a married father living a secret gay life in Washington.

—McKinney: 1st Congressman to die of AIDS: 607.

—the Washington Post’s approach to reporting on McKinney’s death and life: 608.

—before his death, McKinney writes a letter in support of a Connecticut state gay rights ordinance: 608.

—After final unsuccessful attempts to get Tony Dolan to speak on the record, the Washington Post publishes Kastor’s article on Terry Dolan and the gay conservative closet: 610.

—Washington Times runs Tony Dolan’s rebuttal of the Kastor article as a lengthy paid advertisement: 612.

—in his diatribe, Tony Dolan claims Terry rejected homosexuality in a deathbed conversion.

—Drama behind Reagan’s speech at an amfAR benefit dinner: 613+.

—Tony Dolan’s rage against WaPo continues: 615.

—Bob Bauman pops up again: 616.

—Openly gay Dr. Frank Lilly appointed by Reagan to new AIDS commission: 617.

—Gary Bauer in the Reagan administration.

—the 2nd March on Washington for lesbian and gay rights: 619.

—unveiling of AIDS quilt.

—1989 death of Chasen Gaver: 621.

Mr. Kirchick on Trump's gays

Several of you have flagged this Aug. 27 New York Times article, "Donald Trump's Big Gay Government," which quotes James Kirchick, author of Secret City: The Hidden History of Gay Washington. We'll be discussing the first half of the Reagan section in that book on Sept. 17, and this article will give you a sense of how far we have come over the past four decades.

Growing up gay in Russia

Jacob Green is the author and translator (from Russian) of the novel Truth with Ornaments. He contacted me to say that he recently published an autobiographical essay on his gay experience as a teenager during the formation of modern Russia in the early post-Soviet period of confusion and unrest. The essay is available on Amazon Kindle, and here is a link to a teaser on his website: https://mrjacobgreen.com/news/sex-and-the-suburbs.html.

Neapolitan nocturnes

Since Garth Greenwell gives so much else away (ahem) in his foreword to the novel we'll be discussing tomorrow night--Edmund White's Nocturnes for the King of Naples--I am surprised he didn't address the provenance of its title.

It almost certainly refers, at least obliquely, to the actual King Ferdinand IV of Naples (a colorful, sybaritic character in his own right), who commissioned Franz Josef Haydn to compose five concertos for the lira organizzata in 1786. This long-obsolete instrument, essentially a glorified hurdy-gurdy with a miniature organ attached, had a severely limited tonal palette, yet enjoyed a brief fad in the late 18th century. Haydn's concertos, and other compositions for it, are now generally performed as flute-oboe duets.

I suspect White changed "concertos" to "nocturnes" for the sake of alliteration, much as Maurice Ravel said that he chose Pavane pour une infante défunte--known in English as "Pavane for a Dead Princess"--as the title for the famous piano piece (later orchestrated) purely for how it sounded in French--not as a memorial to any particular individual.

New York, New York

The July 22 issue of the Washington Post's Book World featured a combined review of two different memoirs about New York City in the 1980s: Thomas Mallon's The Very Heart of It: New York Diaries, 1983-1994 and John Loughery’s Where the Pulse Lives.

Charles Kaiser (whose The Gay Metropolis: The Landmark History of Gay Life in America was one of the first books our group discussed, way back in 1999) is an almost exact contemporary of Mallon and Loughery, so he is perfectly placed to assess their accounts of gay life in the Big Apple during the AIDS epidemic. He is far more enthusiastic about Loughery's memoir than Mallon's, and his reasons for that judgment strike me as sound. Still, I'm a big enough fan of Mallon that I plan to read his book, too--but only after Loughery's.

A different Sept. 3 meeting venue

BREAKING NEWS: On Wed., Sept. 3, we will meet at the West End Library in Foggy Bottom--2301 L St. NW--because our normal venue will be closed for air conditioning repairs. Don't worry; I'll send several email reminders to BookMen members.

A new James Baldwin biography

The Aug. 18 New Yorker features Louis Menand's review of Nicholas Boggs’s Baldwin: A Love Story (Farrar, Straus & Giroux). Curiously, Menand's review, titled "The Lives and Loves of James Baldwin," concentrates almost exclusively on the former, with only passing attention to the latter.

Menand makes some claims that strike me as questionable, such as this: "The novels have their moments, but they have the humorless and fatalistic quality of literary naturalism. They are not books you are eager to get back to." Let me confess that I haven't reread either of the two Baldwin novels our group has discussed: Giovanni's Room (2003) or Just Above My Head (2022). But that isn't because I didn't find them worth my time; I've just had too many other books piled up demanding my attention.

All that said, the review is worth reading. And the bio sounds like it is, too. (I'll post other reviews as I come across them.)

Notes on TW's Memoirs

As always, I'm grateful to Mike Mazza for sharing his extensive, detailed notes on Tennessee Williams' Memoirs, which we'll be discussing tomorrow night. Enjoy!

Note: The citations (e.g., loc 78, 8%, etc.) below refer to the Kindle edition, not the paperback.

Tennessee Williams, Memoirs notes—updated 250726.

Introduction by John Waters.

Afterword by Allean Hale.

My reaction upon finishing the book:

—I really enjoyed it, and found it very interesting. The memoir has a confessional aspect— Williams seems like he really wants to share the good, the bad, and the ugly in his life, and he doesn’t sugarcoat his own behavior.

—There are some wonderfully warm, affectionate, and sometimes funny portraits of the important people in his life: his long time lover Frank Merlo, fellow writer Carson McCullers, and others. But perhaps the most loving and poignant portrait is that of his sister Rose, a lobotomy survivor. I think it would be tempting for readers to dwell on the gossipy, “bitchy” and risqué elements of the memoir, but for me, it is the tender and caring portraits that I found most impactful.

—the memoir seems to be organized, in a fashion, around his produced and published literary/dramatic works, and thus I think the memoir would be a great read for those who value and enjoy his classic works.

Introduction— “Mr. Williams Saved My Life,” by John Waters: Loc 12; 1%.

—“see Librarian” censorship of Williams’ work in 1950s.

—Williams labeled a “bad man” by nuns.

—Williams “my childhood friend”: loc 24.

