Reviews (4)

Unusual and touching
This slim volume of old daguerrotypes, tintypes, and photographs of men together provides a touching reminder of a time when males felt no inhibitions about expressing physical affection for one another and having it documented on film. The men who populate these pages may or may not have been sexual lovers, but their casual embraces and closeness are curiously moving in a time when gay men and women are struggling for acceptance against frequently virulent opposition. The only drawbacks to this volume are its short length and occasionally cutesy artwork, but these should not dissuade any reader from enjoying these images.

Beautiful pics, leaves you wanting more
This is what I would call a nice little novelty book--perfectly charming, fascinating historically, but not one I will likely pull out to look at time and time again. Well-designed book makes you wish for more
While this book is well-designed and many of the photographs are lovely and thought-provoking (Are these men friends, brothers, lovers?), you leave it realizing that this is basically one person's collection of oldphotographs of men together.I bet there are many, many more--and betterexamples out there that would have made this book memorable. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Gay Studies    2. Gay couples    3. Gay male couples    4. Gay/Lesbian Nonfiction    5. History    6. Homosexuality    7. Male friendship    8. Photoessays & Documentaries    9. Photography    10. Photography of men    11. Pictorial works    12. Portraiture    13. Subjects & Themes - Portraits    14. Photographs: portraits   

Editorial Review

Why do so many gay men love opera? What makes an "opera queen"? What is the connection between gay sexuality and the full-throated longing that emerges from the diva's mouth? In Read more

Reviews (8)

Too much gay culture, too little opera
This book is well-written, which is why I give it 3 stars; but much of it is well-written nonsense, which is why I give it only 3 stars.
Me LikEy..
Me likey the book, me likey Gays in Opera cause no one writes about (see "Opera: The Undoing of Women; Catherine Clement) them.And Opera, Callas singing Delibes Laksme is good. It's good someone talks about how Gays like Opera, otherwise straight corporate society would think they were the only cultured ones,..Yep, Me like.

Theory on a High Note
The Queen's Throat is an insightful and animated blend of knowledge and intuition exploring the connections and overlappings of homosexuality and opera, arriving at a number of intriguing conclusions.The core of opera's queerness is dismantled and reassembled with a reflective and lyrical precision that defies typical essay format and approach.This is a brilliant monologue -- a very entertaining brainstorm which even includes silly graphics. It's smart, funny, personal, and spirited and even of interest for the operatically challenged. In fact, I bet big opera fans would give this a five. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Gay Studies    2. Genres & Styles - Opera    3. History & Criticism - General    4. Music    5. Music/Songbooks   

Reviews (1)

A superlative piece of historical research
Marc Epprecht, who teaches African history at Queen's University (in Kingston, Ontario) and earlier worked in Zimbabwe and Lesotho, has written one of the very best books on homosexualities of a particular geographic area. Epprecht mined the judicial archives in Zimbabwe, examining cases in the early days of the Southern Rhodesia colony involving male-male couples (more than a few of whom brought cases against estranged partners) and revealing what Shona males expected of/from male-male sexual relations. Epprecht also founded an oral history project and trained Zimbabweans to interview elders about (homo)sexuality in mining camps and in home villages during the first half of the twentieth century. He marshals material from ethnographies and memoirs along with the oral history, early-20th-century government commissions investigating conditions in mining camps, and forensic records into a readable and sensitive account of southeastern African homosexualities. Epprecht's archival research shows beyond any reasonable doubt that "that male-male sexual relations were quietly taking place among Africans became obvious to the invaders as soon as they set up their police and court structure.
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Subjects:  1. Africa, Southern    2. Afrique australe    3. Gay Studies    4. Gender Studies    5. History    6. Homosexuality    7. Homosexuality, Male    8. Homosexualitâe    9. Social Science    10. Sociology    11. African studies    12. Gay & Lesbian studies    13. Southern Africa   

Subjects:  1. Collections, Catalogs, Exhibitions    2. Computer Books: General    3. Gay Studies    4. History - Contemporary (1945- )    5. Individual Photographer    6. Photo Techniques    7. Photoessays & Documentaries    8. Photography    9. Subjects & Themes - Erotica    10. Individual photographers   

