Tyler and Brad's Index to Early Gay Publications Ephemera, Books and Miscellany | ||
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"The Circle of Sex" (1962) written by Gavin Arthur and published by Harold (Hal) Call and his Pan-Graphic Press out of San Francisco, California (publisher of the Mattachine Review and numerous, early titles on gay themes). A softcover in stiff cardboard (with original dust jacket) measuring 5-1/2" by nearly 8-1/2" and containing 86 internal pages.
Gavin Arthur (1901-1972) was the grandson of United States President Chester A. Arthur who spent his early years traveling the world as a merchant marine. Associated with many of the great homosexuals of the early twentieth century, including Edward Carpenter (who he visited in England as a young man) and Magnus Hirschfeld. Gavin Arthur helped Alfred C. Kinsey with his groundbreaking research into male sexuality and is considered a key figure in what has come to be called the gay "apostolic succession" from Walt Whitman through Allen Ginsberg.
An astrologer and mystic, his philosophy contained in "The Circle of Sex" is described to the inside front dust jacket flap:
"Here is the entire continuum of the infinitely varied sexual makeup of human beings, seen in all its shades and gradations. Using the face of a clock as a graphic symbol in his presentation, the author divides the dial into half for the male and half for the female physical types and places the emotional or psychic sexual orientation in a specific order to create a continuous progression without rigid boundaries. Each main type has its opposite diametrically across the dial, a placement which has long been observed by many sexologists, although perhaps not so schematically presented as here.
"Starting at one o'clock, Mr. Arthur describes the adventurous three-quarters heterogenic male popularly known as the 'pioneer type.' Next in the progression is the ambigenic male, followed by the preponderantly homogenic 'Dorian' type [masculine homosexual], then the effeminate homosexual before the physical line is crossed into the female. Her side begins with the hyper-heterogenic grouping called 'Lady C' because three of its best known examples - Catherine the Great, Lady Chatterley, and Catherine of William Shakespeare's 'Taming of the Shrew' - all clearly belong to this category. On around the circle the reader is taken - the materfamilias heterogenic mother; the ambigenic 'Club-woman' and into the zones of the lesbian and the masculine woman before the physical line is crossed into the areas of the male 'Don Juan' and paterfamilias to return to the beginning.
"The text is richly illustrated with famous historical names and humorous anecdotes. These keep what would otherwise be a technical topic at the level of the lay reader. And they serve to make it easy for everyone to place himself on the circle, and to speculate where one's associates might find themselves. While all of this suggests a game, it should be obvious that the theories in this book are more than that - they represent keys to the understanding of how God through nature continues to create an endless variety and avoids the straight lines and dichotomies while doing so."
Vice In German Monasteries: The Amazing Facts Regarding What Has Come to be Known as 'Celibacy-Disease" (1937) written by Joseph McCabe and published by socialist and freethinker E. Haldeman-Julius out of Girard, Kansas. Numbered B-449, a stapled digest-sized pamphlet measuring 5-1/4" by 8-1/2" and containing 36 pages including front and rear covers.
Joseph McCabe (1867-1955) was a former Franciscan priest who left the order in 1896 to become an outspoken atheist and prolific author and speaker on science, politics, history and culture. His strongest criticism was levied against the Catholic Church and papal authority. The pamphlet contains a detailed report, with extensive commentary and outstanding translations from local German newspapers, of the vice sweeps undertaken by the Nazi regime against German monks and priests, both homosexual and heterosexual, during the years 1934-1937. The sections are as follows:
Hitler Rips Off the Lid
In this section, McCabe discusses with relish the proceedings taken against "thousands of clerical sex-criminals." He writes, in very short part, "As [Joseph] Goebbels says, German Catholic preachers and journals have been in recent years loud and unctuous in their condemnation of the 'indecent' costumes of young Nazi athletes and hikers of both sexes: and when Hitler had 100 of his own followers shot, mostly for sodomy in 1934, these same preachers and journals wept over non-Catholic vice and boasted of Catholic chastity. Now they say that it corrupts the minds of the young to have any sort of public discussion of such matters."