—Williams’ work gave him the confidence to not be a conformist—either to mainstream straight society or to “gayly-correct” orthodoxy.

—homophobic review of Williams’ Memoirs at 1975 publication.

—Waters values both “bad” and “good” Williams films: 51.

—significance of Provincetown to both Williams and Waters: 79.

—compares reading the memoirs to having drinks with Williams as he tells stories.

Overall comments on the memoir

—note how he often seems to shift back and forth between time periods in the narrative. In particular, he keeps returning to the period of the production of his play Small Craft Warning: a period which he writes of as if it is his “present” time.

—a lot of name dropping; gossipy

—lots of anecdotes, but at times the book feels unfocused and chaotic; episodic. However, the overall structure of the book felt more cohesive to me the further I progressed into it.

—His identity as a homosexual is a strong. persistent element of the narrative. This makes the book a great choice for a queer studies course. —note his financial struggle as a young writer.

—note the humor throughout the book. Made me laugh out loud more than once. Examples: Carson McCullers’ praise of Tennessee’s volatile, profane lover “Santo” (p 107); Frankie’s saucy reply to Jack Warner (168); joke about “Queen’s Division” in hospital (loc 4371).

—He occasionally writes reflectively about the memoir itself and his own authorial choices and ethics in writing it; see, for example, p 144; p 153 (why he resists writing about his own plays); p 177; 179; 202 (considers changing title); 243 (1972-1975 time frame of the writing of the memoir; his “disregard for chronological order”); 250 (direct address to reader).

—interesting accounts of his encounters and relationships with other important figures in LGBT cultural history: Christopher Isherwood, Carson McCullers, Gore Vidal, Truman Capote, Candy Darling, Yukio Mishima, etc. I found his portrait of McCullers especially warm and moving.

—examples of his aphoristic statements: 157 (on inability to hold his liquor); 173 (on his career); 229 (on hurting people); 243 (on being a queen in one’s own dream world); 247 (“not even my own skin”); 249 (on pride).

Foreword: loc 106; 2%. —the play Out Cry.

—his invitation to hold a symposium with Yale drama students.

—he admits “mercenary,” for profit motivation for writing memoir.

Chapter 1: p 1; loc 180; 3%.

—1939: he is a feather picker on a squab ranch: p 4.

—he receives a grant.

—his lunch with Russian poet Yevtushenko, who harshly critiques Williams’ play Small Craft Warnings: 8.

—Issue of homosexuality in Russia (Soviet Union) discussed.

—He departs St. Louis for New York City: 10.

—He meets his agent.

Chapter 2: p 11; loc 359; 5%.

—his childhood in Mississippi.

—move to St. Louis.

—“the makings of a sissy”: 11.

—his first publication; in Weird Tales magazine in 1928: 16.

—his adolescent shyness.

—his attraction towards his childhood friend Hazel.

—ocean voyage to Europe; he tried alcohol for the first time: 19.

—Captain seems to imply 17 y/o narrator will turn out gay.

Chapter 3: p 24; loc 587; 9%.

—starts college at U of Missouri.

—he joins a fraternity.

—he becomes a salesman for a woman’s magazine: 27.

—he meets “an outrageous young camp.”

—seemingly flirtatious behavior from attractive fraternity roommate “Smitty”: 30.

—Smitty expelled from fraternity.

—another fraternity brother, Melmoth, expelled explicitly for homosexuality: 33.

(Time shift?)

—He takes a role in his own play Small Craft Warnings: 33.

—his friendship with “transvestite” cast member Candy Darling: 35.

—back to his college years.

—he leaves the U of Missouri without graduating to work for the shoe company that employs his father: 36.

—he writes short stories.

—his cardiovascular health problem: 39.

—1934: his first play, “Cairo, Shanghai, Bombay!” Produced: 40.

—his love of the writing of Chekhov.

—his only consummated heterosexual relationship, with “Sally”: 44.

—his roommate “Abdul.”

—finally persuaded that he is “queer”: 49.

—he recalls a production of a Stein play with a gay cast: 50.

—his critique of “‘swish’ and ‘camp’”: 50.

—Back to Candy Darling and Small Craft Warnings.

Chapter 4: p 52; loc 1186; 18%.

—first great male love of his life.

—In Provincetown in 1940. He is “thoroughly out of the closet.”

—he meets Kip: 54. They have a sexual relationship.

—after the end of the relationship with Kip, he travels to Mexico City: 58.

—Kip’s death at age 26.

—my note: story of Kip would fit right into John Rechy’s City of Night.

—he meets Tallulah Bankhead: 61.

—story of the play Battle of Angels: 62.

—Marion Vaccaro.

—in Key West.

—Hemingway and Cuba: 68.

—his gigs as a Manhattan elevator operator and as a waiter.

—in Macon, Georgia: 72.

—his eye operations: 73.

—at a go-go boy bar in New Orleans: 75.

—he gets a Hollywood screenwriting gig and meets Christopher Isherwood: 76.

Chapter 5: p 81; loc 1726; 26%.

—Glass Menagerie rehearsals in Chicago.

—Broadway opening of Menagerie: 84.

—Success of Menagerie.

—more gay amorous relationships.

—Williams and William Inge. His alcoholism, psychological problems and suicide: 89.

Chapter 6: p 92; loc 1915; 29%.

—his depression after the success of Menagerie.

—his return to Mexico.

—return to New York.

—interview by Mike Wallace: 96.

—1946 opening of “You Touched Me!” On Broadway: 98.

—steam room hookups

—picture of Tallulah B: loc 2058.

—aside about his decision to omit some people from the memoir: p 99.

—his affliction of loneliness.

—relocation, again, to New Orleans.

—at a party, it is revealed that he shares the single bedroom with his male apartment mate: 100.

—intense pain and diagnosis of appendicitis: 103.

—surgery for maecles diverticulum.

—return to Manhattan: 105.

—his new companion: “Santo” (an invented name).

—their tempestuous relationship.

—he meets up with Carson McCullers in Nantucket: 106.

—note his warm and funny portrait of his ongoing friendship with McCullers. Their support for each other after bad reviews.

—He returns to New Orleans. Note his writerly work habits.

—His grandfather comes to live with him: 110.