Editorial Review

Acclaimed in Germany and England, this tragic and remarkable real-life love story won a Lambda Literary Award when it was first published in America in 1995. Lilly Wust ("Aimée") was a conventional middle-class mother of four, estranged from her philandering husband, when she met Felice Schragenheim ("Jaguar") in 1941. Their passionate affair unfolded against the backdrop of the deportation of Jews from Berlin, but several months passed before Felice could even bring herself to tell Lilly that she was Jewish and living illegally on the streets. "I knew, of course, what it meant," Lilly recalled in old age. "Not for a moment did I think that I too could be in danger. On the contrary, all I wanted to do now was to save her." Lilly's heroic efforts to conceal and protect Felice through the next two years make for painful and inspiring reading. Felice was arrested in August 1944 and sent her last letter to Lilly four months later. In 1981 Lilly was awarded the German Federal Service Cross, though no one could read this as a happy ending. Read more

Reviews (20)

A great book!
It is a great book about a love affair during the war. I love how it tells about how the continued writing to eachother even when apart. This story will make you cry but is very beautiful in many ways.

Flawed real females makes compelling reading
I liked this book. Some of the pictures, I really wish I could blow up and have as prints in my room. The story gives a lot of insight into that era. The Amazon criticism is that the author really doesn't focus much on the lesbian aspect, instead focusing more on the era, the World War II Jewish persecution, etc. Given the setting and the individuals involved, this seems understandable. I really, really enjoyed this story. The problems and personality flaws of the women aren't glossed over either which is nice.

A facsinatingbook about that time
I am responding to previous reviews - I do not think this book is about romance, and I did not feel lack of personal "data".Read more

Subjects:  1. 1922-1944?    2. Berlin    3. Berlin (Germany)    4. Biography    5. Biography / Autobiography    6. Gay/Lesbian Nonfiction    7. Germany    8. Historical - General    9. Holocaust    10. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)    11. Lesbian Studies    12. Schragenheim, Felice,    13. Social Science    14. Specific Groups - Lesbians    15. Wust, Elisabeth    16. Schragenheim, Felice    17. Social Science / Lesbian Studies   

Editorial Review

For many homosexuals the images of the nelly queen or the butch and femme dykes generated anxiety because they too closely resembled negative stereotypes held by heterosexuals. But over the past three decades the lesbian and gay movement has made great strides in accepting a wide diversity of sexual identities and behaviors within its own ranks. Self expression became valued over perceived acceptability. In Read more

Reviews (2)

80 dollars??????
Why is this book 80 dollars?I saw it in the LesbianNation and decided to order.Can't figure this out at all...no matter how good it is, I don't think I will be paying 80 bucks for it.

Why Buy It? Because I said so!
Feminists, Lesbians, and Bad Girls alike will enjoy this book whether or not they identify as Femme.This text serves to focus attention on Femme issues and could be of use to anyone - queer, questioning, straight, etc.who is searching for a broader understanding of the topic.By that sametoken, it could also be a good resource for butches who are in need of alittle "schooling" (you know we love you!).While I preferredthe less academic contributions, the text in its entirety would be anexcellent addition to any Lesbian or Women Studies class.I appreciate theeditors efforts to include voices from diverse backgrounds, styles, andperspectives.I especially liked the contributions of Gaby Sandoval andLisa Ortiz who used a more narrative, casual style and spoke of personalexperiences.It is always a pleasure to read works by well-known authors,yet it is important for new voices to have a venue in which to be heard.Harris and Crocker have done a fine job mixing such a wide variety ofstyles.This book has something to offer everyone and is a must forLesbian/Gay collectors. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Feminism    2. Gay/Lesbian Nonfiction    3. Lesbian Studies    4. Lesbianism    5. Lesbians    6. Social Science    7. Sociology    8. History of ideas, intellectual history    9. Social Science / Lesbian Studies    10. Social history   

Reviews (7)

Worth reading through to the end.
I almost didn't finish this book.My initial impression was that this guy's life is as dull and as vapid as anyone else's.He visits a department store with his mother and her neighborhood friend -- big deal.His dad finally gives in and buys the big freezer for the kitchen -- so what? Cooper's Best
Far and away the strongest material Cooper has written, "Truth Serum" is one of the best memoirs I've ever encountered.It ranks with Theodore Dreiser's "Dawn" as a stunning evocation of early life.His language is fluid and beautiful.He writes about childhood as vividly as if he were watching intimate scenes from his past on a movie screen.Except that he describes feelings and thoughts-- unfilmable-- so freshly.The reader enters into the child Cooper's head and perceptions in astonishing ways.This is exceptional writing and the sense of immediacy (with the exception of the abstract final piece) is wonderful.

Intense Focus
I checked this book out of the library and read half of it before Irealized that I had to own it, so I bought a copy the next day and pickedup where I'd left off in the other copy.It's not a book-length memoir asmuch as it's a series of shorter memoirs.And what I find the mostcompelling in this book is his sense of focus.He writes a ratherextensive essay about high school called "101 Ways to CookHamburger," and it essentially consists of three scenes.But fromthose scenes, I get a strong sense of his high school experience as awhole. Read more

Subjects:  1. 20th century    2. American authors    3. Authors, American    4. Biography    5. Biography & Autobiography    6. Biography / Autobiography    7. Biography/Autobiography    8. Gay men    9. Literary    10. Specific Groups - Male Gay Studies    11. United States    12. Biography: general    13. Literature: History & Criticism   

Subjects:  1. Film & Video - General    2. Film & Video - History & Criticism    3. Gay Studies    4. Homosexuality in motion pictur    5. Homosexuality in motion pictures    6. Israel    7. Jewish Studies    8. Masculinity in motion pictures    9. Motion pictures    10. Performing Arts    11. Performing Arts/Dance    12. Pop Arts / Pop Culture    13. Cultural studies    14. Films, cinema    15. Gay studies (Gay men)   

Reviews (3)

An excellent read.
As a young member of the GLBT community, I have much to learn.But having read this book, I definitely have better knowledge and perspective about gay and lesbian history.I especially like that Miller included excerpts from a diverse range of literary pieces and explained what references he used, stimulating the reader's (or at least my own) interest in other gay and lesbian books.

Fascinating History
Neil Miller's done a great job of pulling together aspects of (western) gay history.I've read some of the sources for his lesbian chapters and he uses them intelligently to summarise main points.I assume he's does the same with the male stuff and material from other countries which was previously unfamiliar to me.His style is readable, succinct and balanced about how we look at the past from our current viewpoints. A GREAT SURVEY OF GAY HISTORY
If you are interested in history, I highly suggest this book.Marginalized for eons, gay people are now an integral part of history.Relegated to the backburner, or whispered about in history sources, gay people have come forward with a great history.Within this collection, there are heartaches and triumphs, but always searching for the ideal of equality one day.Another good thing about this book is that it includes non-Western gay and lesbian history as well, yet another subject ignored by the "mainstream" history.An incredibly transfixing and fascinating book, I couldn't put it down, and read into the late hours of the evening. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Gay Studies    2. Gender Studies    3. General    4. History    5. Homosexuality    6. Social Science    7. Sociology    8. Social Science / Gay Studies   

Reviews (1)

A Wonderfully Written, Accessible, Fascinating Book
Catriona Rueda Esquibel's book is a superb exploration of Chicana (and more broadly defined, Latina) lesbian literature and culture.She has an engaging style, and even incorporates some personal (autobiographical) anecdotes, giving us a good sense of who she is and why she cares so deeply about this topic.Readers will find in this book invaluable information and analysis.The author is to be commended for her important contribution to this field. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. American - Hispanic American    2. American literature    3. Gay & Lesbian    4. History and criticism    5. Lesbians' writings, American    6. Literary Criticism    7. Literature - Classics / Criticism    8. Mexican American authors    9. Women authors    10. American studies    11. Literary Criticism & Collections / Hispanic American    12. Literary studies: general    13. Mexico   

Subjects:  1. 20th century    2. American - General    3. American poetry    4. Cold War in literature    5. Gay & Lesbian    6. General    7. History    8. History and criticism    9. Literary Criticism    10. Literature - Classics / Criticism    11. Poetry    12. Politics and literature    13. United States    14. Literary Criticism / Poetry   

Reviews (2)

teenage lesbian love and murder in Memphis
Many people know about the case of Lizzie Borden, the woman accused of killing her parents in the summer of 1892. But almost no one today knows of the similarly sensationalistic story of Alice Mitchell, who was accused of stabbing to death her teenage lesbian lover, Freda Ward earlier that year. I was less interested in the author's dense academic feminist psychological observations and interprettations and much more interested in the objective facts she gave of this most unusual love and murder story between two Memphis girls. The girls were once neighbors, but when Freda moved away, Alice's obsession became even stronger and she started beseiging her with letters. Freda's guardian, her married older sister Mrs Volkmar, refused to let her see Alice when she and her husband noticed Alice's obsessive attachment to Frede and of their secret lesbian "engagement" to each other, and plans for Alice to dress up as a man so they could have a secret wedding and marry. Insanely frustrated that her plans with Frede were destroyed, Alice decided that if she couldn't have Frede, no man would. One day she stalked Freda down and cut her throat. This story, and the subsequent trial, caused a nationwide sensation that all the newspapers picked up on. Two Great Subjects Wasted
Duggan seeks to combine the Memphis lynchings which launched the national career of Ida B. Wells and the sensational "sapphic slasher" murder of Freda Ward by Alice Mitchell. Both events occurred in Memphis in 1892, both should offer tremendous possibilities for exploring race and gender in fin de siecle America.Read more

Subjects:  1. 19th cent    2. 19th century    3. Gay Studies    4. History    5. Lesbian Studies    6. Lesbian couples    7. Memphis    8. Mitchell, Alice,    9. Murder    10. Murder - General    11. Murder in mass media    12. Social Science    13. Sociology    14. Tennessee    15. True Crime / Espionage    16. Ward, Freda,    17. d. 1892    18. 20th century    19. American studies    20. Literary studies: 19th century    21. Literary studies: from c 1900 -    22. USA    23. c 1800 to c 1900   

Reviews (1)

Intellectual history for music lovers
This is a brave book, in a way that reflects how any intellectual might be considered brave for basing his work on his passions, writing about the things he enjoys thinking about, and trying to combine bits and pieces of a lifetime in intellectual history in something that might still seem to be just small doses.My main interest was in topics that get hardly more than a page, like furtive mentions of Luce Irigaray in his consideration of Freud's position in the landscape of feminism.The deeper into this I look, the more I am likely to find the kind of thing that Paul Robinson would say:
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Subjects:  1. American - General    2. Gender Studies    3. History & Criticism - General    4. Literature - Classics / Criticism    5. Reference    6. Social Science    7. Sociology    8. American English    9. Gay & Lesbian studies    10. Opera    11. Other prose: from c 1900 -    12. Social Science / Gender Studies   

Subjects:  1. 16th century    2. 17th century    3. Europe - Spain & Portugal    4. Gay Studies    5. Gender Studies    6. History    7. History - General History    8. Male pregnancy    9. Men's Studies - Masculinity    10. Sex role    11. Social Science    12. Social aspects    13. Sociology    14. Spain    15. Men's studies    16. Social history    17. c 1500 to c 1600   

Subjects:  1. Family & Relationships    2. Family / Parenting / Childbirth    3. Family/Marriage    4. Lesbian Studies    5. Parenting - Parent & Adult Child    6. Social Science / Lesbian Studies   

Reviews (12)

More than you need to know
The Secret Life of Oscar Wilde is an encyclopedic (539 pages) compendium of late Victorian sexual activity.Such behavior seems to have been far more extensive than one might have thought, but the book has verisimilitude and suggests that virtually every man in London, from the Royal family through the Cabinet right down to petty clerks, was gay.
all the sordid details you suspected confirmed.
this book is hard to put down,for a wilde fan impossible.even by todays standards which are more lenient toward the Uranian persuasion,Wilde would have landed on a sex offender list due to his infatuation leading to action with underage boys.As i was reading i wonder if the marquiss of Queensbury,raving maniac that he no doubt was, might have saved his son Bosie from jail by being the first to spill the beans on Wilde and his Uranian guruship. The Marquis always threatened to go to Scotland Yard about Wilde and i was wondering if he hadn't already made some kind of deal with prosecutors to get his son Bosie off. Since Bosie wasn't underage when he was with Wilde,Queensbury might have been aware of his son and Wilde's criminal activity in respect to jueveniles. At the end of his life Wide admitted to his admirers that he was indeed guilty and he felt contempt for his adorers that tried to flatter him by believing he was completely innocent.Wilde's genius is undoubted and his works are still worshipped,but I'm reminded of an old saying,"Show me a hero and I'll show you a tragedy".Wilde wouldn't have wanted to be a hero anyway.Somewhere he must have made a quotation about this.

Blood, Sweat and Tears
I guess I'll read any life of Oscar Wilde, as I will of Kipling, Robert Frost, Frida Kahlo, or Frank Lloyd Wright, just because their lives were so twisted and strange that everyone has their own take on why, what happened.Just hand me one and don't come back for days, I'll be lost to you.Neil McKenna's new biography, whichdwells clinically, unflinchingly on the sexual side of Wilde's passion for young men, wore its reviews on its sleeve when I came across it, nd I was thinking, oh it sounds awful.But I was mildly surprised right at the beginning when McKenna skips all that stuff you've heard a million times, the subject's ancestry, parents and childhood, three topics on which most biographers spend pages and pages.McKenna leaves that all out and goes right to the meat, to Oxford, where he first finds Oscar having sex with men.
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Subjects:  1. 1854-1900    2. 19th century    3. Authors, Irish    4. Biography    5. Biography & Autobiography    6. Biography / Autobiography    7. Biography/Autobiography    8. England    9. Gay men    10. General    11. Great Britain    12. History    13. Literary    14. London    15. Relations with men    16. Sex customs    17. Wilde, Oscar,    18. Biography: general    19. Literature: History & Criticism   

Reviews (6)

A valuable perspective on World War II
"Coming Out Under Fire: The History of Gay Men and Women in World War II," by Allan Berube, is a fascinating and well-written piece of American history.The author draws from a rich variety of sources in order to tell this story.Among the topics he covers are the following: the process of being inducted into the armed forces in that era, the experiences of gay people in the training phase, gay social life stateside (particularly in the major port cities), the threat of harassment by military police, the role of military psychiatrists in our culture's evolving understanding of homosexuality, and the experiences of gay soldiers in combat.
Time to honor these heros
Simply stated, this was not an easy book to read.One has only to scan the first chapter to begin cringing at the shameful way that gay and lesbian soldiers were treated by their own government. The only book on this subject worth reading
It has taken me almost FOREVER to write this book review, which is a real pity, since this is the only book about 'gays in the military' that you really should bother reading. I read it last summer, when I was living in Northampton, Massachusetts. The region is widely viewed as a lesbian mecca, and while this statement is too extreme, it has a large kernel of truth. There are many lesbians (god bless 'em) in the area, and they are very socially and politically active. I would recommend they read a book Honorable Discharge: Confessions of an Army Dyke. (You can find that on Amazon.com) Not that I agree with the premise in that book--as the reader will see shortly, Berube's book is much better-- but they are more likely to relate to the issues discussed, as they are from a woman's perspective. Berube--while touching on the issue of lesbians in the military ('butches', as he calls them often)-- spends most of his text on the male perspective. Read more

Subjects:  1. Gay Studies    2. History - General History    3. Lesbian Studies    4. Social Science    5. Sociology    6. United States - 20th Century/WWII    7. Social Science / General   

Reviews (6)

