Seldom do I get a thrill of recognition when I open a scholarly work and begin reading, but the thrill was there and it was real when my eyes took in the first two paragraphs of this book. As it happens, the period defined as gay fiction’s golden age runs from 1949 to 1979, and the latter half of it coincides with my own introduction to, and avid consumption of, gay fiction in all its colorful forms, both pulp and hardcover. Here:

Can you imagine The Last of the Mohicans as a gay novel? What about Hiawatha? Can you visualize an exploratory expedition in the wilds of the northwest, stumbling into a hidden valley of perpetual springtime populated by Indians, white trappers, renegade blacks, and varicolored cowpokes, all camping together in perfect harmony? A colony of heavily-hung beauties sucking and fucking their little hearts out for God and Country?

— Angelo d’Arcangelo, The Homosexual Handbook (1968)

If you recognize the book which Angelo d’Arcangelo is describing, you are probably revealing either your age or your better-than-average knowledge of pre-Stonewall literature. Despite the novel’s recent reprint, I would imagine that the first gay best seller aimed almost exclusively at gay readers probably remains unknown today to the majority of the under forty crowd…

And indeed I recognized that book [hint or spoiler: it’s part of a trilogy], and a good many of the others cited and discussed in the following 240 pages. Drawing on the expertise of nineteen scholars, bibliographers, authors and collectors, The Golden Age gives both a comprehensive look at the history of gay fiction generally and detailed essays on various genres that flowered during the period and several authors whose work was either seminal or influential. There is also a series of pieces on the history of censorship as it applied to gay authors and gay-themed works, including a detailed examination of the progress of defined “pornography” through the American courts; this latter may be heavy going for some readers, but it fills a necessary blank in our understanding of how our literature developed and of the social and legal currents that allowed it to come to maturity as a full member of the creative world.

Specific genres treated in their own sections of the book include mystery, horror, Gothic, and adventure writing, with a short essay on the development of works with a military setting. Erotica is not short changed, and comedies and romance are given their due, as well. Several of the contributors were writing and publishing during the period; they have given us their reminiscences of what the times felt like to young authors and how they dealt with the shifting tides of legal and social change along with the ever-changing shoreline and corporate crews of the publishing world.

Not the least of the book’s pleasures is the inclusion of numerous small, full color reproductions of the original covers of books being discussed or cited, a treasure trove of pulp illustration art.

If some of the titles discussed now seem obscure, many more will be familiar to anyone who has an interest in pre-1980 fiction; I was surprised when I realized that my own bookshelves still hold nearly three dozen of the titles now seen as marking the shift from shadow scribbling to the noon-day of serious literature. So much of this was never sold in any form but as pulp paperbacks that it is very nearly miraculous that so many books have survived, but also a testament to the transformative power of writing that moves ahead of its time into uncharted waters.

To round out its purpose, the book includes two bibliographies: one of secondary sources and references for further exploration of the subject, the other a detailed index of the works cited with complete publication data.

I read this book eagerly and with a great deal of pleasure; now that I have gulped its content, I have already begun re-reading at a more measured pace. The quality of writing in the individual essays is of a very high order, the information presented is fascinating and important to our history, and I believe the book will find a place among the important cultural studies of the gay world.

The Golden Age of Gay Fiction, Drewey Wayne Gunn, ed., Albion, NY, MLR Press, LLC, 2009, 262 pp. ISBN# 978-1-60820-048-8 (e-book) $16.99. Or ISBN# 978-1-60820-048-1 (paperback) $69.99. Available direct from www.mlrpress.com or through your local independent bookseller.