—trip to Key West with grandfather.

Chapter 7: p 114; loc 2333; 36%.

—back to Small Craft Warnings production.

—“tragedy” of his sister Rose:114.

—his close relationship with Rose: 119-20.

—his cruel, angry outburst at Rose after she had tattled to his parents about a youthful wild party he had thrown: 122.

—1937:Rose removed to state asylum in Missouri: 125.

—Rose lobotomized. She goes to live with an elderly couple on a farm near the asylum.

—He has Rose sent to an expensive sanitarium in Connecticut: 126.

—He then moves her to Stoney Lodge in Ossining.

Chapter 8: p 130; loc 2605; 40%.

—traveling to New York; prep for production of Streetcar.

—casting Brando and Tandy.

—with Santo in Provincetown: 133.

—more erratic and troubling behavior from Santo.

—Santo pursues him in New York City.

—audience with Thornton Wilder in New Haven: 135.

—progress of Streetcar in other cities prior to “smash” New York opening.

—his encounters with Garbo: 139.

—his trip to Europe: 139.

—“nocturnal pleasures” of Paris: 140.

— He proceeds to Italy and takes an apartment in Rome: 141.

—Italian sexuality, prostitution and his novel _The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone_: 141.

—His encounter with a faunlike young man, “Rafaello,” in Rome. They have an ongoing relationship.

—meeting Gore Vidal in Rome: 146. Vidal’s groundbreaking homosexual-themed novel.

—Prep for London production of Menagerie.

—meeting E. M. Forster after a Brighton performance: 148.

—his friendship with the Lady St. Just, née Maria Britneva: 149.

—traveling with Truman Capote.

—story of Truman and the bishop aboard the Queen Mary: 150.

—return to living in New York City.

—his encounters with redheaded NYC hustler Tommy Willians: 154.

Chapter 9: p 155; loc 3079; 47%.

—his “re-encounter with Philip Franklin Merlo.”

—beginning of their 14-year relationship.

—arriving by ocean liner at Gibraltar with Paul Bowles and Frankie: 159.

—his praise for Jane Bowles’ writing.

—continued travel in North Africa.

—The Rose Tattoo: 162.

—his friendship with Anna Magnani.

—lunch with Bill Inge: 165.

—development of Camino Real

—discriminatory behavior of Irene Mayer Selznick towards Frankie: 167.

—his reflection on playwriting and on his own work: 168.

—story behind “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.” His anxiety over its reception, and its ultimate success.

—Repeats his praise of Jane Bowles as a writer: 170.

—1959 failure of Orpheus Descending: 172.

—his feeling that the critics turned on him.

—his use of drugs and alcohol.

Chapter 10: p 180; loc 3565; 54%.

—story of “Iguana.”

—dog bites result in staph infection; dog “Satin” euthanized.

—his sexual promiscuity and tension with Frankie.

—Frankie’s mysterious ailment: 185.

—after more tension, and violence, he leaves Frankie.

—he has a new romance with a young poet—“Angel.”

—tension with Frankie after the break up; Frankie battled lung cancer: 189.

—He tries to help Frankie after learning the cancer is terminal.

—He, Frankie and Angel live together; they share a vacation rental on Nantucket.

—He returns to NYC with Frankie; Angel goes to Key West.

—he praises Frankie’s “strength of spirit” and “pride never broken”: 192.

—Frankie ravaged by cancer; his suffering. His death: 194.

—beginning of a 7-year depression for Tennessee.

—Tab Hunter In Milk Train: 199.

—his own defense of Milk Train: 201.

—he resumes his relationship with Angel in Key West: 203.

—he dismisses Angel.

—he is depressed and socially withdrawn.

—he moves to New Orleans.

—he also spends time in New York.

—he begins to receive injections, and also vials, from “Dr. Feel Good”: 209.

—his relationship with “Ryan.”

—return to time period of Small Craft Warnings; his concern about his mother’s health: 215.

—conflict while he is living in Los Angeles: 215. His mental health deteriorates.

—he returns to Key West: 218.

—He decides to seek help after an accidental burn.

—in hospital for psychiatric care, he argues with his family members. He experiences convulsions and is reassigned to another part of the hospital—the “Violent Ward”: 221.

—his memories of violence and disturbing scenes in the hospital.

—his hospital stay is extended.

—occupational therapy at hospital: 223.

—he is transferred to an open ward in the hospital: 224. He plays bridge with others in the ward.

—one of his bridge partners is terrified of her shock treatments.

—released from hospital.

—watching film version of Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone on TV with his mother: 226.

—severing of his professional relationship with Audrey Wood: 227.

Chapter 11: p 230; loc 4572; 70%.

—on being a writer.

—return to Key West after his psychiatric hospitalization.

—“eviction” of Ryan.

—his play Out Cry.

—his 1970 voyage to Bangkok: 235.

—his diagnosis of breast cancer.

— his last encounter with Yukio Mishima.

—his current companion: “a stormy young man”: 242. A novelist.

—point at which time past and present converge in the chronologically alternating story he is telling: 243.

—his sister Rose’s delusional state.

—Carson McCuller’s fondness for Rose; suicidal threat from Carson’s husband Reeves: 244-45.

—his “fugitive” life: 247.

—his thoughts on death: 248.

—after effect of Rose’s lobotomy: 251.

—the Lodge staff approves a 3-day holiday visit away for Rose.

—note his fondness and respect for Rose; she is a survivor.

—I find it significant that he ends the memoir with Rose. It is tender and moving.

Afterword by Allean Hale: p 253; loc 4990; 76%.

— fact check of historical inaccuracies in memoir, which Hale attributes to Williams’s stream of consciousness style.

—detachable figleaf story: 253.

—Hale reveals the true identities of Santo, Angel, and more.

BookMen's previous Tennessee visits

I'm eagerly looking forward to tomorrow night's discussion of Tennessee Williams' Memoirs. In anticipation of that, I decided to refresh my memory as to books we've read by and about that great playwright.

Somewhat to my surprise, I discovered that we've only read one play by TW, A Streetcar Named Desire (discussed in 2011), along with his first novel, The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (2022). As we prepare to nominate books for next year's reading list (a process that kicks off next month; stay tuned for details), it seems to me that there is some scope for tackling more of his plays.

