Why Auden and Kallman Endured
What made Kallman a better candidate for Auden’s affections than previous attachments was their shared class origins, Kallman’s precocious intelligence, and his passion for language.
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Lend Me Your Ears
HARRY HAY pulled his Greek fisherman’s cap over his broad forehead. He’d just read an article on gay history containing so many assumptions he disagreed with that he barely knew where to begin arguing. He fiddled with his long strand of cultured pearls and let out a deep sigh. “There’s an old saying,” he muttered. “Them that don’t know tell, and them that know don’t.”
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‘I grew up in Bombay, home of the Hijra.’
Born in India in 1947, Sir Salman Rushdie was educated at Cambridge University and came of age in England—indeed he is a knight of the realm—but has lived in New York City for much of his adult life. It was his fourth novel, The Satanic Verses, that provoked a fatwa on his life, issued by Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini in 1989.
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Thomas Mann’s Secret Sharer
Thomas Mann had had homosexual affairs before marrying Katia Pringsheim, and afterwards still had powerful, though repressed, yearnings for young men. His subtle homosexual themes appeared in Tonio Kröger and Death in Venice. In Mario and the Magician, the conjuror Cipolla hypnotizes the handsome young Mario, who is humiliated and forced to kiss him in public.
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Picturing ‘The German Vice’
Stephan Likosky shares his findings regarding this important episode in queer history as it is reflected on postcards, which were an early medium by which ordinary people could learn about current events and be exposed to new ideas. Indeed, the importance of postcards cannot be overstated.
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A Priest’s Book Stirs the Faithful
Donald L. Boisvert had submitted a review that was quite critical of Martin’s book [Building a Bridge: How the Catholic Church and the LGBT Community Can Enter into a Relationship of Respect, Compassion, and Sensitivity], while Brian Bromberger proposed a defense of it, having interviewed the author in early summer. So it seemed logical to share Boisvert’s critique with Bromberger so as to allow the latter to comment.
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The Etymology of Lads
Like The Invention of Love, Housman’s Country is a love letter to a vanished time. What the poet cries out for in his final speech in Stoppard’s play is “Oxford in the Golden Age!”
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Steve Grand Is Not a Country Singer
I caught Grand’s act in Provincetown, a one-hour singing tour de force in which he alternates between piano and guitar. I interviewed him in person the next day. Find out more about Steve Grand on his website at www.SteveGrand.com.
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Keeping Art Alive in These Times
Public support for all of the arts is under threat in the wake of last November’s election. In this interview, which was conducted by phone in May, O’Hanian addresses the challenges facing both artists and arts organizations in the current political environment.
MoreStop Everything! Save the Planet!
Queer ecology compels us to study ecological limits and the urgently needed social mechanisms of limiting. If we choose to limit, our behavior becomes a vital part of human ecology as we address climate and habitat change.
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