The Pious Sons of St. Francis
McCabe writes, in very short part, "Westphalia began to hum with excitement when, in the closing days of 1935, the police began arresting the brown-robed, bare-footed friars by the dozen, and the report got about that they were charged, not with the kind of opposition to the government which makes American Catholics regard them as martyrs, but with just the two delinquencies that do most violence to the ears of an American lady: unnatural vice and the seduction or virtual rape of pupils, patients, and feeble-minded young people entrusted to their charge."
The report from the June 10, 1936 issue of Kolnische Zeitung is representative and details the trial of Brother Alexander Bross: "He began the same conduct with other friars [sodomy], sometimes doing it even during their religious exercises. Once when he was on night-duty he raped a sick youth of 17 who was asleep in the ward and could not defend himself because his right arm was in a sling. The accused silenced him when he tried to shout. He tried to repeat it a few days later when he was again on night-duty, but the youth prevented him."
The Second Month of the Black Record
McCabe quotes extensively from German papers reporting the court trials of numerous monks accused under Paragraphs 174 and 175 [sodomy] of the German Criminal Code which refer to the abuse of pupils or patients commited to a man's charge and to unnatural vice. McCabe writes, in short part, "One of the accused was Brother Ignatius, a monk 76 years old, who seems to have been addicted for 50 years since he joined the Order in youth. 'Even in his 70th year,' [reports the Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, a Berlin paper of country-wide distribution] 'he locked himself with boys in his porter's lodge and had relations with them.' Brother Friedebert had been a teacher in the monastic school, having a class of 200 boys. The police established that he had tampered with 35 pupils. Brother Desiderius, who explained that he joined the order 10 years earlier because he was jobless...admitted that he indulged habitually, though he had taken the life-vow of chastity. The Public Prosecutor said that he had abused feeble-minded patients and often 'in a most frightful manner.' Evidently a Sadist; and Brother Friedebert confessed to being a Masochist."
Clerical Odds and Ends
In this section Joseph McCabe devotes a good deal of text to answering the question, "Are the Franciscan monks the only monks to be suspected?" He writes, "Yet when Dr. [Joseph] Goebbels publicly states, to the entire nation, that of the very many priests who have been sent to jail in Germany and are described abroad as martyrs, 95 percent were sex-offenders...A repulsive and in many ways significant case of a priest came before the Criminal Court at Stuttgart on June 4 and following days...A parish priest, Konrad Joannis, 53 years old, was charged with innumerable, indecent assaults on young girls, generally under the age of 14. He admitted that he had done this habitually since 'about the end of the war [World War I]'."
Brothers of 'Mercy' and Other Holy Men
Joseph McCabe discusses the trials of several men from the Society of Brothers of Mercy and again quotes extensively from contemporary German newspapers. Typical is a newspaper from Cologne which discusses the "drunken orgies and the vices of several brothers in the beer-cellar of the monastery."
"Homosexuality in Lives of the Great" (no date, circa late 1930s) written by J. V. Nash and published by socialist and freethinker E. Haldeman-Julius out of Girard, Kansas. From his series "Little Blue Book" (No. 1564), a small stapled digest-sized pamphlet measuring 3-3/8" by 4-7/8" and containing 68 pages including front and rear covers.
The pamphlet opens with a lengthy discussion of homosexuality, including good commentary on 19th century openly gay writer K. H. Ulrichs (who coined the term "Urnings" for homosexuals); Edward Carpenter; homosexuality in the Old and New Testaments; homosexuality in Ancient Greece and Rome; and homosexuality during the Middle Ages and Renaissance periods. The author then discusses homosexuality in the lives of notable historical figures with excellent biographical information. Topic headings are as follows:
-Leonardo da Vinci ("believed to be homosexual"); -Michael Angelo ("homosexual manifestations play a prominent part"); -Shakespeare and the Beloved Youth ("Shakespeare's Sonnets...the poet dwells upon his love for a beautiful and high-born youth);
-Queen Elizabeth ("Was she a female homosexual?"); -Queen Christina of Sweden ("a great homosexual queen of the seventeenth century"); -Queen Anne of England ("also a woman of homosexual characteristics"); -Frederick the Great, King of Prussia ("an individual of ambiguous sex life"); -Washington and Hamilton (on the affectionate, if not homosexual, relationship between George Washington and Alexander Hamilton); -Lord Alfred Tennyson (on his love for Arthur Hallam, the "adored comrade of his youth"); -Cardinal John Henry Newman (who "possessed a puzzling psychology"); -Florence Nightingale (during her later years, she "found pleasure in cultivating romantic friendships with young girls"); -Oscar Wilde ("Along in his thirties, Wilde met a handsome youth named Lord Alfred Douglas"); -The Rev. Dr. Henry Ward Beecher ("Beecher had as a fellow-student a handsome Greek boy named Constantine Fondolaik...'He was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen' said Dr. Beecher many years later"); -Walt Whitman (who "would seem to be an unlikely embodiment of homosexual ideals. Yet the facts seem to be otherwise"); -Miss Amy Lowell (American poet "addicted to the smoking of big Havana cigars").