We've also read Christopher Castellani's 2019 novel about Williams, his lover Frank Merlo and a cast of real and fictional luminaries, Leading Men. I recall hearing a wide range of reactions to that one during a very lively (even by BookMen standards) discussion, but I found it captivating.

Last but definitely not least, I highly recommend John Lahr's biography, Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh, which we discussed in 2016. Because of its length (600+ pages), this was the first book not intended as an anthology that I split up over two sessions--a practice we've continued to make it more feasible to discuss mammoth tomes. It also drew one of our largest turnouts both times, I'm happy to say.

Andrea Gibson's poetry

As promised in the post below, here are links to several poems by Andrea Gibson:

“How the Worst Day of My Life Became the Best”

“Tincture”

“Instead of Depression”

“In the chemo room, I wear mittens made of ice so I don’t lose my fingernails. But I took a risk today to write this down.”

Discovering Andrea Gibson

I'm truly sorry to say that I'd never even heard of Andrea Gibson, a queer, non-binary poet and performance artist who was poet laurate of Colorado, before her death last week at the age of 49 from ovarian cancer. But as I read the excerpts from her writing included in the various tributes to her, I felt a real affinity to her voice--one that makes me want to read more of her work.

This post compiles obituaries and appreciations of Ms. Gibson (who used they/them pronouns); the one above will include samples of her poetry.

Associated Press obituary

The Atlantic: "Andrea Gibson Refused to ‘Battle’ Cancer"

New York Times obituary

Washington Post obituary

2018 Washington Post interview

Trash as treasure

A tip of the hat to Ted Coltman for sharing this fascinating Substack article, "Unearthing Queer DC: What Household Trash Reveals About the Past." As Ted notes, the period it covers "slightly predates the period covered by Secret City, but I thought it might be of interest to BookMen DC." Thanks, Ted!

RIP, Richard Greenberg

Back in 2004, our group discussed Richard Greenberg's 2002 play, "Take Me Out," about a gay major-leaguer who comes out to his team and the public. "Take Me Out" won multiple Tony Awards, both in its original 2002 run and the 2022 revival.

The playwright passed away on July 4 at the age of 67. Although he is probably best-known for "Take Me Out," he had more than 30 plays produced on Broadway and off. Many of them dealt with the manners and mores of New York’s upper middle class.

Strangely, neither his New York Times obituary nor the one in the Washington Post spells out that Greenberg was gay, even though that was widely known. But both note that several of his plays featured gay characters and themes.

I have tonight's All-Star game on in the background as I write this, and it occurs to me that more than 20 years after "Take Me Out" premiered, no major-league baseball player has yet come out as gay. As the saying goes, sometimes truth really is stranger (and sadder) than fiction.

A purely hypothetical question, I'm sure!

The latest edition of the New York Times' Magazine's "The Ethicist" column poses a question that I suspect many book groups have wrestled with at some point. I'm sharing it for amusement value only. (Really! :-).

A Woman in My Book Club Never Reads the Books. Can I Expose Her?

"I am a member of a lovely, well-established book group of very thoughtful, well-read women. Recently I’ve become aware that one woman, whom I see socially outside the group, often doesn’t read the books, but instead relies on reading online reviews for a perspective about them. She then speaks with great authority at the meetings, as though those are her personal opinions, without crediting the source and without admitting that she didn’t read the book. In the days before a meeting, she will casually share with me that she “couldn’t get into it,” but she never says so to the other members. I sit there steaming but don’t reveal her duplicity. What would you do?" Name Withheld

From the Ethicist:

"I get why you’re peeved. These gatherings thrive on authentic engagement, and when a person parachutes in with secondhand wisdom, it’s like bringing a paint-by-numbers kit to a life-drawing class. Still, the first rule of book clubs is that someone will always show up having read only the first chapter and the last page, armed with three profound observations from Goodreads. Your job, in any case, isn’t to police her page turns. Cast yourself as the enforcer, and you betray the spirit of a group dedicated to forging connections through stories.

Instead, consider pulling her aside after the next meeting. Let her know that her own reactions to the text will mean more than the stuff anyone can find online — that she’s depriving the group of her own authentic response. Critics can’t replicate what happens when a particular reader, someone you know, meets particular words at a particular moment in her life.

Yes, if she insists on dominating the discussion with borrowed insights, you could offer a gentle redirect — asking about a moment the reviewers may not have touched on. (“What did you make of Patrice’s experience as a waterjack?”) But the goal isn’t to humiliate her; it’s to steer the energy toward what matters: the strange, messy business of human beings encountering a book and trying to make sense of what it has done to them. Keep the focus there, and maintain your small, imperfect community. One thing you’ll have learned from your books, after all, is that the flawed characters are always the most human."

And here are the reader responses that ran the following week:

For the book group I belong to, there isn’t a meeting that goes by without someone who hasn’t had time to read or to finish the book. However, the nonreader of a particular book may hear something about it during our discussion that makes her curious and want to read it, so we simply don’t care. Every group member has demands on her time, and we all make allowances for this fact. We all treasure our group, and we feel that censuring someone for not completing this voluntary “assignment” would be immaterial and inappropriate. — Ariel

Many book clubs provide the comfort of social connection and a much-needed feeling of belonging. There are always people in every book club who either hate every book or never read them. The nonreading woman is clearly motivated to attend the book club get-togethers, so why rob her of the experience and judge her so harshly? There maybe private reasons her friend is failing to read the books — affordability of reading glasses, cognitive decline, excessive home duties, access to the book. There is no actual harm being caused by the nonreader attending the book club, but a lot of harm could be caused to her by naming and shaming her in front of the group. — Cassandra

I found it interesting that the book club member’s instinct was to “out” the nonreader as opposed to calling her out in the private moment when she shares that she didn’t read the book. Wouldn’t that be an easier, less aggressive way of chatting about the issue? Maybe she could encourage her to chat at the next meeting about why the book stunk, and she didn’t want to bother reading it? That, too, could make for an interesting and honest book club discussion! — Michelle

I’m also in a book club, and every month about two or three people don’t finish the book. They couldn’t get into it, didn’t have enough time, didn’t like the book to begin with — the usual. I wonder what kind of environment your book club is cultivating where people don’t feel comfortable admitting that they couldn’t finish the book. — Leonardo

Is she old enough to be experiencing dementia? The ability to read and process the entire book could be impossible for her, yet she wants to maintain the fellowship and connection to the group. But anyway, so what? She researches, she stimulates the conversation. That’s what you want in a good book-club member. Give yourself a gold star for reading all the books, and keep your mouth shut. — Darr

Pack some gay beach books

New York magazine's "The Cut" newsletter just published a list of 14 "Best Queer Beach Reads," which I offer for your consideration. I've heard of several of the selections, but the only one I've read is Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca--and that was a long time ago. The two selections that most pique my curiosity are The Short History of a Prince by Jane Hamilton, and Tramps Like Us by Joe Westmoreland. Take a look and see what appeals to you!

