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Dreadful: The Short Life and Gay Times of John Horne Burns
American author John Horne Burns (1916–1953) led a brief and controversial life, and as a writer, transformed many of his darkest experiences into literature. Burns was born in Massachusetts, graduated from Andover and Harvard, and went on to teach English at the Loomis School, a boarding school for boys in Windsor, Connecticut. During World War II, he was stationed in Africa and Italy, and worked mainly in military intelligence. His first novel, The Gallery (1947), based on his wartime experiences, is a critically acclaimed novel and one of the first to unflinchingly depict gay life in the military. The Gallery sold half a million copies upon publication, but never again would Burns receive that kind of critical or popular attention.
Dreadful follows Burns, from his education at the best schools to his final years of drinking and depression in Italy. With intelligence and insight, David Margolick examines Burns’s moral ambivalence toward the behavior of American soldiers stationed with him in Naples, and the scandal surrounding his second novel, Lucifer with a Book , an unflattering portrayal of his experiences at Loomis.
Dreadful follows Burns, from his education at the best schools to his final years of drinking and depression in Italy. With intelligence and insight, David Margolick examines Burns’s moral ambivalence toward the behavior of American soldiers stationed with him in Naples, and the scandal surrounding his second novel, Lucifer with a Book , an unflattering portrayal of his experiences at Loomis.
400 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
May 21, 2019
Can there be more damning words than "This is not for everyone?" Of course there can be. But I think it will be much better than faint praise to say, "This book which is not for everyone was just right for me." I don't think a serious book about John Horne Burns could have turned out differently.
The biographer, David Margolick, who attended, years after Burns's death, the prep school at which Burns taught, made use of materials given to him by a scholar who'd given up trying to publish Burns's biography twenty years before. A cerebral hemorrhage killed Burns in 1953, and it wasn't until 2013 that any biographer was able to publish any account of Burns with something remotely like cooperation from Burns's family. As the subtitle states, this biography is at least partly about the "gay times" of its subject.
I am fifty-nine years old. I was born at a time when homosexuality was a taboo subject and when homosexual acts could land someone in jail in many parts of the United States. The Stonewall riots didn't occur until I was nine. Marriage Equality wasn't upheld by the Supreme Court until 2015. It took the plague of AIDS to make make the country realize that gay people had been treated unjustly. John Horne Burns, whose books came out at the height of the Cold War, when conformism was inextinguishable from self-protection, wrote frankly about gay soldiers in World War Two. His first novel, THE GALLERY, won instant praise in 1947 and sold very well. Burns was lionized almost as soon as the book was published. Even writers who feuded with him, Gore Vidal in particular, but also Norman Mailer, maintained for decades that THE GALLERY was, perhaps, the best novel about World War Two. James A. Michener, verbally attacked by Burns after Michener won the Pulitzer for TALES OF THE SOUTH PACIFIC, was deeply saddened when Burns died. He said Burns had been "robbed" of the Pulitzer. I read THE GALLERY before reading DREADFUL. David Margolick wrote an introduction to the 2013 edition, which the NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS added to the one Paul Fussell wrote for their 2004 edition. Obviously the 2013 edition coincided with Margolick's biography, published also in 2013, and I would suggest that you read THE GALLERY before reading the biography. I would also suggest that you do not skip reading the biography once you've read THE GALLERY. You will receive on object lesson in separating the artist from the man. THE GALLERY is a work of empathy. John Horne Burns's next novel was an attack on the prep school which had employed him before and after the war. It is not merely an attack; it is serial character assassination. The faculty of Loomis never forgave him.
Margolick came to his subject at the right time. Burns's sister, overprotective of his legacy, had died, and Margolick was able to talk with Burns's nonagenarian brother. Gay rights had come to a point where the family of a man dead half a century began to feel the public might benefit from a look at his life.
Most of this biography is consists of quotations from John Horne Burns's many letters. The biographer who'd given up in the 1980s, the family having been essentially uncooperative, gave Margolick a vast number of letters Burns had written to a friend. That particular friend had himself been almost hostile to the first biographer. It seems he had great resentment toward Burns. But he at least gave the potential biographer primary source material. The family would open up to no one until David Margolick approached well into the 21st century.
