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

AIDS writing: anger in, arbitrariness of history, as catharsis, confrontation with reality, diaries, Ferro on, Holleran on, humiliation in, humor in, as literature of witness, loss of control, magical thinking, The Married Man, motives for reading, narrative conventions, novels, paradox of, of Picano, ways of approaching, White on, of Whitmore

Ambidextrous (Picano)

“Amsterdam” (Holleran)

And the Band Played On (Shilts)

And Things That Go Bump in the Night (McNally)

Angels in America (Kushner)

Arkansas (Leavitt)

An Asian Minor (Picano)

Atlantis: The Autobiography of a Search (Ferro and Grumley)

autobiography, in gay fiction

“Bearing Arms” (Whitman)

“Bearing Witness” (Whitmore)

Beautiful. See aesthetics

The Beautiful Room Is Empty (White)

beauty: androgyny and, of black males, of Fire Island, in gay culture, in Second Son. See also aesthetics

The Beauty of Men (Holleran): as autobiography, comparison with A Single Man, on family life, metaphysics in, New York flashbacks, postponement of fulfillment

Becoming a Man (Monette)

The Better Angel (Meeker)

Black Males (Mapplethorpe)

Black Men/White Men (Smith, ed.)

blacks. See African Americans

“The Black Widow” (Whitmore)

Blue Boy in Black (White)

The Blue Star (Ferro)

The Bombay Trunk (Picano)

The Book of Lies (Picano)

Borrowed Time (Monette)

“The Boys on the Beach” (Decter)

A Boy’s Own Story (White): as autobiography, impact on gay literature, narrator’s role, psychiatrist in, sadomasochism in, sexual relations in, on teenage love

The Burning Library (White)

Burroughs, William S.

The Caseworker (Whitmore)

Celibate at Twilight (Mosher)

The Celluloid Closet (Russo)

The Chelsea Girls (Morrissey and Warhol)

A Chorus Line (musical)

Christopher and His Kind, 1929–1939 (Isherwood)

Christopher Street (periodical)

the circuit, defined

Cities of the Plain (Proust)

The City and the Pillar (Vidal)

City of Night (Rechy)

civil rights movement

coming out: gay fiction and, gay migration and, professional impact on writers, social imitation in, as spiritual exercise

The Confessions of Danny Slocum (Whitmore)

conscientious objection

Cory, Donald Webster

Cox, Christopher: acting career, on Chelsea Hotel, death from AIDS, as editor, friendship with Virgil Thomson, gay cultural history and, journalistic background, migration to New York, political radicalism, publishing career, relationship with White, sexually explicit works, Stonewall riots and, VQ membership

Dancer from the Dance (Holleran): campiness, death in, ending, family life in, Fire Island in, on gay fiction, gay lifestyle in, gay migration in, interracial relations, irony in, Leavitt’s criticism, letters as narrative, longing for idyllic place, as model of gay novel, New York as focus of, publication, on race and aesthetics, sadomasochism in, self-transformation in, sexual discretion in

The Darker Proof: Stories from a Crisis (White and Mars-Jones)

death, in Fire Island works

Death in Venice (Mann)

Defense of Beauty (Bianci)

The Deformity Lover (Picano)

diaries, of AIDS victims

differences (journal)

The Divided Path (Kent)

Do My Thing (Manbow and Pederson)

“dream of Europe”

Entertaining Mr. Sloane (Orton)

“Esthetics and Loss” (White)

Europe: as escape from AIDS, White on

Eustace Chisholm and the Works (Purdy)

Evergreen Chronicles (journal)

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (Reuben)

expatriate lifestyle: European transformation, Ferro on, freedom of, Picano on, VQ and, White on

The Family of Max Desir (Ferro): as autobiography, as breakthrough work, impact on gay literature, interracial relationships, sexuality in, spiritual aspects

The Farewell Symphony (White): as autobiography, Cox characterized in, drag queens not found in, on European dream, on marriage, on niche marketing, personal relationships in, rejection of monogamy, on religious bigotry, sadomasochism in, self-acceptance in, sexual discretion in, sexual relations in, structure of, on White’s literary status

