My
Dear Boy : Gay Love Letters Through the Centuries by
Rictor Norton (Editor)
My Dear Boy
is an anthology of gay love letters documenting the heartbreak and
joy of love between men for almost two thousand years. Emperor
Marcus Arelius, Bo Juyi, Saint Anselm, Erasmus, Michelangelo,
Mashida Toyonoshin, Thomas Gray, William Beckford, Walt Whitman,
Tchaikovsky, Henry James, Countee Cullen, William Burroughs and
Allen Ginsberg are just a few of the correspondents included, who
range from kings and aristocrats, musicians and artists, military
men and monks, to farm labourers and herring merchants, political
activists and aesthetes, black poets and Japanese actors, drag
queens and hustlers.
Important letters by Marsilio Ficino, Federico
Gonzaga, Henrich von Kleist, Charles-Victor de Bonstetten,
Johannes von Muller, Johann Joachim Winckelmann, and Jean Cocteau
have been specialy translated for this anthology.
Some of the letters come from books proudly
published by their writers and some have been published in
newspapers and pamphlets as part of political and religious
attacks; some come from court records (from the Inquisition to the
Old Bailey) and some were discovered in a cardboard box after a
house clearance; many have narrowly escaped censorship and
suppression.
This richly diverse collection of letters
illustrates the basic theme of romantic love: infatuation,
longing, sex, separation, the fear of rejection, jealousy, the joy
of reunion, celebration, and debates about "marriage"
and "infidelity" in gay relationships. Whether the
affairs were stormy or tender, they are, above all, testimonials
to an enduring love.
A full introduction charts the survival of gay
love letters throughout history, and each selection is introduced
with a biographical note describing the context in which the
letters were written. Illustrated with more than two dozen
photographs. -- Rictor
Norton, "My Dear Boy". Updated 22 December 2000
This book includes letters between F. O.
Matthiessen
and Russell Cheney, written between 1924 - 1925.