Students of mid-century American literature will have a natural interest in Burns's story. Like Ross Lockridge, Jr., who wanted a bestseller and had one, (1948's RAINTREE COUNTY) Burns's big book was subject to trimming and censoring by the publisher. This was absolutely standard practice in that era and, unquestionably, many an unwieldy tome was made palatable by the efforts of major editors. (Lockridge's tragedy was an almost maniacal desire to placate his editors. He let them cut and cut and then he volunteered cuts when the Book-Of-The-Month Club considered the book. He cut more so as to tailor it to MGM. Lockridge asphyxiated himself he day his book hit THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER list.) In short, the most talented novelists in the country, just after the war, had to heed what the publishers told them. It is remarkable that THE GALLERY, with gay characters throughout the book, was not only published, but that its gay content was not mentioned in 99 per cent of the reviews. To a reader in 2019, it is unmistakable. It had to be clear to readers in 1947, but the subject was not discussed. John Horne Burns wrote a book filled with realistic gay characters who'd served their country in an existential war and not one of the many critic who praised it mentioned this. Paul Fussell's 2004 introduction only mentions homosexuality at the end, when he says there was speculation that Burns had been rejected by a gay lover just before his death. (This is not to sleight Paul Fussell. He was an honest writer. But if you were to go back to the year 2004, you'd be surprised how low on the radar gay rights were compared with today.) David Margolick's introduction, side by side with Fussell's as of 2013, makes Burns's sexuality a main theme, as it must be. His biography maintains that theme. I think it should.
As Burns's writing slid downhill, the critics were more vocal about his sexuality. While skewering him as an almost insanely misanthropic man, a few of the critics tied that in with his sexuality. One lady, writing to his publisher to damn LUCIFER WITH A BOOK said she could tell from THE GALLERY that he was a homosexual, but that that in itself didn't bother her. The professional critics don't seem to have been as careful to make the distinction. They attributed Burns's hatred of his colleagues and other writers to the fact that he was gay. Here is another lesson: Back then, an openly gay man risked having his flaws attributed to his orientation. Burns was a petty, vindictive man, but he was living at a time when pettiness and vindictiveness weren't simply condemned as bad behavior. His bad behavior caused people to say his core being was the reason for it.
Gore Vidal could be pretty awful to his fellow writers, but it is illuminating to see him outdone in that department; and it is also key. Vidal is quoted saying he thought he himself would live to an old age and that he could control himself. Burns conveniently left this world a good half century before Vidal or Mailer did. These famously unforgiving raconteurs never turned their backs on THE GALLERY. (Mailer got to like it after setting the book aside when it first came out. Burns was dead by the time he praised it. But he did praise it.) Burns could not control himself. There was something self-destructive about him. The Post-World War Two literary scene was filled with fights at parties, fisticuffs on talk shows, etc. These were rather violent people. But Burns, having written a beautiful book filled with understanding for the conquered and the conquerors, reverted to a permanent adolescence. Six years after his book reached as wide a reading public and as accepting a reading public as almost any writer, first-time or otherwise, could expect, he was dead, having alienated almost every single person who'd ever helped him as a teacher or author.
The biographer, David Margolick, who attended, years after Burns's death, the prep school at which Burns taught, made use of materials given to him by a scholar who'd given up trying to publish Burns's biography twenty years before. A cerebral hemorrhage killed Burns in 1953, and it wasn't until 2013 that any biographer was able to publish any account of Burns with something remotely like cooperation from Burns's family. As the subtitle states, this biography is at least partly about the "gay times" of its subject.
I am fifty-nine years old. I was born at a time when homosexuality was a taboo subject and when homosexual acts could land someone in jail in many parts of the United States. The Stonewall riots didn't occur until I was nine. Marriage Equality wasn't upheld by the Supreme Court until 2015. It took the plague of AIDS to make make the country realize that gay people had been treated unjustly. John Horne Burns, whose books came out at the height of the Cold War, when conformism was inextinguishable from self-protection, wrote frankly about gay soldiers in World War Two. His first novel, THE GALLERY, won instant praise in 1947 and sold very well. Burns was lionized almost as soon as the book was published. Even writers who feuded with him, Gore Vidal in particular, but also Norman Mailer, maintained for decades that THE GALLERY was, perhaps, the best novel about World War Two. James A. Michener, verbally attacked by Burns after Michener won the Pulitzer for TALES OF THE SOUTH PACIFIC, was deeply saddened when Burns died. He said Burns had been "robbed" of the Pulitzer. I read THE GALLERY before reading DREADFUL. David Margolick wrote an introduction to the 2013 edition, which the NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS added to the one Paul Fussell wrote for their 2004 edition. Obviously the 2013 edition coincided with Margolick's biography, published also in 2013, and I would suggest that you read THE GALLERY before reading the biography. I would also suggest that you do not skip reading the biography once you've read THE GALLERY. You will receive on object lesson in separating the artist from the man. THE GALLERY is a work of empathy. John Horne Burns's next novel was an attack on the prep school which had employed him before and after the war. It is not merely an attack; it is serial character assassination. The faculty of Loomis never forgave him.
