Love stories : sex between men before homosexuality
"Abraham Lincoln arrived in Springfield, Illinois, on April 15, 1837, and met Joshua Fry Speed, who offered the new legislator half of his double bed. The two shared that bed for more than three years, and Speed would later recall that "no two men were ever more intimate." The story of Lincoln's relationship with Speed, which opens this book, transports us into a forgotten world of love between men." "Jonathan Ned Katz presents stories of men's intimacies with men in the nineteenth century, tales with all the features of a good novel: engaging characters, moving conflicts, and surprising revelations. Katz draws flesh-and-blood portraits of these intimate friendships, tracing the way men struggled to name, define, and defend their deep feelings for one another. Some of these are love stories, some sex stories, some stories about love and sex. In a world before "gay" and "straight" referred to sexuality, men like Lincoln, Walt Whitman, John Addington Symonds, and James Mills Peirce created new, affirmative ways of naming and conceiving their intimacies with other men. Katz quotes diaries, letters, newspapers, and poems of offer glimpses into an uncharted territory of romance and eros." "Love Stories is an original and engaging take on sexual diversity over time. By this book's end its many chronicles coalesce into a beautiful portrait of the varieties of love and lust in another social world."--Jacket
History
x, 426 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
9780226426150, 9780226426167, 0226426157, 0226426165
46836784
Love Stories
Sex between Men before HomosexualityBy Jonathan Ned Katz
The University of Chicago Press
Copyright © 2001 Jonathan Ned KatzAll right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-226-42615-0
Contents
Love Stories in Brief...................................................ixPART I Searching for Words1 No Two Men Were Ever More Intimate....................................32 Dear Beloved Trio.....................................................263 A Gentle Angel Entered................................................33PART II Making Monsters4 Already Do the Beastly Sodomites of Gotham Quake......................455 Abominable and Detestable Crimes......................................606 The Man Monster.......................................................77PART III Coming Together, Coming to Terms7 Voices of Sexes and Lusts.............................................958 Sincere Friends.......................................................1239 A Major Fell in Love with a Boy.......................................13310 I Got the Boys.......................................................14711 Yes, I Will Talk of Walt.............................................16412 In the Name of CALAMUS Listen to Me!.................................17813 A Heart Full of Love and Longing.....................................18814 Empty Chair, Empty Bed, Empty House..................................20215 I Wish You Would Put the Ring on My Finger Again.....................220PART IV Going Public16 He Cannot Be Oblivious of Its Plainer Meanings.......................23517 Wild with Passion....................................................24618 I Cannot Get Quite to the Bottom of Calamus..........................25719 Ardent and Physical Intimacies.......................................27220 Men Given to Unnatural Practices.....................................28821 To Unite for Defense.................................................29722 A Natural, Pure, and Sound Passion...................................30823 Abnormal Passion.....................................................31724 A Much More Intimate Communion.......................................321Sex and Affection between Men-Then and Now..............................330Acknowledgments.........................................................345Notes...................................................................351Bibliography............................................................389Index...................................................................407
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