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Contents » Cover |
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Essays
Much of Williams's life was spent in the spotlight at a time when his homosexuality had to be kept in the dark. In his poems and his memoirs, especially in his later life, he was able to speak more openly. In Love Stories, Jonathan Katz recounts the hidden history of love between men in the nineteenth century. Katz's narrative, which has received considerable attention in the press, tells the story of anonymous and not so anonymous men (for example, Lincoln and his lover Joshua Fry Speed) and their unselfconscious intimacies. Katz quotes diaries, letters, newspapers, and poems to tell his stories. Lincoln, Whitman, John Addington Symonds, and numerous lesser-known men romanticized their forbidden desires and in Katz's view "pioneered the construction of modern sexual love." In Love Stories history reveals the surprising ways in which we conceive our sexual selves, whether straight or gay. Generously illustrated and persuasively written, Katz's book succeeds in drawing an evocative picture of nineteenth century gender definitions, perceptions of criminal and deviant sexuality, and of a much more generous and cross-gendered version of love. In the 21st century we will continue to struggle with gender conflicts. Our greatest struggles, however, will be with religious and cultural differences. Katz's book might yet instruct us on the instability of cultural belief, and thus open us to accept those different from ourselves.
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