Margolick came to his subject at the right time. Burns's sister, overprotective of his legacy, had died, and Margolick was able to talk with Burns's nonagenarian brother. Gay rights had come to a point where the family of a man dead half a century began to feel the public might benefit from a look at his life.
Most of this biography is consists of quotations from John Horne Burns's many letters. The biographer who'd given up in the 1980s, the family having been essentially uncooperative, gave Margolick a vast number of letters Burns had written to a friend. That particular friend had himself been almost hostile to the first biographer. It seems he had great resentment toward Burns. But he at least gave the potential biographer primary source material. The family would open up to no one until David Margolick approached well into the 21st century.
Students of mid-century American literature will have a natural interest in Burns's story. Like Ross Lockridge, Jr., who wanted a bestseller and had one, (1948's RAINTREE COUNTY) Burns's big book was subject to trimming and censoring by the publisher. This was absolutely standard practice in that era and, unquestionably, many an unwieldy tome was made palatable by the efforts of major editors. (Lockridge's tragedy was an almost maniacal desire to placate his editors. He let them cut and cut and then he volunteered cuts when the Book-Of-The-Month Club considered the book. He cut more so as to tailor it to MGM. Lockridge asphyxiated himself he day his book hit THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER list.) In short, the most talented novelists in the country, just after the war, had to heed what the publishers told them. It is remarkable that THE GALLERY, with gay characters throughout the book, was not only published, but that its gay content was not mentioned in 99 per cent of the reviews. To a reader in 2019, it is unmistakable. It had to be clear to readers in 1947, but the subject was not discussed. John Horne Burns wrote a book filled with realistic gay characters who'd served their country in an existential war and not one of the many critic who praised it mentioned this. Paul Fussell's 2004 introduction only mentions homosexuality at the end, when he says there was speculation that Burns had been rejected by a gay lover just before his death. (This is not to sleight Paul Fussell. He was an honest writer. But if you were to go back to the year 2004, you'd be surprised how low on the radar gay rights were compared with today.) David Margolick's introduction, side by side with Fussell's as of 2013, makes Burns's sexuality a main theme, as it must be. His biography maintains that theme. I think it should.
As Burns's writing slid downhill, the critics were more vocal about his sexuality. While skewering him as an almost insanely misanthropic man, a few of the critics tied that in with his sexuality. One lady, writing to his publisher to damn LUCIFER WITH A BOOK said she could tell from THE GALLERY that he was a homosexual, but that that in itself didn't bother her. The professional critics don't seem to have been as careful to make the distinction. They attributed Burns's hatred of his colleagues and other writers to the fact that he was gay. Here is another lesson: Back then, an openly gay man risked having his flaws attributed to his orientation. Burns was a petty, vindictive man, but he was living at a time when pettiness and vindictiveness weren't simply condemned as bad behavior. His bad behavior caused people to say his core being was the reason for it.
Gore Vidal could be pretty awful to his fellow writers, but it is illuminating to see him outdone in that department; and it is also key. Vidal is quoted saying he thought he himself would live to an old age and that he could control himself. Burns conveniently left this world a good half century before Vidal or Mailer did. These famously unforgiving raconteurs never turned their backs on THE GALLERY. (Mailer got to like it after setting the book aside when it first came out. Burns was dead by the time he praised it. But he did praise it.) Burns could not control himself. There was something self-destructive about him. The Post-World War Two literary scene was filled with fights at parties, fisticuffs on talk shows, etc. These were rather violent people. But Burns, having written a beautiful book filled with understanding for the conquered and the conquerors, reverted to a permanent adolescence. Six years after his book reached as wide a reading public and as accepting a reading public as almost any writer, first-time or otherwise, could expect, he was dead, having alienated almost every single person who'd ever helped him as a teacher or author.
March 1, 2022
In the introduction to this biography of John Horne Burns, Margolick states he is a straight man, and one had to wonder right then why he felt he needed to make that announcement. In a way, it is an apology in advance for the lack of insight and sympathy shown throughout concerning the forces of homophobia and insidious internalized homophobia. A couple of Burns's friends wonder if his gayness had anything to do with how his life turned out, and Margolick does not expand upon this. Would a biography of James Baldwin wonder if being black had anything to do with his life?
At times, this book is very readable, and other times frustrating. It's a good job, and he finds primary sources such as letters to the friend. But even that friend (Burns's Boswell) dropped out of sight and reappeared only as a tragic paranoid figure — gosh, I wonder if homophobia had anything to do with that? We’ll never know, but only some of us will wonder.
