Dictionaries and Encyclopedias

Many New Zealanders have left the country to live in Australia: see for example, *David Herkt who has produced the finest gay erotic sequence. *Barry Sotham is a recent poet of note. *Witi Ihimaera, the first New Zealand gay Maori novelist, has written a few poems. The *Lesbian and Gay Archives of New Zealand (LAGANZ) is a major gay archive housed in the National Library, Wellington and the only such archive to enter a national library collection. *A. P. Millett has compiled a bibliography of homosexuality including a small section on poetry. The New Zealand National Bibliography began publication in 1967 replacing the Current National Bibliography; it is on computer and lists gay material and has subject entries.

*Stephen Gray is a fine openly gay poet and a major South African literary figure. *Marcellus Muthien is a black poet living in London. The openly gay Afrikaans poet, *Johann de Lange, who writes in Afrikaans has poems translated into English. The anthology *Invisible Ghetto (1993) includes some poems.

*Vikram Seth wrote the first gay book of poems in 1982 and the collection of writing *A Lotus of Another Color (1993) has the first selection of gay poems; this work also lists journals publishing poetry. The poet *Hoshang Merchant compiled a selection of gay writing published by *Penguin Books in India in 1999 title Yaraana: Gay Writing from India and which includes eleven poets. Both books give much information on the gay literary heritage and gay life in general both in the present and the past. (Translations of erotic poetry classics from India into English mentioning homosexuality—e.g., the *Kama Sutra—should be mentioned here as well as general philosophical works such as the *Upanishads.)

After the Pilgrims arrived in 1620, English gradually became the dominant language over the whole of the country and, unfortunately, the anti-homosexual religious movement *Puritanism became a dominating ideology. *Censorship was strong until 1970. The first poet of interest is *Michael Wigglesworth whose 1662 poem The Day of Doom refers to homosexuality. The first known poem to deal directly with male homosexuality is the anonymous A *Present for the Sodomites (1808). *Friendship is a theme in poems by *Thoreau—who may have been gay though his exact sexuality may never be known; it is also a theme in *Ralph Waldo Emerson. Both writers were part of the movement called *Transcendentalism.

*Walt Whitman was the first major homopoet of consequence: his Calamus poems from the 1860 edition of Leaves of Grass appeared in enlarged editions of Leaves of Grass to 1891 and are his best known works of relevance (though his Civil War poems where he nursed soldiers are also important). His use of *free verse makes him a pioneer of *modernism. *R. M. Bucke, a disciple of Whitman, wrote the first notable *biography of the poet in 1883. *Stephen Wayne Foster has uncovered homosexual *tropes in many late nineteenth and early twentieth century poets and homosexuality in their lives. Even President *Abraham Lincoln, a much loved President who led the north in the American Civil War of 1861–1865, wrote a homopoem. *Harvard University in the *eighteen nineties had several homosexual poets, such as *George Santayana; many gay poets have subsequently attended the university.

Followers of Whitman in the late nineteenth century were called Calamites or *Uranians and were first documented in the first United States gay poetry anthology *Men and Boys, 1924, compiled by *Edward M. Slocum. On present knowledge *songs date from 1888 (see *Eugene Field).

The United States expatriate writer *E. I. P. Stevenson under the pseudonym Xavier Mayne published the first extended literary survey of European and United States gay culture round 1911. The founders of English language *modernism were *T. S. Eliot and *Ezra Pound, both United States born citizens who later lived in Europe, and there is some homosexual interest in the poetry they wrote. Translations of gay poets emanating from the United States—e.g., *R. B. Cooke's translation of the sonnets of *Platen written in German—have been excellent.
The homosexual *Hart Crane was an important modernist poet; his poetry has *surrealist overtones and his homosexuality was disclosed in *Philip Horton's 1937 biography. From 1910, *George Sylvester Viereck was the most notable United States poet writing in the *decadent manner.

The British poet *W. H. Auden lived in the United States from 1939, becoming a US citizen in 1946, and composed the famous erotic poem *The Platonic Blow in 1948; it has had numerous reprintings from its first publication in 1965. Due to *homophobia, the homosexual critic *F. O. Matthiesson may have committed suicide in 1948; his pioneering book American Renaissance is notable for avoiding homosexuality in Whitman and others and its lack of positive comment shows the extent of social ostracism of homosexuals at the time.

*Frank O'Hara and the New York School (which included *James Schuyler and *John Ashbery) are notable from the fifties. *On the *west coast, Jack Spicer was a major poet of this time as was the openly gay *Robert Duncan from *San Francisco. The *gay liberation period from 1969 saw a flowering of poetry, much of which was published in the gay liberation *journals Gay Sunshine (1969–82) edited by *Winston Leyland (who has compiled several anthologies—most recently *Gay Roots, a selection from Gay Sunshine), Fag Rag (1971+; edited by a collective which included the outstanding *Boston based poet and critic *Charley Shively), and the outstanding poetry journal *Mouth of the Dragon (1974–80) edited by *Andrew Bifrost. *Christopher Street journal under the guidance of the poet *Charles Ortleb, himself a fine poet, has published excellent poetry. Indeed, the United States has produced the finest gay poetry journals in English in the period from 1969.