Ferro, Robert: AIDS and, on autobiographical fiction, campiness in works, on European men, on expatriate lifestyle, financial support by parents, friendship with Holleran, gay migration and, on illness, interracial relationships, Leavitt’s criticism of, literary influences on, partnership with Grumley, on protest literature, on reincarnation, relationship with Whitmore, search for Atlantis, on the supernatural, voice of controlled distance, VQ membership

Fight: The Legacy (Whitmore)

Finistère (Peters)

Fire Island, AIDS impact on, class divisions, death and, drug culture, encroachment of real world, fear of physical beauty of, gay aesthetic, Holleran move to, as image of the ‘70s, intimidation of gay men, isolation, lesbian population, Meat Rack, obsession with novelty, pastoral tradition, population density, as primal dream, protection from police raids, public sex, scale of, social changes, unreality of, VQ writers and. See also Cherry Grove, N.Y.; The Pines, N.Y.

Fire Island (de Kooning)

Forgetting Elena (White): aesthetics in, amnesia of narrator, Cox depicted in, criticism of, death in, expatriate experience, fashion in, Fire Island in, as Japanese pillow-book, medieval imagery, obsession with novelty, publication, social change in, street language

Four Saints in Three Acts (Thomson and Stein)

“Friends at Evening” (Holleran)

Gay and Lesbian Review

gay bars, post-Stonewall

gay culture: age bias, AIDS and, before Stonewall, bohemianism, creation of, expansion, in France, in gay literature, ghettos, glossy magazines, interracial relations, language, male beauty in, niches, of 1970s, pseudo-heterosexual marriages, resorts, sadomasochism, social customs, utopias

gay liberation: AIDS and, civil rights movement and, closeted gays, criticism of, as freedom from guilt, gay literary history narrative, Kramer criticism of, migration to cities, rejection of heterosexual role models, sadomasochism, safe gay community, White on

gay literature: autobiographical fiction, before VQ, classical influences, critical and social expectations, criticism of VQ’s approach, foundations of, freedom from social agenda, government suppression of, happy endings, heterosexual conventions, historical narratives, Holleran on, homophobia and, individual in, interracial relations, magazines, mainstream book distribution, marriage plot, avoidance of, middle-aged men in, niche marketing, places-to-be-gay, post-World War II, publishers, queerness in, self-discovery and, sexual behavior reading conventions, sexuality in, social purpose, spiritual issues, sympathy for homosexuality, verbal effulgence, VQ members’ involvement in gay journalism, writing conferences. See also gay writers; pornography

“Gay Literature Today” (Ferro)

Gay Men’s Health Crisis

gay migration: to Baltimore, closet mentality and, coming out and, Holleran on, isolation from roots, mirroring African American migration, of writers

“The Gay Novel Now” (Whitmore)

“Gay Two Thousand”

Gay Widowers (Picano)

gay writers: aesthetics and, African American, European experience vital to, migration to cities, responsibility of, silence on race relations. See also gay literature

The Gay Year (de Forest)

Genet, Jean: autobiographical nature of work, Bullins’s criticism of “The Blacks,” impact on VQ, on love

“The Geology of Southern California at Black’s Beach” (Picano)

Giovanni’s Room (Baldwin)

“Goldfish and Olives” (White)

Goodbye to Berlin (Isherwood)

Ground Zero (Holleran)

Grumley, Michael: on African American culture, AIDS diary, attractiveness of, on black male beauty, death from AIDS, disregard of unpleasantries of history, drawings of, gay migration and, on glamour, identification with Gauguin, interracial relationships, journalistic background, as model, movie career, partnership with Ferro, on sadomasochism, search for Atlantis, on Second Son as AIDS novel, on sexual liberation, on the supernatural, transcendental homelessness, “Uptown” (newspaper column), VQ membership

Guercino, Giovanni Francesco

guilt: AIDS-related, freedom from

Hard Corps: Studies in Leather and Sadomasochism (Grumley)

History of Sexuality (Foucault)

Holleran, Andrew: on aging, AIDS writing, on anger, appearance of, autobiographical works, Bawer’s criticism of, campiness of works, caring for parents, chance meetings and, colonial imagery, European dream, on family life, fear of intimacy, on Ferro-Grumley interracial relationships, on Fire Island harbor, on freedom of homosexuality, friendship with Ferro, fusing of sacred and profane, on gay fiction, on gay migration, on interracial relations, isolation of parents from gay lifestyle, journalistic background, Leavitt’s criticism of, metaphysics of, migration to New York, New York in works of, on post-AIDS Fire Island culture, postponement of fulfillment, on race and aesthetics, rebellion against bourgeois values, ritual and, on sadomasochism, self-hatred, on self-transformation, sexual discretion of works, unfinished works, VQ membership

homelessness, transcendental

Hometowns (Preston)

homophobia: of African Americans, in Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex, gay fiction and, internalized, sadomasochism as, sexual behavior in literature and

The Homosexual in America: A Subjective Approach (Cory)

homosexuality: in American fiction, Comfort on, de-medicalization of, homosexuals as separate race, interracial relations, as pathologic diagnosis, in postwar society, Reuben on, sexual vs. racial otherness, VQ’s rejection of medical model

A House on the Ocean, A House on the Bay (Picano)

“The House Sitter” (Holleran)

In September, the Light Changes (Holleran)

interracial relations: African American homophobia, cultural context, in gay culture, in gay fiction, gay/lesbian identification with blacks, gay white representation of African American males, Grumley on, race and aesthetics, sexual vs. racial otherness, VQ and

The Invisible Glass (Wahl)

Isherwood, Christopher: Auden and, autobiographical works, avoidance of gay stereotypes, defense of homosexual rights, individuality of characters, influence on VQ, influence on White, on middle-aged men, as model of gay writer, spiritual issues

I’ve a Feeling We’re Not in Kansas Anymore (Mordden)

Janus (homophile organization)

Journal of Homosexuality

Journal of Lesbian and Gay Identities

journeys: European experience for gay writers, gay migration to cities

The Joy of Gay Sex (White and Silverstein), on affairs with heterosexuals, AIDS-related guilt and, format and illustrations, as guidebook for gay lifestyle, Kramer criticism of, on sadomasochism, significance

The Joy of Lesbian Sex

The Joy of Sex (Comfort)

The Joy Spot (Andros)

Just Above My Head (Baldwin)

Kathleen and Frank (Isherwood)

A Key West Companion (Cox)

Krafft-Ebing, Richard

Kramer, Larry: criticism of White, Dancer from the Dance publication and, on Fire Island, on gay liberation, on gay writing, on The Joy of Gay Sex, on public sex

Lambda Book Report

“Last Dance” (Whitmore)

Last Exit to Brooklyn (Selby)

Late in the Season (Picano)

Leavitt, David: criticism of Holleran and Ferro, criticism of VQ, on Dancer from the Dance, European experience, interracial relationships and, Schwartz’s criticism of, “The Term Paper Artist”

The Lesbian S/M Safety Manual (Califia)

Life Drawing (Grumley)

“Lights in the Valley” (Holleran)

Like People in History (Picano): AIDS in, ending of, Fire Island drug culture in, Nature in, protagonist, success of

Lions and Shadows (Isherwood)

Listen, the Loon Sings (Armory)

Long Time Coming (Stout)

Loon trilogy (Armory)

“Losing My Mind” (Sondheim)

The Man from C.A.M.P. (Holliday)

“Man in Polyester Suit” (Mapplethorpe)

Mapplethorpe, Robert: photograph of White interviewing Capote, photographs of black males, photographs of S/M culture, White on

March on Washington (1987)

marriage: gay attitudes toward, gay relationships and, same-sex, legalization of, VQ’s rejection of conventional structure

“The Married Man” (Holleran)

The Married Man (White)

Martin Bauman (Leavitt)

“Memoirs of an Ancient Activist” (Goodman)

Men’s Style (magazine)

Men Who Loved Me (Picano)

“Michael’s Room” (Stambolian)

migration to cities. See gay migration

morality, conventional

Mr. Benson (Preston)

“Mr. Lancaster” (Isherwood)

My Guru and His Disciple (Isherwood)

narrator, in autobiographical fiction

Nebraska (Whitmore)

“New Frontiers of S-M” (Whitmore)

The New Joy of Gay Sex (Silverstein and Picano), AIDS effects on, changes from first edition, illustrations, reflecting post-AIDS gay culture

New York City: attracting gay writers, gay acceptance before Stonewall, in Holleran works, as metonym for Gay Life, White on gay community

New York Native (newspaper)

New York Stories (Picano)

Nights in Aruba (Holleran): as bildungsroman, on bohemianism, European dream in, homage to family life, impact on gay community, isolation of parents from gay lifestyle, New York as focus of, place as substitute for time, on religion, on self-discovery

Nightswimmer (Olshan)

Nocturnes for the King of Naples (White): betrayal in, as gay romance, Genet’s influence on, spiritual influences, structure, style, Yohalem review

The Normal Heart (Kramer)

One O’Clock Jump (Picano)

On Moral Fiction (Gardner)

“An Oracle” (White)

“The Ossuary” (Holleran)

The Other Persuasion (Kleinberg)

The Others (Ferro)

Our Lady of the Flowers (Genet)

Our Paris (White and Sorin)

The Outcast (Weirauch)

“Out Here: Tales of Fire Island” (Whitmore)

“The Penthouse” (Holleran)

“The Personal Is Political” (White)

“Petunias” (Holleran)

Phil Andros (fictional character)

“Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young” (Wilde)

Picano, Felice: adoption of gay life, AIDS and, ambivalence toward New York, appearance of, on bisexuality, childhood drawings, on classical mythology, coming out, impact on career, culture of morbidity and, description of White, on European Man, on expatriate lifestyle, foundation of Sea Horse Press, influences on work, memoirs as novels, on Nature, New York origins of, plays of, on psychological control, reading and self-discovery, self-transformation of, on the supernatural, VQ membership

The Picture of Dorian Gray (Wilde)

The Pines, N.Y.: gay aesthetic, harbor, high cost of living, intimidation of gay men, population density, scale of, superficiality of

A Place at the Table (Bawer)

Plays Well With Others (Gurganus)

political activism: pornography and, of Whitmore

pornography: distribution of, happy endings as, limitations on writers, political activism and, pre-Stonewall

postmodern theory, identity in

Prater Violet (Isherwood)

“The Priest and the Acolyte”

Prince (entertainer)

Prisoner of Love (Genet)

Provincetown, Massachusetts

Psychopathia Sexualis (Krafft-Ebing)

A Queer Geography (Browning)

Rat Bohemia (Schulman)

“Refugees from America: A Gay Manifesto” (Wittman)

Rehobeth Beach, Delaware

“Reprise” (White)

The Rights (Whitmore)

The Rise and Fall of Gay Culture (Harris)

“Running on Empty” (White)

sadomasochism, after Stonewall, attention and, control of victimization, as fiction, fisting in, gay bars and, in gay culture, Grumley on, heterosexual, human engagement in, increase in, as internalized homophobia, Krafft-Ebing on, literary nature of, as overcompensation, as repetition compulsion, as theater, value of masochists’ defects, VQ’s positive spin on

Sagarin, Edward (Cory, Donald Webster)

The Scorpion (Weirauch)

SDS. See Students for a Democratic Society

Sea of Tranquillity (Russell)

Second Son (Ferro): AIDS as “the Plague,” 152, ambivalence toward disease identification, as autobiography, campiness in, physical beauty in, plot summary, Splendora as gay utopia

“A Sentimental Education” (Holleran)

sexual behavior: Camus’ presentation of, Comfort on homosexuality, French vs. English terms, homophobia and, sadomasochism, before Stonewall, in VQ’s writings, Whitmore’s depiction of

sexual liberation: as freedom from guilt, guidebooks, in mid-’70s

Sexual Outlaw (Rechy)

