Violet Hour: The Violet Quill and the Making of Gay Culture

Columbia University Press

Publishers Since 1893

New York Chichester, West Sussex

cup.columbia.edu

E-ISBN 978-0-231-50383-9

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Bergman, David, 1950–

The violet hour : the Violet Quill and the making of gay culture / David Bergman.

p. cm.—(Between men—between women)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 0–231–13050–3 (cloth : alk. paper)—ISBN 0–231–13051–1 (alk. paper)

1. Gay men’s writings, American—History and criticism. 2. Homosexuality and literature—United States—History—20th century. 3. American literature—New York (State)—New York—History and criticism. 4. American literature—20th century—History and criticism. 5. New York (N.Y.)—Intellectual life—20th century. 6. Gay men—United States—Intellectual life. 7. Violet Quill (Group of writers) 8. Gay men in literature. I. Title. II. Series.

PS153.G38B38 2004

810.9'9206642—dc22

2003064645

A Columbia University Press E-book.

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Portions of this book have appeared elsewhere in slightly different form, as follows: “Race and the Violet Quill,” American Literary History 9.1 (Spring 1997): 79–102; “Selling Gay Literature Before Stonewall,” in Sonya L. Jones, ed., A Sea of Stories: The Shaping Power of Narrative in Gay and Lesbian Cultures (Binghamton, N.Y.: Haworth Press, 2000), 43–52; “Isherwood and the Violet Quill,” in James J. Berg and Chris Freeman, eds., The Isherwood Century: Essays on the Life and Work of Christopher Isherwood (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2000), 203–216; and “Beauty and the Beach: Representing Fire Island,” in William Leap, ed., Public Sex/Gay Space (New York: Columbia University Press, 1999), 95–114. I thank the editors for all their help in those earlier versions.

I also gratefully acknowledge permission to quote from the following works of George Whitmore: