Let Us Now Praise Out of Print Gay Fiction: The Lost Library

On the subject of writers carrying on in the tradition of earlier, precariously under-known authors, isn't it comforting to learn that Christopher Bram wrote three of his novels, including Father of Frankenstein Gods and Monsters, on Allen Barnett's computer? Just one of the details the overflow audience at Housing Works learned last night as Bram [above] read his inspired essay on Barnett's stunning book of stories, The Body and Its Dangers (published in 1990, a year before Barnett died of aids). It was a launch party for Tom Cardamone's heavensent project getting twenty-eight writers to contribute essays on a treasured gay book now out of print. The result, The Lost Library, is a must for serious readers in a world at risk of losing some important books.

Author of The Coming Storm and War Against the Animals: A Novel, Paul Russell [below] read the night's most moving essay about Saul's Book by Paul Rogers, discussing the complexity of the novel's antiheroic hopeless young hustler, the author's murder by his twenty year-old adopted son, and his own shifting interest from bravely out protagonists to the hidden depths of closeted characters.

Cardamone's very fine program also included Sam J. Miller, Rob Stephenson, Stephen Greco, Timothy Young, Michael Graves, and Ian Titus. And it was a great pleasure finally to meet prolific readers and Thebes commenters Cynthia and Logan.

The complete table of contents below is arranged: author book title, essayist. Steady yourself for the shock of seeing favorite fiction inexcusably out of print.

Rabih Alameddine The Perv: Stories, Michael Graves
Allen Barnett The Body and Its Dangers, Christopher Bram
Neil Bartlett Ready to Catch Him Should He Fall, Philip Clark
George Baxt A Queer Kind of Death, Larry Duplechan
Bruce Benderson User, Rob Stephenson
Christopher Coe Such Times, Jameson Currier
Daniel Curzon Something You Do in the Dark, Jesse Monteagudo
Melvin Dixon Vanishing Rooms, Ian Rafael Titus
John Donovan I’ll Get There. It Better Be Worth the Trip, Martin Wilson
Robert Ferro The Blue Star, Stephen Greco
John Gilgun Music I Never Dreamed Of, Wayne Courtois
Agustin Gomez-Arcos The Carnivorous Lamb, Richard Reitsma
Michael Grumley Life Drawing, Sam Miller
Lynn Hall Sticks and Stones, Sean Meriwether
Richard Hall Couplings, Jonathan Harper
J.S. Marcus The Captain’s Fire, Aaron Hamburger
James McCourt Time Remaining, Tim Young
Mark Merlis American Studies, Rick Whitaker
Charles Nelson The Boy Who Picked the Bullets Up, Jim Marks
Kyle Onstott & Lance Horner Child of the Sun, Michael Bronski
Roger Peyrefitte The Exile of Capri, Gregory Woods
Paul Reed Longing, Bill Brent
Paul Rogers Saul's Book, Paul Russell
Patrick Roscoe Birthmarks, Andy Quan
Douglas Sadownick Sacred Lips of the Bronx, Tom Cardamone
Glenway Wescott The Apple of the Eye, Jerry Rosco
George Whitmore Nebraska, Victor Bumbalo
Donald Windham Two People, Philip Gambone
Come Again: A History of the Reprinting of Gay Novels, Philip Clark

Buy The Lost Library, then become its 700th friend on Facebook.

Comments

[Sandy]

Christopher Bram. Michael Bronski. Philip Gambone. Mah head is swimmin'. Thanks for this.

[interglossa]

Thank you for this and it is so great to see Allen Barnett remembered in this way.