Sheppherd-Pratt Hospital

Silverstein, Charles

A Single Man (Isherwood)

“Skinned Alive” (White)

Slashed to Ribbons in Defense of Love (Picano)

“Sleeping Soldiers” (Holleran)

“Someone Is Crying in the Chateau de Berne” (Holleran)

Someone Was Here (Whitmore)

Song of Aaron (Armory)

Song of the Loon (Armory)

States of Desire (White)

Steward, Samuel. See Andros, Phil

Stonewall Riots (1969): Cox’s description of, gay literature and, impact on closeted gays, interracial aspects

Strange Brother (Niles)

A Strange Virus of Unknown Origin (Leibowitch)

Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)

A Summer on Fire Island (Goodman)

10 Percent (magazine)

“The Term Paper Artist” (Leavitt)

There Are Giants in the Earth (Grumley)

“The Times as It Knows Us” (Barnett)

Torgovnick, Marianna

tragedy, convention of

A True Likeness (Picano, ed.)

Twilight Men (Tellier)

“Uptown” (newspaper column)

victimization, in sadomasochism

Violet Quill (VQ): aesthetics and, AIDS impact on, as All-Praise Club, autobiographical works, class conflict in works, closeted members, corrupting the young, criticism of, depicting gay life, dissolution of, expatriate lifestyles, as “Fag-Lit Mafia,” formal meetings, gay migration and, Genet’s impact on, historical milieu, ignoring postwar gay fiction, impact on gay community, influence on gay literature, 32, Isherwood’s influence on, membership, middle-class view of gay life, opposition to classical influences on literature, origins of, on personal relationships, places in fiction, race and, rejection of conventional marriage, rejection of idealized gay life, relationships of members, on sadomasochism, on sexual liberation, sexually explicit works, Southern influence on, theatrical aspirations of members, unlikeable characters of, works about Fire Island

“Watermarked” (White)

Waves: An Anthology of New Gay Fiction (Mordden, ed.)

Weirauch, Anna Elisabet

White, E. Valentine. See White, Edmund

White, Edmund: on abandonment by America, aesthetics of, AIDS-related guilt, as AIDS witness, AIDS writings, ambivalence between socialism and snobbism, appearance of, on artistic irresponsibility, on autobiography and fiction, on black male beauty, chance meetings, collaboration with Sorin, on coming out, on death of Proust, difficulties with intimacy, on European gay lifestyle, Fire Island insecurities of, Fleming on, fusing of sacred and profane, on gay culture, on gay fiction before Stonewall, on gay love, Gay Men’s Health Crisis and, gay migration and, on gay visibility, on Genet, Genet’s influence on, HIV status of, on homosexuality, on humanity of characters, on humor in AIDS writing, ignoring Vidal’s work, internalized homophobia of, on irresponsibility of the artist, Isherwood’s influence on, journalistic background, Kramer’s criticism of, on love, on Mapplethorpe, on marriage, mentors, migration to New York, on Mindshaft (bar), on multiple sex partners, on New York City and writers, on niche marketing, participation in Stonewall Riots, personal relationships, on The Pines, plays of, on Prince, reading and self-discovery, rejection of heterosexual role models, on sadomasochism, self-acceptance of characters’ sexuality, self-hatred of, self-imposed artistic failure, on sexual orientation, VQ membership

White on Black on White (Dowell)

Whitmore, George: AIDS and, ambivalence toward New York, appearance of, on The City and the Pillar, as conscientious objector, on Fire Island, gay migration and, on gay novels, on generation conflict, on Genet, journalistic background, lawsuit against Northern Dispensary, migration to New York, on Phil Andros, plays of, political activism, on post-Stonewall gay culture, relationship with Ferro, relationship with White, on sadomasochism, sex therapy, on sexual liberation, symposium on the gay novel (1980), on transcendence in the campy, VQ membership