"DAILY RECORD: BOSTON'S HOME PICTURE NEWSPAPER"
One of the earliest newspapers in American history with a headline ("CONFESSES POET SLAYING IN PARK") and extensive cover story detailing, with photographs, the murder of a gay man. I would suspect that most archives, if any, do not have or are not aware of this publication.
Thursday, June 9, 1938 edition of the "DAILY RECORD: BOSTON'S HOME PICTURE NEWSPAPER" ("PRICE: TWO CENTS") published out of Boston, Massachusetts. A large, left-folded newspaper containing 36 pages including front and rear covers.
The cover story, "CONFESSES POET SLAYING IN PARK," relates to the murder of a gay man, Thomas A. O'Connell, 32 years of age, who had made sexual advances to the killer, Roger Perreault, 23 years old, in Institute Park, Worcester on early Sunday morning, June 5, 1938. The article begins, in short part:
"Angered by an offensive remark, Roger Perreault, 23, of Hubbardston, formerly of Worcester, killed Thomas A. O'Connell, 32, Worcester poet and mystic, in Institute Park Sunday morning, according to a confession obtained by police tonight. Perreault, a former Civilian Conservation Corps member, was arrested in Hubbardston on a tip, brought to Worcester and booked on a charge of manslaughter.
"Perreault told Capt. John J. Kallagher, who has been investigating the case, that he met O'Connell in Lincoln Sq., Worcester, early Sunday morning and walked with him to Institute Park...Here, Perreault told police, O'Connell made a proposal which disgusted him and he pushed the poet away roughly and started on alone. As he approached the park, he said, O'Connell caught up with him and repeated his proposal.
"He walked on, O'Connell following him. He said he struck him when the other man grabbed him. Saying his recollection was hazy, he expressed belief he punched him three or four times, knocking him to the ground unconscious..."
The front cover shows a large photograph of the murderer giving his confession; the subheading reads "As Ex-CCC Youth Gave Confession in Poet Slaying"; the text below the photograph reads "Roger Perreault, 23, left, of Hubbardston, former Civilian Conservation Corps member, pictured with Capt. John J. Kallagher, rear, and police stenographer Francis McNamara at Worcester police headquarters, as former confessed to slaying Thomas A. O'Connell, 32, Worcester poet, for making 'indecent proposals' to him. O'Connell's body was found in Institute Park, Worcester, on Sunday morning."
In addition to the front cover photograph, there are two portrait shots of Edwin Dunlop, 18 years of age, and William Carlson, 19 years of age, who were in the park at the time and saw the two men arguing late in the evening | ||
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PAGE 1 Mattachine Review PAGE 2 One Magazine 2 Pages PAGE 3 1960's 1 Page PAGE 4 1970's 4 Pages PAGE 5 Regional Publications 3 Pages
About this site: Ebay is an amazing place and resource. There I found these wonderful detailed and annotated descriptions of various important and early gay publications. I felt compelled to save and share them. They are published here with the author Brad Confer's consent. They were written for the sole purpose of selling the material on Ebay and not with scholarly intent, but they are such a rich resource as is, that I present them here. They were written for the sole purpose of selling the material on Ebay and not with scholarly intent, but they are such a rich resource as is, that I present them here. It has taken me almost as much work as Brad to collect, reformat, organize and publish this information. Please write me if this site is helpful to you. If you want to contact Brad, his business is Bloomsbury Books and you can email him at bloomsbury@earthlink.net Most of these issues can be found at the New York Public Library and the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archive among other places.
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