For the aficionados.
This book lifts a veil on a still rather taboo issue. A lot of well known people are mentioned in it, but I felt that most of the chapters were written more for insiders. Worthy of a magazine
After a quick glance of my friend's copy, I picked this up, curious to find out more about the current state of affairs for gays and lesbians in Hollywood.While it's certainly encouraging that many lesbian and gay writers/producers/et al are now able (thanks to Ms. DeGeneres) to live their lives more openly, the book itself offers little insight other than Ellen DeGeneres and a couple of other passing (gay) cultural moments, such as Howard Ashman's lover's acceptance of his posthumous Academy Award.Being a supposed historical exploration, the book flips back and forth in time and era, never focusing on one person or subject long enough to discover anything insightful. Its coverage of the early part of Hollywood's gay history is slight at best, focusing mostly on Rock Hudson, and offers little to illuminate that situation. It has the depth and tone of a good magazine article, but as a book it doesn't offer enough: it seems padded, and interviews are quoted verbatim with every bit of bad syntax and "you know"'s intact.I learned nothing from this book that I wasn't aware of through soundbites on entertainment news shows.I really don't like writing a negative review, but reading this was increasingly frustrating and ultimately unsatisfying.

Very intelligent and insightful
The author examines Hollywood like it is a set decoration being used in a movie.He shows us the attractive scenery (the Hollywood that middle America sees every day), as well as behind the scenes: the nails, glue, and sandbags that hold the set in place.In this case, however, the nails, glue, and sandbags are decades of deception, denial, and hushed tones that the industry continues to use.Ehrenstein writes with a knowledgeable pen, yet rarely if ever comes across as smug or elitest.His narrative is conversational, but structured.It allows the reader to understand better many individual stories in Hollywood's past and present while showing them in context relative to time and social acceptance."Open Secret" is well-written and comprehensive. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Biography    2. Film & Video - History & Criticism    3. Film - History & Criticism    4. Gay actors    5. Gay motion picture producers a    6. Gay motion picture producers and directors    7. General    8. Lesbian Studies    9. Motion picture actors and actr    10. Motion picture actors and actresses    11. Performing Arts    12. Performing Arts/Dance    13. Pop Arts / Pop Culture    14. Social History    15. United States    16. United States - 20th Century    17. Films, cinema    18. Gay studies (Gay men)    19. USA   

Editorial Review

The movie Heavenly Creatures was based on New Zealand's notorious 1954 murder case in which two teenage girls, Pauline Parker and Juliet Hulme, killed Pauline's mother. The polite society of Christchurch was shattered not only by the murder, but also by suggestions of the girls' lesbianism. Feminist scholars Julie Glamuzina and Alison J. Laurie began researching the case in 1986, almost 10 years before the film's release, to contextualize the anti-lesbian hysteria surrounding the trial. This fascinating book looks at how and why that society viewed lesbianism as evil or insane. ... Read more

Reviews (12)

An earlier version
The Evil Friendship (1954) was the first book about this case, written by VIN PACKER.It will be reissued by Stark Press in 2006.This book came many years after, but it is a fair read, just as Heavenly Creatures was okay. Marijane Meaker

this is it, so far.......
So far, this is the only book I have been able to find on the Parker-Hulme matricide case.I normally wouldn't read a book about lesbians, and I thought lesbianism figured very little in the movie, but I didn't find it distracting here in the book, it didn't take away from the facts of the story. There are loads of details here that aren't in the movie, but I agree with others: why hasn't this been written about before, and especially now since Hulme is known to be the mystery writer Anne Perry?All in all, a very good book, and I read a lot of true crime!

Lesbian Focus aside
This is to my knowledge the only book out there exclusively about the Parker/Hulme case.Its a little shocking that another book hasn't been written about such a well known murder case, and in light of the fact that Juliet Hulme is now known to be Anne Perry,the famous mystery writer.I do agree that the lesbian angle was focused on a bit too much, even though that is a big part of the book.But it gives a lot of info about the case I hadn't heard before and a pretty clear picture of what happened.If anybody wants to know more about the story behind "Heavenly Creatures", read this book. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Case studies    2. Cinema/Film: Book    3. General    4. History - General History    5. Lesbian Studies    6. Lesbians    7. Murder    8. Murder - General    9. New Zealand    10. Parricide    11. True crime   

Subjects:  1. Gay Studies    2. Gay men    3. History    4. History: World    5. Male friendship    6. Men's Studies - General    7. Men's Studies - Masculinity    8. Modern - General    9. Sociology    10. European history: c 1500 to c 1750    11. Gay studies (Gay men)    12. Modern period, c 1500 onwards    13. Social Science / Men's Studies    14. Western Continental Europe