Lost Gay Novels: A Reference Guide to Fifty Works from the First Half of the Twentieth Century

by Anthony Slide

In Lost Gay Novels, respected pop culture historian Anthony Slide resurrects fifty early twentieth-century American novels with gay themes or characters and discusses them in carefully researched, engaging prose. Each entry offers you a detailed discussion of plot and characters, a summary of contemporary critical reception, and biographical information on the often-obscure writer.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Reference, LGBT, Literary Criticism, Gay, Criticism

214 pages, Paperback

First published February 18, 2003

Reviews

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

A useful critical bibliography, but somewhat less entertaining than Roger Austen's which covers the same period (and more) and is more engaging and quirky. Slide clearly favors the "cinematic" novel, particularly those which have been adapted to the screen. Anyone interested in gay literary history needs to own this book, as well as Austen's, and several others (see my companion Goodreads review of Playing the Game: The Homosexual Novel in America.)

[Reeter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read on the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/lostgayno...

A pretty flat and dry read, but it was still fascinating to read about gay novels, and novels with queer themes that were published during times when being gay was illegal, considered morally wrong. Turns out, you can't keep homosexuality out of life.

I only wish this covered more lesbian and other forms of queerness, but as it is, I still recommend it, and I personally plan on seeking out a few of these novels.

[Brett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting overview of the changes in gay novels. Some of them definitely needed to be lost, but there are a few gems discussed in the book that are worth checking out.