Love Stories
Sex between Men before Homosexuality
9780226426167
Love Stories
Sex between Men before Homosexuality
In Love Stories, Jonathan Ned Katz presents stories of men’s intimacies with men during the nineteenth century—including those of Abraham Lincoln—drawing flesh-and-blood portraits of intimate friendships and the ways in which men struggled to name, define, and defend their sexual feelings for one another. In a world before "gay" and "straight" referred to sexuality, men like Walt Whitman and John Addington Symonds created new ways to name and conceive of their erotic relationships with other men. Katz, diving into history through diaries, letters, newspapers, and poems, offers us a clearer picture than ever before of how men navigated the uncharted territory of male-male desire.
Table of Contents
Love Stories in Brief
Part I: Searching for Words
1. No Two Men Were Ever More Intimate
2. Dear Beloved Trio
3. A Gentle Angel Entered
Part II: Making Monsters
4. Already Do the Beastly Sodomites of Gotham Quake
5. Abominable and Detestable Crimes
6. The Man Monster
Part III: Coming Together, Coming to Terms
7. Voices of Sexes and Lusts
8. Sincere Friends
9. A Major Fell in Love with a Boy
10. I Got the Boys
11. Yes, I Will Talk of Walt
12. In the Name of CALAMUS Listen to Me!
13. A Heart Full of Love and Longing
14. Empty Chair, Empty Bed, Empty House
15. I Wish You Would Put the Ring on My Finger Again
Part IV: Going Public
16. He Cannot Be Oblivious of Its Plainer Meanings
17. Wild with Passion
18. I Cannot Get Quite to the Bottom of Calamus
19. Ardent and Physical Intimacies
20. Men Given to Unnatural Practices
21. To Unite for Defense
22. A Natural, Pure, and Sound Passion
23. Abnormal Passion
24. A Much More Intimate Communion
Sex and Affection between Men—Then and Now
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Part I: Searching for Words
1. No Two Men Were Ever More Intimate
2. Dear Beloved Trio
3. A Gentle Angel Entered
Part II: Making Monsters
4. Already Do the Beastly Sodomites of Gotham Quake
5. Abominable and Detestable Crimes
6. The Man Monster
Part III: Coming Together, Coming to Terms
7. Voices of Sexes and Lusts
8. Sincere Friends
9. A Major Fell in Love with a Boy
10. I Got the Boys
11. Yes, I Will Talk of Walt
12. In the Name of CALAMUS Listen to Me!
13. A Heart Full of Love and Longing
14. Empty Chair, Empty Bed, Empty House
15. I Wish You Would Put the Ring on My Finger Again
Part IV: Going Public
16. He Cannot Be Oblivious of Its Plainer Meanings
17. Wild with Passion
18. I Cannot Get Quite to the Bottom of Calamus
19. Ardent and Physical Intimacies
20. Men Given to Unnatural Practices
21. To Unite for Defense
22. A Natural, Pure, and Sound Passion
23. Abnormal Passion
24. A Much More Intimate Communion
Sex and Affection between Men—Then and Now
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index