The homosexual in literature

In Short

Published by the Village Press in 1959, Noel I. Garde's The homosexual in literature is a pioneering bibliographical study that meticulously catalogues works in the English language from roughly 700 B.C. through 1958. Covering novels, poetry, short stories, drama, and fictionalized biography, the volume traces how male homosexuality is represented across creative writing. It divides texts into primary works with central homosexual themes and secondary works featuring peripheral, veiled, or minor characters. The book has lasted as an indispensable historical document, offering an unprecedented, systematic record of queer literary history before Stonewall.

The Story

The volume opens by establishing a precise analytical framework for surveying male homosexuality in English-language literature. Noel I. Garde sets out clear criteria, deliberate inclusions, and explicit exclusions to transform a sprawling topic into a structured, historical narrative. The survey explicitly limits its scope to works published in English or available in English translation, focusing exclusively on male representation while setting aside non-fictional medical, psychiatric, or purely philosophical treatises.

From this opening foundation, the bibliography unfolds across two distinct, parallel sections structured chronologically to chart the evolution of literature from classical antiquity to the late 1950s. The first section, titled "Primary," gathers works where central characters are explicitly gay or where homosexuality forms an intrinsic component of the core narrative. The second section, designated "Other Than Primary," catalogs works featuring secondary, latent, veiled, or implied homosexual themes. Garde assigns precise letter codes to these secondary titles to distinguish major characters from minor appearances, third-person references, and situations involving false accusations or self-suspicion.

As the chronological progression moves through classical authors, medieval figures, and modern authors like Thomas Mann, Marcel Proust, Gore Vidal, and James Baldwin, the narrative arc reveals a dramatic increase in published works over the centuries. The project captures the shift from historical suppression to an explosion of mid-century mid-market paperbacks, mainstream fiction, and small-press memoirs. Garde acknowledges the subjectivity inherent in categorization, providing cross-references for ambiguous titles and leaving blank space at the end of the bibliography so readers can manually record newly published titles for the years 1959 and 1960.

The final phase of the book transitions from chronological lists to comprehensive analytical indexes. Garde organizes the cataloged literature by national settings, specific sub-locales like bars, military barracks, and boarding schools, and specialized character archetypes or occupations. By concluding with an exhaustive author index, the text resolves its sweeping historical inventory into an accessible, practical research manual, ending with a complete map of how gay themes navigated Western literary culture over two millennia.

How It Unfolds

The voyage begins Garde defines the parameters of his survey, outlining strict criteria that limit the bibliography to English-language fiction, drama, poetry, and fictionalized biography. He establishes the core distinction between primary texts and secondary representations.

Mapping the primary works The project lays out the chronological list of primary literature, beginning with classical works and moving toward twentieth-century texts. Each entry receives full publishing details, including original publication dates, American editions, and paperback reprints.

Categorizing the secondary themes Garde details the "Other Than Primary" works, utilizing a letter-symbol coding system ranging from explicit dialogue to latent or false accusations. This section captures peripheral or repressed homosexual elements across canonical and popular fiction.

Indexing the landscape The narrative moves into detailed analytical indexes that group the works by geography, specific settings, professions, and recurring character dynamics. This analytical section transforms the chronological list into a cross-referenced sociological guide.

Leaving room for the future The survey concludes with blank record spaces for titles appearing in 1959 and 1960, followed by a comprehensive index of noteworthy authors. The ending leaves the bibliography open for ongoing updates as new literature emerges.

The People

Noel I. Garde The bibliographer and editor who seeks to create an objective, exhaustive record of homosexual literature. Garde wants to provide readers and scholars with an organized historical perspective on a historically marginalized topic. His strict methodology stands in the way of chaos, though he struggles with the inevitable subjective edge between primary and secondary categories. He ends up creating a landmark historical directory that brings order to centuries of scattered publishing history.

The Primary Characters The central figures within the cataloged primary literature, ranging from historical monarchs and Classical Greek figures to modern mid-century protagonists. These figures want self-expression, romantic partnership, or social survival within their respective narratives. Social prejudice, legal persecution, and personal shame stand in their way. In Garde's catalog, they end up spanning a vast spectrum, ending in tragedy, secrecy, or rare moments of lasting partnership.

The Secondary Characters The peripheral, latent, or implied figures indexed throughout the secondary literary citations. These characters desire connection or personal fulfillment, but society, narrative constraints, or closeted lifestyles keep them relegated to subtext, minor dialogue, or brief references. They end up serving as subtle markers of historical presence within broader mainstream literature.

In Its Own Voice

"This bibliography provides a chronological listing of all known books in the English language, in the general field of fiction, concerned with male homosexuality, or having homosexual characters."

Garde states the precise scope and purpose of his foundational research project in the introductory note.

"The chronological arrangement has been chosen in preference to one alphabetical... To provide a convenient picture of the increase of the number of works in historical perspective..."

The author explains the structural logic driving the book's timeline layout.

"While the intention has been to be as objective as possible, there is inevitably an element of personal opinion, both as regards the asterisk-rating and the distinction between Primary and OTP."

Garde candidly addresses the challenges of classifying complex literary themes.

What It's Really About

At its core, the book is about visibility, historical presence, and the systematic tracking of marginalized narratives. Garde argues that homosexuality is not a recent literary invention, but a continuous theme stretching back to antiquity. By creating a rigorous chronological bibliography, the text addresses questions of how culture records, represses, and eventually accepts gay identity in print. The project demonstrates how subtext becomes explicit text as societal attitudes shift over time.

Why Read It Today

This volume appeals to literary historians, researchers, and readers fascinated by the history of publishing and queer studies. Reading Garde's work feels like exploring an archive of hidden cultural history, where brief entries reveal the shifting boundaries of mid-century censorship and expression. What stays with you is the sheer scale of the compilation, illustrating how deeply interwoven these themes have always been in world literature.

The book presents distinct reading difficulties inherent to its era and format. Because it is a reference bibliography rather than a narrative study, reading it requires navigating dense lists of citation data, complex letter-code abbreviations, and structural cross-references. Furthermore, readers must engage with the period terminology and mid-twentieth-century classifications of the 1950s. Despite these structural hurdles, the book provides a remarkable window into how pre-Stonewall scholars categorized literary history.