Pride Month poetry, Part 2

Note: This was originally a single post, but when four more poems came in earlier today from the American Academy of Poetry's Poem-a-Day newsletter, I decided to split the compilation up into two posts. Enjoy!

Reunion Tour by Jericho Brown

You Can Light a Fire Without a Match, You Can Catch a Fish Without a Hook, You Can Make a Blind Man See by Jari Bradley

Night Was Done by Mikhail Kuzmin

I Decide to Tell Ghost Cowboy My Intentions by C. Russell Price

There are inanimate things out there loving one another by Francene J. Harris

From “Coy” (xxi) by Richard Scott

From “Coy” (v) by Richard Scott

“Still Life with Lemons in a Wicker Basket” by Richard Scott

“Still Life with Rose” by Richard Scott

After a Rochester Wedding by Anja Mei-Ping Kuipers

Wine of Summer by Lord Alfred Douglas

[It was summer when I found you] by Sappho

Pride Month poetry, Part 1

Here is another compilation of LGBTQ-themed poems (not all by LGBTQ poets, I should note) from the American Academy of Poetry's Poem-a-Day newsletter. These poems were disseminated in May and June. Enjoy!

10,000 Acres Burned by Keetje Kuipers

Vegas Rave Muse by David Mura

Future History of Earth's Birds by Amie Whittemore

Cavafy in Compton/Closet Anthem Self-Portrait at 16 by Robin Coste Lewis

Forgetting by Joy Ladin

a letter to charlie parker by Dior J. Stephens

Song: Let Us Go Back by Vita Sackville-West

Beyond a Mountain by Witter Bynner

Livestreaming My Grandfather's Funeral by Stephanie Colwell

LGBT Jews in the Federal City

I highly recommend "LGBT Jews in the Federal City," on view at the Capital Jewish Museum through Jan. 4, 2026. As a D.C. resident for nearly 44 years now, I consider myself pretty knowledgeable about local gay history, but I learned a surprising amount--not just about the Jewish community's many contributions to advancing LGBTQ rights, but the evolution of the gay scene itself over the years. A highlight was the opportunity to listen to oral history excerpts by various members of the community, including a name that will be familiar to BookMen members, by picking up a rotary phone and dialing the number corresponding to each testimony. Very retro and very fun!

Essex's blessings

Over the years, we've read poems by Essex Hemphill (1957-1995) in various anthologies, including Persistent Voices: Poetry by Writers Lost to AIDS (co-edited by our very own Philip Clark and David Groff) and Freedom in This Village: 25 Years of Black Gay Men's Writing (edited by E. Lynn Harris). But regardless of how much you already know about this luminary of the D.C. arts scene, I believe you'll appreciate "Essex Hemphill: Take care of your blessings," an exhibition at the Phillips Collection that "explores the interdisciplinary relationship between Hemphills writing and visual art." It's on through Aug. 31. (Note: Although the Phillips does charge admission, it also offers free and discounted access on certain nights.)

Passages re: A Passage to India

I didn't think to look up these contemporary reviews of E.M. Forster's A Passage to India until after we discussed it last week, but I trust you'll still find them worth your time.

First up, here is The Guardian's take:

Review A Passage to India By E. M. Forster London: Edward Arnold. Pp.325. 7s. 6d. net C. M. Fri 20 Jun 1924 13.22 EDT

The first duty of any reviewer is to welcome Mr. E.M. Forster's reappearance as a novelist and to express the hope that the general public as well as the critics will recognise his merits and their good fortune; the second is to congratulate him upon the tone and temper of his new novel. To speak of its "fairness" would convey the wrong impression, because that suggests a conscious virtue. This is the involuntary fairness of the man who sees.

We have had novels about India from the British point of view and from the native point of view, and in each case with sympathy for the other side; but the sympathy has been intended, and in this novel there is not the slightest suggestion of anything but a personal impression, with the prejudices and limitations of the writer frankly exposed. Mr. Forster, in fact, has reached the stage in his development as an artist when, in his own words about Miss Quested, he is "no longer examining life, but being examined by it." He has been examined by India, and this is his confession.

There can be no doubt about the principal faculties which have contributed to its quality: imagination and humour. It is imagination in the strictest sense of the world as the power of seeing and hearing internally, without any obligation to fancy - though Mr. Forster has fancy at his command to heighten the impression, as in his treatment of the echoes in the Marabar Caves. "Even the striking of a match starts a little worm coiling, which is too small to complete a circle but is eternally watchful." To speak of his characters as being "well drawn," would be crude; they draw themselves, and mainly in their conversation. More remarkable even than his vision is Mr. Forster's power of inner hearing; he seems incapable of allowing a person to speak out of character, and Dr. Aziz strikes one as less invented than overheard. Equally pure is Mr. Forster's humour. His people, British or native, are not satirised or caricatured or made the targets of wit; they are simply enjoyed.

The story is, essentially, that of the close contact of East and West in the persons of Dr. Aziz, a Moslem, assistant medical officers of the Chandrapore Hospital, and Mr. Fielding, principal of the College. In all the other characters the contact is governed by conventions - official or would-be sympathetic - but in them it is as close as blood itself allows. So far as affection is concerned they are friends, so that the interplay of East and West is along the very finest channels of human intercourse - suggesting the comparison of the blood and air vessels in the lungs; but the friendship is always at the mercy of the feelings which rise from the deeps of racial personality.

