Hidden History: 2009 Updates

Before launching into new Hidden History columns for 2009, I wanted to write a set of updates on the stories that appeared since the column’s inception last August.

Since the column began, my favorite part of writing it is undoubtedly the reactions from readers. I highly value the comments, the questions, and the additional facts readers provide me. If someone takes the time out of their life to write to me to suggest an idea to pursue, offer a lead toward more information, or push me to reconsider a point I’ve made, I cannot help but be grateful.

In short, there are a ton of things you could be doing with your time, and if reading this column and engaging with me is one of the things you’re choosing to do, my sincerest thanks. I’ll keep trying to fill in the gaps in our history each Monday afternoon throughout the coming year.

Below the fold, you’ll find information that has come to light since some of the columns were published, often because of reader comments. From a brand-new biography of a gay pioneer to the sticky question of what Harvey Milk really said about religion, it’s all available when you click “Read more…” below.

All best wishes for 2009,

Philip Clark

Pornographers and Poets: David Trinidad, Tim Dlugos’s literary executor, continues work on a volume of Dlugos’s Collected Poems. Gay poet D.A. Powell blogs about it on Harriet, a blog sponsored by the Poetry Foundation. Meanwhile, I was invited to write an essay about H. Lynn Womack and the Guild Press; tentatively titled “The Pornographer King,” it is scheduled for publication sometime during 2009 in the anthology The Golden Age of Gay Literature, 1948-1978 (MLR Press).


The Labor Day Edition: The Edward Carpenter revival this column asked for is now in full swing! For the first time since 1980, Edward Carpenter has received the full biographical treatment. Sheila Rowbotham, who had previously written about Carpenter in her book Socialism and the New Life: The Personal and Sexual Politics of Edward Carpenter and Havelock Ellis, has now released Edward Carpenter: A Life of Liberty and Love through Verso Press. I haven’t ordered my copy yet, but this should be a really superb look at Carpenter’s life and work as an activist for homosexuals’ rights, women’s rights, animals’ rights, justice for the working class, and other forms of social equality.


The Lesbians of Michael Field (Part I and Part II): In December 2008, University of Virginia Press released a scholarly edition of some of Katherine Bradley and Edith Cooper’s love letters to each other, The Fowl and the Pussycat. It’s priced like an academic book (i.e., a bit steep), but it should be a fun and informative read. Who can resist a bit of romantic voyeurism?


Reading Roundup #1: Local gay book club Bookmen DC read Isherwood’s A Single Man (briefly discussed in this column), and there was friendly, funny, observant talk about this marvelous little novel. I left the meeting reading certain passages of the book in a completely different way and noticing complexities I hadn’t even thought about on first reading (including that my 1st edition of the novel was a censored version; Isherwood’s publisher required that he make a reference to masturbation less explicit).

At any rate, this is just to say: go to a gay or lesbian book club in the area this year! Read good books! Meet friendly people! Learn new things!


Alain Locke is the Key (Part I and Part II): I had the good fortune to be told by a reader that Thomas Wirth, who wrote the biography of Richard Bruce Nugent I quote from in this column (Gay Rebel of the Harlem Renaissance), was going to be giving a lecture in Washington D.C. about Nugent and the Harlem Renaissance. The lecture, hosted by Millennium Arts, an African American cultural salon, was attended by a passionate and informed audience and was delivered by Mr. Wirth with good humor and in fascinating detail.

Mr. Wirth informed me that 1) I’d misstated his observations about the relationship between Nugent and sculptor Richmond Barthé (mea culpa) and 2) that a new biography of Alain Locke is scheduled for release from University of Chicago Press. That has since been published and is commercially available; again, the price is a tad steep, but then again, Locke is fascinating. Additionally, Mr. Wirth has been hard at work; he edited Nugent's unpublished novel Gentleman Jigger, now available from Da Capo Press.
The talk was held in a private home in D.C., and I must say, the members of the Millennium Arts Salon were the kindest and most welcoming group of people. Check out their website and consider joining or attending one of their programs.


Return of the Disco Cellist: Wild Combination, the documentary film about Arthur Russell, was released on DVD and has been widely, widely acclaimed. As I mentioned, it completely deserves every accolade it gets. The new posthumous Arthur Russell album, Love is Overtaking Me, appeared on many critics’ 10-best albums lists for 2008, including two in the Washington City Paper; David Dunlop Jr. rates it as his #1 album of the year.


Lynne Cheney is My Sister!: The Bushes, the Cheneys, and their ilk have been kicked off the national stage, their ignominious eight years in power finally repudiated, at least temporarily, by the election of Barack Obama. Maybe Lynne will now have time to pen a sequel. Then again, if the world is lucky, she won’t.


The Lesbians! Lesbians! Lesbians! Reading Roundup: A friend of mine took my advice and read Emma Donoghue’s The Woman Who Gave Birth to Rabbits. She loved it. What are you waiting for?

Oh, and Donoghue published a new novel, The Sealed Letter. I can’t speak for it, but if it’s as good as her other writing, it’s a doozy.


Queer Quotes (Harvey Milk): I still don’t have a definitive answer, but readers jumped in to provide some information and opinions.

1) At least three people commented on Randy Shilts’s objectivity as a journalist. This doesn’t relate to whether or not Harvey Milk said that quote about religion, but it does indicate that Shilts’s books (including The Mayor of Castro Street, upon which the award-winning film Milk is silently based) should be approached with a certain degree of caution. Just so you know.

2) A gentleman on the West Coast, who heard Harvey Milk give speeches while he was alive, e-mailed me to say that he believes he either heard Milk say a variation on the religion quote or read a speech that used a variant version. While the poster reads, “I want nothing smacking, or smelling or hinting of religion,” this man suggests that the quote may have been, "I want nothing hinting, nothing even smelling of religion.” Milk may then have added the third term in one of his “political wills.”

So: the search goes on! Readers suggested that either the Randy Shilts Papers or the Harvey Milk Archives-Scott Smith Collection in the James C. Hormel Gay and Lesbian Center at the San Francisco Public Library may hold the key to this minor mystery. As soon as I can dig up anything more, you’ll hear it right here on TNG.

For Hidden History, I’ll write more about pornographers and poets, furies and faggots, books and bootleggers, singers and scandals. If you’ve got suggestions about people, places, and ideas I should cover, particularly if they have a D.C. connection, shoot me an e-mail: philipclark@hotmail.com.