Centers of gay liberation included *San Francisco, *Boston, *New York and *Los Angeles. Outstanding *bibliographies were compiled by *Dorr Legg and *Vern L. Bullough in the 1970s; they contributed vastly to increased knowledge of gay culture. *Wayne Dynes, the editor of *The Encyclopedia of Homosexuality (1990), which contains much literary material, published the finest research guide to homosexuality to its date in 1987 (it has been supplemented by that of the Australian *Gary Simes published in 1998 and to which this author contributed many entries). *Robert K. Martin in The Homosexual Tradition in American Poetry (1979) wrote the first extended study of homosexuality in United States English poetry.

Outstanding openly gay poets of the period since 1969 (apart from those mentioned) include *Gavin Dillard, *Dennis Kelly, *James S. Holmes, *John Weiners, *James Broughton, *Felice Picano, *Dennis Cooper, *John Gill, *Thomas Meyer and *Harold Norse. Many major late twentieth century United States poets such as *John Ashbery and *James Merrill are regarded as amongst the finest United States poets of the time, though gay poets have been unjustly neglected in recent general literary histories and criticism (almost all of which so far fail to mention recent gay poetry of the last thirty years since 1969). Harold Norse's gay poems, though written in the forties and fifties, were only published in 1976.

Recent *Black gay poets have been outstanding and a series of black gay *anthologies has been published of which *In the Life edited by *Jim Beam and *The Road Before Us, edited by *Asotto Saint (pseud.), stand out.
*Paul Monette and *Michael Lassell have written fine poems about *Aids, which has been prominent since 1983. Major gay biographies of recent date include *Barry Miles on Ginsberg and *Tom Clark on *Charles Olson—the leading poet of English language *Postmodernism. On the other hand, *Arnold Rampersand's recent life of *Langston Hughes reveals little of the subject's gay life.

The United States has outstanding *libraries and archives which have not yet been fully consulted by researchers on gay poetry; they contain many important *manuscripts (see for example *Horace Traubel). *Booksellers and *publishers of gay poetry books in the United States are outstanding and have greatly helped the present gay cultural renaissance (secondhand books can now be searched on the *Internet). The *nineteen seventies, *nineteen eighties and *nineteen nineties are the richest decades in English language gay poetry so far.

In the twentieth century, the poet *John Henry Mackay whose works celebrate *pederasty, though born in Scotland, wrote in German and lived in Germany. *And Thus Will I Freely Sing is a modern anthology in English and Scots Gaelic, which includes some poetry and which was compiled by *Toni Davidson; the introduction is by *Edwin Morgan, a major openly gay twentieth century Scots poet writing in English. *Christopher Whyte writes in Scots Gaelic which is enjoying a revival as well as English. See also *G. M. Brown, *Norman Douglas, *Hugh MacDiarmid, *Richard Livermore, *Tom Leonard, *Douglas Young.

*Modernism has been influential in the twentieth century. Contemporary poets of relevance include *Uuno Kailas, *Pentti Holappa and *Jrjo Kaijarvi. The gay erotic artist *Tom of Finland (pseud.) is supposed to have written poems. The Finno-Swedish poet *Gunnar Bjorling lived in Finland but wrote in Swedish. Translation into Finnish has been particularly rich—e.g., *Whitman, *Homer's Iliad and *Ginsberg have been translated and translation dates from *Horace's Odes in 1789. The Georgian poet *Rustaveli has been notably translated.

*Ode aux Bougres (1789) published at the time of the French Revolution is an extraordinary poem pretending to satirize homosexuality but actually written by someone fully familiar with gay customs in France. Following the revolution, the *law was changed in 1791 legalizing male-male homosexual relations in line with the enlightened beliefs exhibited by the philosopher *Voltaire's writings, a pattern followed by enlightened European countries whose law was modelled on the French Code Napoléon.

In 1897, *André Raffalovich published in French the first modern history of gay culture and gay literary *journals exist from 1909 when the journal *Akadémos was published for one year by the rich Swede *Jacques Adelswärd Fersen (who was found guilty of sex with minors and later lived in exile on the island of *Capri in Italy near *Naples). The closely related *decadent and *aesthetic movement were strong in France and the *dandy *Robert de Montesquiou wrote poems. The poems of Wilde's lover *Alfred Douglas, translated into French in a bilingual edition in English and French, were widely read on publication in 1896 in Paris. This followed the 1895 trial and imprisonment of Wilde. In the *eighteen nineties the gay novelist *Marcel Proust also wrote poems which were set to music by his lover *Reynaldo Hahn.

The French gay journal Arcadie (1954–1982) was the only journal in a Romance language during its time of publication and circulated as far as Portugal; it published scholarly articles and gay poetry and prose and remains one of the most important gay journals ever. In 1968 *Pierre Guiraud published a study of François Villon's language, arguing that each poem contained three levels of meaning, one of which was homosexual.