I've still not read The Gallery (Burns's groundbreaking novel of war torn Naples), but perhaps will someday.
At times, this book is very readable, and other times frustrating. It's a good job, and he finds primary sources such as letters to the friend. But even that friend (Burns's Boswell) dropped out of sight and reappeared only as a tragic paranoid figure — gosh, I wonder if homophobia had anything to do with that? We’ll never know, but only some of us will wonder.
I've still not read The Gallery (Burns's groundbreaking novel of war torn Naples), but perhaps will someday.
August 11, 2013
I have to wonder about why David Margolick the author, when writing about John Horne Burns, a flamboyantly gay writer, feels the need early on in the book to announce that he is straight. One ends up wondering how that ends up coloring his view of Burns--whose actions he makes many judgments about. Burns taught at a school on the East coast, then went into the Army. His service took him to Algiers and Italy, and that experience led to his first book, The Gallery, which was one of the highly acclaimed novels from World War II. His next novel, a satire on private school, and an unpublished third book were totally savaged. Margolick stresses over and over how unlikable Burns was and shows little sympathy for his subject (who died probably as a result of his alcoholism which may have ruined his writing). It is hard to like a biography about a person the author doesn't seem to like.
July 24, 2016
Interesting and sad story - now I have to read the first book (but maybe not the next two... We'll have to see about that). Next to last chapter, though, about everything the author had to do to try to research Burns' life was the most fascinating, and perhaps the saddest part of the story.
June 7, 2025
Any book that might send a reader off to rediscover John Horne Burns wonderful 'The Gallery' can't be all bad but as biography this has certain draw backs - the most obvious is the need David Margolick felt to assure readers he was a straight man. I wonder would an author make such a statement today except as preemptive apology in case he displays a lack of insight and sympathy towards his subject and the outward and insidious internalized homophobia that he grew up, lived with through and with. Margolick wasn't making any kind of apology, but he should have been. He is so blind to the plight of those not on the inside of the 'great', 'white', 'male', 'heterosexual' establishment shown here that I tremble at the potential solecisms he may have committed in his book on Billie Holiday. Did he have to explain or discover, or maybe fail to discover that being black was an important component in her life?
As a biography it is well written and readable, and it is the only biography poor Burns has, so it is worth reading, but only if you have read Burn's beautiful, coruscating, war novel 'The Gallery' because if you only read biographies and don't read the novels or poems, watch the films, look at the art, listen to the performances, then why are you reading the lives of authors, poets, actors, painters, or singers?
'The Gallery' is one of the great novels on war of all time, it is probably the greatest English language novel to come out of WWII. Read that and then read this and wish that Margolick had the decency to recognise his own inadequacies.
As a biography it is well written and readable, and it is the only biography poor Burns has, so it is worth reading, but only if you have read Burn's beautiful, coruscating, war novel 'The Gallery' because if you only read biographies and don't read the novels or poems, watch the films, look at the art, listen to the performances, then why are you reading the lives of authors, poets, actors, painters, or singers?
'The Gallery' is one of the great novels on war of all time, it is probably the greatest English language novel to come out of WWII. Read that and then read this and wish that Margolick had the decency to recognise his own inadequacies.
June 12, 2013
Interesting rediscovery of an author known for one major work, a postwar novel called The Gallery. Burns published two other books which were mostly reviled, and he died of a cerebral hemorrhage in his late 30s. The problem with the book is that he left very little behind except letters to friends and family, and memories with the same people. Margolick manages to reconstruct the exterior of his life but is less successful at bringing his character to life. He also includes some material about his war years that is repetitious, but seems to be included because he wanted to use everything he had access to. But the book is well written and for the most part, compelling. The academic in me wishes he had included specific bibliographical references. Now maybe I'll finally read the copy of The Gallery that I've owned since it was reissued in the 70s.
May 20, 2016
An interesting if not totally engaging biography. It's certainly competently written with a linking text to a lot of Burns's own words from his writings and voluminous letters. I found the best parts being his description of and musings on the sights and sounds of his war experience in North African and Italy, especially his disgust at the boorish, racist, demeaning behaviour of his fellow American G.I.'s. While Burns is an extremely accomplished writer in both poetry and prose, I didn't find him to be an exceptionally interesting person and this biography reflects, in my opinion, that bias.
