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

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bergman, David, 1950-

Series:

Between men--between women

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Gay men's writings, American--History and criticism.

Gay men's writings, American.

Homosexuality and literature--United States--History--20th century.

Homosexuality and literature.

Gay men.

Intellectual life.

United States.

History.

American literature--New York (State)--New York--History and criticism.

American literature.

New York (State)--New York.

American literature--20th century--History and criticism.

Gay men--United States--Intellectual life.

Violet Quill (Group of writers).

Gay men in literature.

New York (N.Y.)--Intellectual life--20th century.

National Book Committee.

Physical Description:

xviii, 304 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

New York : Columbia University Press, [2004]

Summary:

The Members of the Literary Circle Known as the Violet Quill -- Andrew Holleran, Felice Picano, Edmund White, Christopher Cox, Michael Grumley, Robert Ferro, and George Whitmore -- collectively represent the aspirations and the achievement of gay writing during and after the gay liberation movement. David Bergman's social history shows how the works of these authors reflected, advanced, and criticized the values, principles, and prejudices of the culture of gay liberation. In spinning many of the most important stories gay men told of themselves in the short period between the 1969 Stonewall Riots and the devastation of the AIDS epidemic during the 1980s, the Violet Quill exerted an enormous influence on gay culture. The death toll of the AIDS epidemic, including four of the Violet Quill's seven members, has made putting such recent events into a historical context all the more important and difficult. The work of the Violet Quill expresses the joy, suffering, grief, hope, activism, and caregiving of their generation. The Violet Hour meets the urgent need for a history of the men who bore witness not only to the birth but also to the decimation of a culture.

Contents:

1. These Shrieking Violets 1

2. Gay Writing Before the Violet Quill 38

3. Two Journeys 80

4. Race and the Violet Quill 114

5. Beauty and the Beach 137

6. Love and Sex 170

7. AIDS 216.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references 283-288) and index.

ISBN:

0231130503

0231130511

OCLC:

53485137