Ode to Boy: Vol. 2: An Anthology of Same-Sex Attraction in Literature from the 19th Century Through the First World War

by Keith Hale

Ode to Boy, Vol. 2 is a refreshingly readable collection of literature devoted to same-sex attraction from the 19th Century through the war poets. Includes works from James Silk Buckingham, Lord Byron, Disraeli, Gogol, Thoreau, Melville, Whitman, Bayard Taylor, Ernst Haeckel, John Addington Symonds, Henry James, Stanley Lane-Poole, Wilde, Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman, Housman, Cather, Stein, Thomas Mann, Renee Vivien, Forster, D.H. Lawrence, H.D., Siegfried Sassoon, Rupert Brooke, Lawrence of Arabia, and Wilfred Owen. Hale's introductions to the authors are to the point and sometimes witty, specifying why the author or work is included in the volume and sometimes providing a larger biographical scope.

Genres: Poetry

304 pages, Paperback

First published September 2, 2014

About the author

Keith Hale grew up in central Arkansas and Waco, Texas. He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas at Austin. Following a five-year career as a journalist in Austin, Amsterdam, and Little Rock, Hale earned a Ph.D. in literature from Purdue and took a position teaching British and Philippine literature at the University of Guam. Hale writes both fiction and scholarly works including his groundbreaking novel Clicking Beat on the Brink of Nada (Cody), first published in the Netherlands, and Friends and Apostles, his edition of Rupert Brooke's letters published by Yale University Press, London.

Keith's books are available from Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple, Smashwords, Scribd, Odilo, Gardners, and OverDrive. Readers may follow new releases on the Watersgreen House website or Twitter account (watersgreenhaus).

Reviews

[Shane Pennell · Rating 5 out of 5]

As I said in my review for Volume One, we've been needing a book like this for a long time. The editor's selections are very good. I was more interested in this volume than the first because I was familiar with more of the authors. The sections on Lord Byron, Shakespeare, Housman, Rupert Brooke, and a few others are excellent. Introductions to other writers are sometimes short but always interesting. It was fascinating to me, reading both volumes, how frequently recurring some of the themes are in gay literature, at least in the past. I learned a lot from this book, and that was the goal. I also enjoyed the material. Great book for a gay lit class or for casual reading.