June 12, 2013
An intense exploration of the short life and times of a one book wonder who wrote a popular novel “The Gallery” about soldiers stationed in Naples during and immediately after WWII. With his talent blunted by alcoholism, depression and frustration, his next novels elicited little interest and he died mysteriously at age 37. The notion that his being gay in a more biased time might have been a contributing factor in his decline is deftly and brilliantly explored by Margolick, which may or may not have been the case and does not explain the once celebrated book’s demise into total obscurity.
February 5, 2016
Author John Horne Burns's life and works are detailed in this biography of the promising gay writer in the 40's who wrote The Gallery, a book of WWII vignettes based on his experiences. Want to read Momma by him after this.
August 31, 2016
This was pretty dry at times but overall a very informative portrait of a gay postwar author. I'm really interested in reading Burns' work and I'm also familiar with the area of CT where he worked, which added an interesting touch to this.
May 19, 2023
Selected this book from the NYPL ebook catalog as it was in the “Staff Picks” section, and (as a retired librarian), I trust the judgment of library staff members. The staff made a good choice. An interesting and often sad window into the life of a man whom I had never heard of and who is worth knowing about.
October 5, 2018
A well-written, clear-eyed portrait of the entire man and his devolution.
July 14, 2013
This has to be the best book I've read this year. Thank God the NY Times excerpted this book in the Sunday magazine a few weeks ago or I probably never would have discovered it. John Horne Burns was a mess, but his life story was fascinating. His biography was more interesting to me than his books. I read The Gallery and A Cry of Children (I'm still searching for a copy of Lucifer with a Book so I can read that also) and they were good, but Dreadful was so much better. Burns was really a legend in his own mind and Margolick did a masterful job of showing just how dreadful he was in real life. He was so awful to so many people and downright delusional about his own talents and intellect. It's no wonder that he self-destructed. It's a shame that he couldn't get himself and his life under control.
February 2, 2014
When John Horne Burns, the author of the once famous World War II novel The Gallery, died in Leghorn, Italy in the fall of 1953, he left few friends but many enemies, steadily accumulated over most of his lifetime. When he was famous, he was simultaneously infamous, quite possibly the most odious of flawed American writers. Even so, one of the finest novels of the 1940's, critics, readers, and fellow novelists agreed then and still agree, is The Gallery. Set in Allied-occupied Naples, it is successfully unusual in structure and generally fine in style. Lucifer with a Book, his second novel, was almost universally damned, for none of the right reasons. I finished it today, regarding it as one of the most brilliant works of fiction I have read in a very long time, mainly for its satirical style, even though I satire moves me seldom.
July 9, 2013
John Horne Burns published a war novel, The Gallery, in 1947 that was praised by heavyweights like Norman Mailer, Gore Vidal, Edmund Wilson, and others; went on to commercial success; and made Burns briefly famous. He flamed out professionally and personally and died of mysterious causes, probably alcohol related, at age 36 in 1953. This biography, constructed from his letters and journals and from interviews with surviving family members and colleagues, brings him to life. He was a gay man, closeted per the rigors of the time, and the term dreadful was his campy code for homosexual. I found this book to be engrossing and at times moving.
August 4, 2013
Short, well-written biography of a talented but deeply flawed writer who never lived up to his promise. While I didn't learn to love or even admire Burns, I did learn enough to understand what made him, briefly, a sensation in the literary world and, years after his death, a tragic "forgotten" icon for some gay-rights advocates. Burns' eccentric, isolated character is brought to life vividly, with sensitivity and balance.
August 30, 2016
Although not a great biography, the subject is fascinating. John Horne Burns wrote a post WWII novel that was hailed as a masterpiece in its day and yet the book has disappeared from our radar. Not only was the book important in the 1950s but it also features queer characters that are open and comfortable about their sexuality. Thankfully this biography sheds light on the book and Burns. But it still saddens me that in all my years of reading, that no one ever pointed me to the book.
May 27, 2015
What a puzzle this book must have been to write! Piecing together a life of a shrouded man from limited writings and almost faded memories. But it's well done and Burns' life is interesting, sad, and short, but most of all a helpful piece of the history of mid century America in its closet.
May 7, 2015
This bio gives one a real sense of the times. The subject, however, is somewhat unappealing as a man.
May 28, 2014
An interesting look at the life an an author who was a big deal in the 40's and virtually forgotten now.
August 26, 2015
After 120+ pages I returned it to the library. I couldn't be less interested in this dude. I can't believe that there is close to 400 pages of this.
January 28, 2017
What a riveting read! Great insight into a mind who is typically forgotten, due to his sexual orientation and "peculiar" tastes, in post-WWII American literature.
October 12, 2013
Review coming soon.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews