This week, the GCH Library is celebrating LGBT+ History Month with a post highlighting some of the many important authors and novels in LGBT+ history!
Many literary classics were written by authors who identified as LGBT+ themselves or engaged in same-sex relationships - often during a time in which such behaviour was socially unacceptable and even illegal.
Famous for her 'stream of consciousness' style writing, Virginia Woolf was also known to have had a romantic relationship with fellow author Vita Sackville-West. It was this relationship that actually inspired her 1928 novel Orlando which explores themes such a biography, sexual identity and gender difference. In the book, our protagonist Orlando experiences centuries of English history taking both male and female forms throughout their life. It has been regarded as a 'maserpiece of modernist queer fiction'.
James Baldwin's
Giovanni's Room is another hallmark novel in LGBT+ literary history. Published in 1956, the novel is credited with encouraging wider discussion about same-sex attraction. It is also regarded for the ways in which Baldwin introduced new readers to more complex depictions of bisexual and homosexual characters instead of poor stereotypes. Baldwin was an active participant in the Civil Rights Movement and an openly gay man. Throughout
his life he became progressively more outspoken in condemning discrimination against the gay and lesbian community.
Likely best known in school for his 1908 work A Room with a view, E.M Forster is also famous for his novel Maurice. Written in 1913 Maurice, was not published until 1971 as Forster feared the backlash his depiction of homosexual love in twentieth-century England would provoke.
Another major reason behind the delayed publishing of the novel was due to the legal reality of Forster's time. This prevented him from publishing a book which featured a happy ending for it's gay protagonist. When Maurice was finally published in the 1970s, homosexuality had only recently been decriminalised. It is rumoured that the manuscript for Maurice was found with the following note: 'Punishable, but worth it?'.
Alice Walker is also an important figure in LGBT+ literary history. While the relationship between Celie and Shug is more of a sub-plot within The Colour Purple, it's presence provoked much discussed and caused significant backlash when the novel was published in 1982. Indeed, the novel was often censored for its explicit language, violence and depictions of homosexuality.
Regarded as a bisexual African-American literary icon, Walker has confirmed that she has had romantic relationships with men and women in her life. Walker is also famous for being the first African-American woman to win the Pulizer Prize for Fiction which she won for The Colour Purple in 1982.
Other famous historical LGBT+ authors include Truman Capote, Walt Whitman, Sappho, Oscar Wilde, Emily Dickinson, W H Auden, Siegfried Sassoon, Lord Byron and many more.
You can find books written by many of these authors in the LGBT+ History Month displays in both St Andrew's and St Michael's libraries.
For more reading recommendations please ask at the Library desk.
Happy LGBT+ History Month!