The action of the story is provided by outsiders; two travelling Englishwomen, one elderly, the mother of the city magistrate, and one, Miss Quested, comparatively young, who becomes for a time engaged to him. The one has a natural and the other a theoretical sympathy for the country and its people.

As the guests of Dr. Aziz they make an excursion to the Marabar Caves, where Miss Quested loses her head and accuses Aziz of having insulted her - a series of minor accidents lending plausibility to what was, in effect, an hallucination. Aziz is arrested, and East and West rally round their prejudices and conventions, though Fielding believes Aziz to be innocent, and breaks with his own order to support him.

At the trial, before a native magistrate, Miss Quested withdraws her accusations and Aziz is acquitted; but in the following turmoil Fielding, against his will, is true to his blood in sheltering Miss Quested, and he and Aziz drift apart. "Why can't we be friends now?" he says at the end. "It's what I want. It's what you want." But India answers: "No, not yet...No, not there."

Thus we are left with the feeling that the blending of races is a four-dimensional problem. In his presentation of the problem Mr. Forster leans, if anywhere, towards his own race in his acute sense of their difficulties, but not more than by the weight of blood; and, again, fairness is not the word for his sensitive presentation. It is something much less conscious; not so much a virtue as a fatality of his genius. Whether he presents Englishman or Moslem or Hindu or Eurasian he is no longer examining life, but being examined by it" in the deeps of his personality as an artist.

And here is what the New York Times reviewer thought of the novel:

August 17, 1924: "A Passage to India" by E.M. Forster

There are some novelists who creep into public esteem rather imperceptibly, and Mr. E.M. Forster is one of these. Already he has his rather small group of valiant disciples (at random one thinks of Mr. Leonard Woolf, Mr. Hamish Miles and Miss Rebecca West) who proclaim his merits with an insistence that would be provoking if there were not ample cause for the enthusiasm. A single reading of "A Passage to India" settles the question. Mr. E.M. Forster is indubitably one of the finest novelists living in England today, and "A Passage to India" is one of the saddest, keenest, most beautifully written ironic novels of the time. Saying so much one is forced to say much more, for Mr. Forster's quality is unique. In some respects it is like caviare, but not because one must cultivate a taste for it. It is difficult to conceive of any tastes being dissatisfied with "A Passage to India" unless it be fire-eating, gouty, retired Anglo-Indians now residing in Tunbridge Wells and kindred places.

"A Passage to India" is both a challenge and an indictment. It is also a revelation. But so intricately is this matter treated that the average reader is quite unaware of a smoldering subterranean passion in the depths of this carefully conceived study of two humanities -- indeed, two worlds -- in hopeless clash. A panorama of objective incidents and gestures is unfolded as one might unfold a carefully woven Indian carpet, and somehow the reader experiences an intense concern and despair before a situation that is both inevitable and impossible. Certain obvious words suggest themselves as descriptive of this book and among them are ''subtle'' and ''acute.'' But they are not exact enough to describe that peculiar cool, clarified exposition that seems to miss nothing and that is so impregnated with unexplainable implications. Almost imperceptibly Mr. Forster develops a character until the reader has acquired the most meticulous comprehension of the deepest channels of being.

Such a proceeding was of the utmost difficulty in "A Passage to India," for many of the characters who fit into the delicate structure of that book are Indians. It is easily understandable that mystery surrounds the East Indian, that his life is a conception peculiar to himself. Mr. Forster knows this and he conveys as much in his book. He also knows the Indian mind, and the clear shafts of his sentences pierce into it with a disturbing frequency until the reader is apt to wonder whether or not the Indian is as complicated a being as he seems to be. Yet in a last analysis he is. India remains India and no number of British civilians or army corps can hope to divert that huge, semi-supine, dreaming giant from immemorial methods of existence. Broken and factious, throbbing with antagonistic religious sects and castes, it yet remains sullenly itself in spite of the long decades of English rule. Mr. Forster makes it quite clear that it is no dream of the Peacock Throne at Delhi that holds India apart, but the congenital differences of birth as well. Here again is Kipling's old dictum that "East is East and West is West." Yet if the idea be given that "A Passage to India" is the usual type of Indian novel in which patriotic impulses heroically manifest themselves, a genuine wrong is done the author. Mr. Forster is quite aware that right and wrong may not be so easily separated; that, in fact, both sides may be right and wrong at the same time. His objective is to show modern life in India, in Chandrapore, and to do this he draws with a superb finality a group of Indians and British civil officers and women. The utmost care is shown in interlocking the various urges in this book. The result is a bewilderingly vivid presentation of life.

A mere resume of the novel gives no adequate idea of it, for the prime importance of Mr. Forster's work lies not so much in situation as in the development of a dozen apparently trivial incidents leading up to it. Odd words, single sentences, flashes of characterization, the general atmosphere which is so precisely built up -- these are the touches that set Mr. Forster apart as a novelist. It conveys no more than his modus operandi to state that the book circles about a young Indian, Dr. Aziz, who is unjustly accused of attempted assault by a hysterical English girl and who therefore serves as a hinge from which both humanities -- British and Indian -- break. Certain things become apparent as the book progresses and not the least of them is the stupidity of the British. There is no other word for it. This system of the conqueror which prevents an Indian from being a member of a white man's club, which assumes a cocksure knowledge of the Indian mind when that knowledge is based on a dull misconception, which eternally suspects and belittles -- this is the aspect of life in India which Mr. Forster brings out most clearly. A single episode may be noted as a fair exemplification of this. Dr. Aziz, calling on Fielding, the Englishman who stands by the Indians and commits the last sin by not blindfolding his judgment and sticking with the Britishers, gives the white man his collar button in a burst of generosity when that individual has broken his own. Later we find the City Magistrate, Heaslop, remarking: ''Aziz was exquisitely dressed, from tie pin to spats, but he had forgotten his back collar stud, and there you have the Indian all over: inattention to detail; the fundamental slackness that reveals the race.'' Here, in a nutshell, Mr. Forster intimates, is the attitude of the Anglo-Indian toward the native; the slackness is instantly assumed; the Britisher sees the surface and no more.

The Indian portraits are superb. Dr. Aziz, of course, is more fully drawn than the others, for he serves as that aspect of India which Mr. Forster is anxious to bring to the fore -- the educated Indian who understands British civilization, but who can never be really identified with it.

Indeed, one thing that "A Passage to India" seems to assert is the hopelessness of any agreement between India and her conquerors. Two peoples who will never mix are here, and when this is so there must always be two groups. The house will always be divided. The few points in this book which have been noted are but a tithe of the riches that may be found there. The crystal-clear portraiture, the delicate conveying of nuances of thought and life, and the astonishing command of his medium show that Mr. Forster is now at the height of his powers. It is not alone because the canvas is larger and the implications greater than in "Howards End" and "A Room With a View" that this is so. The real reason is implicit in the author's unmistakable growth, the deepening of his powers and the assurance of his technique. When Mr. Leonard Woolf states, ''Mr. Forster seems now to have reached the point at which there is nothing too simple or too subtle for his pen,'' he is expressing an exact truth. Certainly "A Passage to India" should greatly widen that rather small audience that has relished his novels in the past. And that rather small audience should congratulate itself on its acumen.

Finally, in 2014 (90 years after its initial book review) The Guardian named A Passage to India as #48 on its list of "The 100 best novels of the 20th century."

Tributes to Edmund White

This is by no means a comprehensive roundup of obituaries and commentaries about the life and career of Edmund White, who died on June 3 at the age of 85. But it's a start! I'll post more tributes as I find them.

Washington Post obituary

"How groundbreaking gay author Edmund White paved the way for other writers" (Washington Post)

New York Times obituary

"'The Cole Porter of Literature’: Writers and Artists Remember Edmund White (New York Times)

"The Very Gay Life of Edmund White" (New York Times)

"Books and Boys and Big Dinners at Home: How I’ll remember Edmund White" (Vulture)

Bay Area Reporter obituary

London Review of Books obituary

Remembering Ed White

At my invitation, our friend Robert Muir has shared his thoughts on the recent passing of his longtime friend, Edmund White.

"The New York Times did a comprehensive article on Edmund White after his passing, but I wanted to add some of my personal reflections.

Like many gay men of my generation, I was influenced by the novels of Edmund White and Andrew Holleran in the early 1980s. White’s trilogy of autobiographical novels: A Boy’s Own Story, The Beautiful Room Is Empty and The Farewell Symphony, had a huge impact on my reading and my education on gay life. I attended many of Edmund White’s readings and book signings through the 90s and beyond. His Genet: A Biography led me into the world of Genet’s writing and life. I remember seeing a very striking Frenchman who sat with Ed at one of his readings and always wondered if that was Huber Sorin, his lover and the basis for the character of Julian in A Married Man.

Around the time when his play "Terre Haute" was set to premiere in London, I decided to reach out to Ed in a letter via Princeton where he was teaching. I was headed to London for the play, but missed him there by two days. He emailed me back and we began a 17-year correspondence over emails. In August 2008, he invited me to his apartment in New York, and we had lunch and a long chat in a Chelsea restaurant.

Since then, we’ve exchanged thousands of emails about life and literature, mostly gay literature. I’ve kept him abreast of the books we read at BookMen and he’s advised me of his thoughts on our books, as well as others. He turned me on to the works of Chilean writer Roberto Bolaño and Spanish writer Javier Marias, whose novels--The Savage Detectives (2007) and The Infatuations (2013), respectively--I found to be exceptional contemporary literature. We also talked at length about Anna Karenina, which he always claimed was his favorite novel and which he reread about every three years. He also gave me a heads up on Edouard Louis as The End of Eddy was making waves.

While our book club was reading Caracole, Tim Walton and I put together a list of real-life people we believed were the basis for the characters in the novel. I sent it to Ed, and he was impressed that we got six out of the eight characters right. He told us the real names for the other two.

Ed was always so generous with his time on all things literary; quick to correct me when I was getting off track, but never in a condescending way. I feel so blessed to have known him on some level, and I will sorely miss that connection to him."

Thanks for sharing this lovely tribute, Robert!

RIP, Edmund White

Pioneering gay author Edmund White died on June 3 at the age of 85. Hailed as a pioneer of gay literature, White mined his own life story, including his vast and varied catalog of sexual experiences, in more than 30 books of fiction and nonfiction, as well as hundreds of articles and essays. Many were critical successes, and several were best-sellers, leading the Chicago Tribune to label him “the godfather of queer lit.”

We have read eight of his books over the years; in alphabetical order, they are: A Saint from Texas (discussed in 2021); Caracole (2011); City Boy (2011); The Faber Book of Gay Short Fiction, which he edited (1999); The Farewell Symphony (2013); Fresh Men: New Voices in Gay Fiction, which he edited (2006); My Lives (2007); and The Tastemaker (2019). Curiously, his breakout book, A Boy's Own Story, is not among them--an omission I trust we'll rectify with next year's reading list. (And yes, that is a hint to nominate it this fall :-). Later this year, we will discuss his Nocturnes for the King of Naples (with a new foreword by Garth Greenwell).

I am still compiling the many obituaries, tributes and reflections on White's career, and will post those in a separate entry.

Chasten Buttigieg's new book

I didn't learn until after the fact about his appearance at Union Stage to promote it this past Friday, but Chasten Buttigieg has just published a children's book, Papa's Coming Home. (We read his memoir, I Have Something to Tell You, back in 2020.)

Here's the summary: "Jojo and Rosie’s papa has been away on a trip, and they can’t wait to welcome him home! They make signs, they pick flowers, and with Daddy’s help, they bake a cake and pack the car with absolutely everything Papa might have missed while he was away. When Papa’s plane arrives, they give him a huge hug—but when they bring him to the car, they realize there’s one small problem: Where will Papa sit? Delightfully illustrated by Dan Taylor, this charming story filled with love celebrates dads and familial bonds. Chasten Buttigieg shines a beautiful light on the humorous musings of toddlers and a parent’s unconditional love for their child."

While I'm not a big fan of children's books--or children--Papa's Coming Home sounds delightful.

Our blog makes a list

Feedspot has just notified us that our blog has made its list of "Top 70 LGBTQ Book Blogs" on the web. And since we're #24 on the list, I suppose we can claim to be in its top 25!

Baldwin vs. Buckley

The June issue of The Atlantic contains a fascinating account of James Baldwin's February 1965 debate with William F. Buckley at Cambridge University. The motion put up for debate was this: “The American dream is at the expense of the American Negro.” (I won't say which speaker won over the audience, but I will say it was a rout.) Although Baldwin's homosexuality did not arise that evening, and Sam Tanenhaus only lightly touches on it in the article, I found the article fascinating, and commend it to you all.

Ocean Vuong's latest novel

So far, BookMen DC has read two books by Ocean Vuong: his first poetry collection, Night Sky with Exit Wounds (February 2022) and his first novel, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous (June 2020). His new novel, The Emperor of Gladness, is an Oprah Book Club selection, and while Oprah's interview is nearly an hour long, I was riveted--and I went out and bought a copy at Little District Books the next morning.

I haven't had a chance to start reading it yet, but unless the novel is a real disappointment, I intend to nominate it for next year's reading list. Here are some reviews and profiles from GQ, Vulture, the New York Times and The Guardian.

Happy 26th Birthday to us!

Exactly 26 years ago today, on May 11, 1999, what was originally known as the Potomac Gay Men's Book Group convened for its first meeting.  And we're still going strong more than a quarter-century later! For more details on our origin story, see this May 2024 Washington Blade article.

Meet James Kirchick!

WorldPride staff have invited BookMen members to the following in-person WorldPride event:

James Kirchick, author of Secret City: The Hidden History of Gay Washington (one of our current third-Wednesday anthologies), will be in conversation with New York Times reporter Shawn McCreesh at the Alliance Française on Tuesday, May 20, at 7 p.m. (doors open at 6:30 p.m.). Here is a link with more info: https://www.francedc.org/eventbrite/1357138270099.

I've already reserved a spot; hope to see some of you there.

More LGTBQ+ poetry to get to know

Here is another compilation of LGBTQ-themed poems (not all by LGBTQ poets, I should note) from the American Academy of Poetry's Poem-a-Day newsletter. These poems were disseminated in February through April of this year. Enjoy!

The Lord Is American by W.J. Lofton

Solip Cystic by Raquel Gutiérrez

Dear Gabrielle by Andrea Abi-Karam

Leaving the Psychologist: An Abecedarian Ekphrastic by Grisel Y. Acosta

Dressing the Body by Brittany Rogers

fish bones by Jo Reyes-Boitel

Learn Your Song by Gabriel Ramirez

Orange by Noel Quiñones

25 years, 25 poetry collections

Last month The Atlantic compiled a list of "The Best American Poetry of the 21st Century (So Far)." Four of the 25 collections are by gay poets, and we've actually read two of them: Ocean Vuong's Night Sky with Exit Wounds (#3 on the list; we discussed it in Feb. 2022) and Danez Smith's Night Sky with Exit Wounds (#24; we discussed it in April 2019). The other two books are Richard Siken's Crush (#6) and Jerico Brown's The Tradition (#14).

These Arabs are queer...

The fourth essay in This Arab Is Queer: An Anthology by LGBTQ+ Arab Writers, which we'll begin discussing on April 16, "Catching the Light: Reclaiming Opera as a Trans Arab," is by Zeyn Joukhadar. A former opera singer, Joukhadar alludes to YouTube recordings of his performances, but alas, my search did not turn up any of them. (Those of you who have TikTok and Instagram may have better luck there; please let me know if you find any of his work there.) I did, however, find videos of various talks he has given about his writing.

I recognized the name of the first contributor to the anthology, Egyptian-American journalist Mona Eltahawy from her Washington Post op-eds, such as "#Mosque MeToo: What happened when I was sexually assaulted during the hajj" (published in 2018).

For those of you who would like to learn more about the other contributors in this first tranche, here are links: Dima Mikhayel Matta, Saleem Haddad, Amrou Al-Kadhi, Khalid Abdel-Hadi, Danny Ramadan and Ahmed Umar.

Remembering Mario Vargas Llosa

Back in 2014, we discussed The Dream of the Celt by Mario Vargas Llosa, who recently died at the age of 89. Taking its title from a poem written by its subject, the book is a novelization of the life of Roger Casement (1864–1916), the gay Anglo-Irish diplomat and Irish patriot.

Here are obituaries of Vargas Llosa from CNN, the Washington Post and New York Times, as well as a 2018 interview with The Economist and a New York Times appreciation.

Gatsby's secret(s)

Back in June 2021, we discussed F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby (That was back when we were reading non-LGBTQ books once a quarter or so.)

As some of you are no doubt aware, the novel celebrates its centennial this year. With that in mind, I offer the following observation from our friend Ted Coltman: "I’ve long thought that Gatsby was Jewish, but it hadn’t occurred to me that another reading might see him as black passing as white, as the author does in this piece."

To celebrate the novel's centennial, here is a tour d'horizon courtesy of the New York Times: "It's Gatsby's World. We Just Live In It."

And for those of you interested in possible gay subtexts for the novel, here is my original 2021 post on the topic:

"Last week, 14 of us gathered online for a lively discussion of The Great Gatsby. By coincidence (?), just two days later Ron Charles used his weekly Washington Post Book Club newsletter to highlight several new books that riff on Fitzgerald's classic, now that it has entered the public domain.

"First up, published back in January [2021], is Michael Farris Smith's Nick, a prequel that imagines Carraway's ordeal in World War I and then follows him to New Orleans. Hot off the press is The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo, in which Jordan Baker, a queer Vietnamese orphan in this version, narrates what is now a gothic fantasy. As Ron Charles says in his review: "The partygoers drink demon blood, sorcery twists the beams of reality, and Jay Gatsby is a bisexual vampire. Finally, the story makes sense!"

"If that isn't wild enough for you, then how about this final tidbit from Charles? "Nineteen students at the University of Iowa have reportedly sold their adaptation of the novel to Independent Pictures and Fugitive Films. Gilded in Ash, the product of a creative English course last fall, reimagines Gatsby as an African American woman who works as an art forger. No word yet on whether the studio will actually make the movie, but as Nick says, 'Reserving judgment is a matter of infinite hope.'"