My Dear Boy: Gay Love Letters through the Centuries Copyright © 1997, 1998 by Rictor Norton. All rights reserved. Reproduction for sale or profit prohibited. About the Book My Dear Boy is an anthology of gay love letters documenting the heartbreak and joy of love between men for almost two thousand years. Emperor Marcus Arelius, Bo Juyi, Saint Anselm, Erasmus, Michelangelo, Mashida Toyonoshin, Thomas Gray, William Beckford, Walt Whitman, Tchaikovsky, Henry James, Countee Cullen, William Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg are just a few of the correspondents included, who range from kings and aristocrats, musicians and artists, military men and monks, to farm labourers and herring merchants, political activists and aesthetes, black poets and Japanese actors, drag queens and hustlers. Important letters by Marsilio Ficino, Federico Gonzaga, Henrich von Kleist, Charles-Victor de Bonstetten, Johannes von Muller, Johann Joachim Winckelmann, and Jean Cocteau have been specialy translated for this anthology. Some of the letters come from books proudly published by their writers and some have been published in newspapers and pamphlets as part of political and religious attacks; some come from court records (from the Inquisition to the Old Bailey) and some were discovered in a cardboard box after a house clearance; many have narrowly escaped censorship and suppression. This richly diverse collection of letters illustrates the basic theme of romantic love: infatuation, longing, sex, separation, the fear of rejection, jealousy, the joy of reunion, celebration, and debates about "marriage" and "infidelity" in gay relationships. Whether the affairs were stormy or tender, they are, above all, testimonials to an enduring love. A full introduction charts the survival of gay love letters throughout history, and each selection is introduced with a biographical note describing the context in which the letters were written. Illustrated with more than two dozen photographs. About the Author RICTOR NORTON is the author of the pioneering historical study Mother Clap's Molly House: The Gay Subculture in England 1700-1830 (1992). He taught one of the earliest courses on gay and lesbian literature (Florida State University, 1971) and co-edited the first all-gay issue of an academic journal (College English, 1974). His book The Homosexual Literary Tradition (1973) was based on his Ph.D. study of homosexual themes in English Renaissance literature. He then emigrated to London and worked full-time at the fortnightly newspaper Gay News from 1974 to 1979. Many of Rictor Norton's essays for Gay Sunshine on gay history and literature were reprinted in Gay Roots, vols. I & II (San Francisco: Gay Sunshine Press, 1991, 1993). He is a contributor to the New Dictionary of National Biography. His most recent book is The Myth of the Modern Homosexual: Queer History and the Search for Cultural Unity (1997). He lives in London. Table of Contents

ca. 139 AD Emperor Marcus Aurelius & Marcus Cornelius Fronto	3rd century AD Flavius Philostratos & Various Boys	ca. 385 Paulinus of Nola & Austonius
early ninth century Bo Juyi & Yuan Zhen	ca. 1071 — 1075 Saint Anselm & Gundulf & William	early medieval Alcuin of York, Marbod of Rennes & Walafrid Strabo
early twelfth century Baudri of Bourgeuil & Various Lovers	ca. 1130—1140 Hilary the Englishman to a Boy of Angers & an English Boy	ca. 1100 A Spanish Monk Encourages a Boy to Indecency
1473 Marsilio Ficino & Giovanni Cavalcanti	1482—1490 Desiderius Erasmus & Servatius	1528 Federico Gonzaga & Pietro Aretino
1533 Michelangelo & Tommaso Cavalieri & Febo di Poggio	1573 Hubert Languet & Sir Philip Sidney	1620—1623 King James I & VI & George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham
1664 Francisco Correa Netto & Manoel Viegas	1667 Mashida Toyonoshin & Moriwaki Gonkuro	seventeenth century A Buddhist Priest & Okajima Uneme
1693 Charles Spencer, 3rd Earl of Sunderland, & Captain Edward Wilson	1727—1731 John, Lord Hervey, & Stephen Fox	1746—1762 Johann Joachim Winckelmann & Reinhold von Berg
1770 Thomas Gray & Charles-Victor de Bonstetten	1774—1802 Johannes von Muller & Charles-Victor de Bonstetten	1779—1780 Alexander Hamilton & John Laurens
1807 William Beckford & Master Saunders	1805 Henrich von Kleist & Ernst von Pfuel	1807 Lord Byron & John Edleston
1809 Rev. John Church & Ned	1826 Thomas Withers & James Hammond	1844—1849 Hans Christian Andersen & The Hereditary Grand-Duke of Saxe- Weimer-Eisenach
1851 Herman Melville & Nathaniel Hawthorne	1860—1870 Walt Whitman & Fred Vaughan & Lewis Brown & Peter Doyle	1865 Richard Wagner & King Ludwig II
1864 Brother Augustine & Samuel Hase	1866—1870 Edward Fitzgerald & Joseph Fletcher	1868—1870 Ernest Boulton, Frederick Park, Louis Hurt, John Fiske & Lord Arthur Pelham Clinton
1879 Sir Edmund Gosse & William Hamo Thornycroft	1886—1896 Edward Carpenter & Geroge Merrill	1891—1893 Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky & Bob Davidov
1893—1897 Oscar Wilde & Lord Alfred Douglas	1899—1902 Henry James & Hendrik Andersen	1907—1909 F. Holland Day & Nardo
1909 Frederick William Rolfe, Amadeo & Piero	1912 Rupert Brooke & Denham Russell-Smith	1917—1918 Wilfred Owen & Siegfried Sassoon
1923 Countee Cullen & Alain Leroy Locke	1923—1924 Hart Crane & Wilbur Underwood	1924—1925 F. O. Matthiessen & Russell Cheney
1934—1935 Larence of Arabia & "Sir"	1938—1939 Jean Cocteau & Jean Marais	1924, 1927, 1960 J. R. Ackerley & Ideal Friends
1940—1942 Ralph Hall & Montague Glover	1949 W. H. Auden & Chester Kallman	1937 Stanley Haggart & Harry Hay
1964 Hubert Huncke & Noah	1947 Neal Cassady & Allen Ginsberg	1948—1950 Pier Paolo Pasolini
1953—1954 William Burroughs & Kiki	1957—1959 Colin Spencer & John Tasker	1958—1960 Allen Ginsberg & Peter Orlovsky

Sample Extracts Introduction: Gay Love Letters through the Centuries Love at the outer limits: Johann Joachim Winckelmann and Reinhold von Berg I never saw such a boy: Thomas Gray (1716-1771) and Charles-Victor de Bonstetten Fanny and Stella The Love Letters of Ernest Boulton, Frederick Park, Louis Hurt, John Fiske and Lord Arthur Pelham Clinton, 1868—1870 Pathetic Symphony: Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Bob Davïdov Reviews: Harvard Gay and Lesbian Review:"I want to impress you with the amazing variety of men represented in My Dear Boy. ... from 9th century Chinese civil servants separated for years to W.H. Auden accomodating his soulmate's promiscuity. There are great stories wherever you dip into this perfect book. ... Lawrence of Arabia's instructions to a soldier on exactly how to whip him are alone worth the purchase price." Jesse Monteagudo, Badpuppy Review:"My Dear Boy was nominated for a Lambda Literary Award. It is a valuable historical resource. Even more importantly, it reminds us of the resilience and universality of male love. Give a copy to the man you love." Return to Gay History and Literature