IN THE WORDS of the English author G. K. Chesterton: “A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.” This adage comes to mind after reading Lew Levenson’s novel, Butterfly Man. The book was first published by the Macaulay Company in 1934 and reprinted by Castle Books in the 1950s.
While details about Levenson’s busy life remain a little sketchy, he left a trail of credits as a writer that include a stint in Hollywood as a screenwriter for the early talkies (1933–34) and a much longer career as a journalist. Although he contributed articles to a number of mainstream publications such as McCall’s, The New York Times, and The Nation, he was a committed communist who became a baseball reporter for The Daily Worker under the byline Charles Dexter. Butterfly Man would seem to be his only published novel. Despite the paucity of personal information about the author, the novel makes it clear that Levenson must have been entirely familiar with the gay demimonde that it depicts.
Given its age and copyright status, curious readers can find the novel in the public domain and make their own assessment of its quality. But there is little doubt that most literati would regard Butterfly Man a mediocre novel at best, and few would disagree with an unreferenced review in the Galustian catalogue characterizing the book as “anti-faggot trash.” While lacking literary gravitas, Levenson’s novel does provide a closeup look at the gay underworld of 1920s urban America. When the novel begins, the protagonist is seventeen years old and newly graduated from high school. The story ends in 1930, when he’s 26. This timeframe roughly coincides with the so-called “Pansy Craze” era. Butterfly Man opens up an LGBT time capsule with its descriptions of after-hours gay clubs, drag balls, and a diverse array of gay characters. But the novel’s primary focus is on the circumstances encountered by its central character, Kenneth Gracey, a naïve boy from a small town in Texas who has a gift for dancing.
Ronald Valdiserri, MD, is a professor of epidemiology at the Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University.
