List Source
Here's the book these books come from. The book contains personal essays that explain why the select book is a must read - and this book is a fun "must read" itself! This page on our guide includes some but not all of the listed books.
50 Gay and Lesbian Books Everybody Must Read by
Gay subjects have been central to many literary traditions. Yet crossover success are few, as are works on gay topics by straight authors. Equally, openly gay-themed books do not receive the readerships of mainstream or universal concerns. Edited by Richard Canning, and with a foreword by renowned literary critic Harold Bloom, this volume collects 50 succinct esssays by critics, public figures and authors to illuminate the essential titles that bookworms of every orientation must read. Canning tackles issues of cultural diversity, politics and what makes a work 'gay'.
Call Number: HQ75.15 A15x 2009ISBN: 9781593501198Publication Date: 2009-11-01
More Classic Classics!
Giovanni's Room by
Set in the contemporary Paris of American expatraites, liasons, and violence, a young man finds himself caught between desire and conventional morality. James Baldwin's brilliant narrative delves into the mystery of loving with a sharp, probing imagination, and he creates a moving, highly controversial story of death and passion that reveals the unspoken complexities of the heart.
Call Number: PS3552.A45 G5x 1985ISBN: 0440328810Publication Date: 1988-04-01
Howl, and Other Poems by
The prophetic poem that launched a generation when it was first published in 1965 is here presented in a commemorative 40th Anniversary Edition. Allen Ginsberg'sHowl and Other Poems was originally published by City Lights Books in the Fall of 1956. Subsequently seized by U.S. customs and the San Francisco police, it was the subject of a long court trail at which a series of poets and professors persuaded the court that the book was not obscene. Howl & Other Poems is the single most influential poetic work of the post-World War II era, with over 1,000,000 copies now in print. "Howl was Allen's metamorphosis from quiet, brilliant, burning bohemian scholar trapped by his flames and repressions to epic vocal bard."--Michael McClure "It is the poet, Allen Ginsberg, who has gone, in his own body, through the horrifying experiences described from life in these pages." --William Carlos Williams "At the height of his bardic powers, Allen Ginsberg could terrify the authorities with the mere utterance of the syllable "om" as he led street throngs of citizens protesting the Vietnam War. Ginsberg reigned as the raucous poet of American hippiedom and as a literary pioneer whose freewheeling masterwork "Howl" prevailed against government censorship in a landmark obscenity trial 50 years ago." --New York Times "Fifty years ago, on October 3, Judge Clayton Horn ruled that Allen Ginsberg's great epic Beat-era poem HOWL was not obscene but instead, a work of literary and social merit. This ruling allowed for the publication of HOWL and exonerated the poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, who faced jail time and a fine 50 years ago for publishing 'HOWL.'" -- Pacifica.org Allen Ginsberg was born June 3, 1926, the son of Naomi Ginsberg, Russian émigré, and Louis Ginsberg, lyric poet and schoolteacher, in Paterson, New Jersey. To these facts Ginsberg adds: "High school in Paterson till 17, Columbia College, merchant marine, Texas and Denver copyboy, Times Square, amigos in jail, dishwashing, book reviews, Mexico City, market research, Satori in Harlem, Yucatan and Chiapas 1954, West Coast 3 years. Later Arctic Sea trip, Tangier, Venice, Amsterdam, Paris, read at Oxford Harvard Columbia Chicago, quit, wrote Kaddish 1959, made tape to leave behind & fade in Orient awhile. Carl Solomon to whom Howl is addressed, is a intuitive Bronx dadaist and prose-poet."
Call Number: PS3513 I74 H6 1996ISBN: 0872863107Publication Date: 2001-01-01
The Letters of Vita Sackville-West and Virginia Woolf by
After they met in 1922, Vita Sackville-West and Virginia Woolf began a passionate relationship that lasted until Woolf's death in 1941. Their revealing correspondence leaves no aspect of their lives untouched: daily dramas, bits of gossip, the strains and pleasures of writing, and always the same joy in each other's company. This volume, which features over 500 letters spanning 19 years, includes the writings of both these literary icons.
Call Number: PR6037.A35 Z497 1985ISBN: 1573441961Publication Date: 2004-09-30
The Mrs. Dalloway Reader by
This first volume of its kind contains the complete text of and guide to Virginia Woolf's masterpiece plus Mrs. Dalloway's Party, and numerous journal entries and letters by Virginia Woolf relating to the book's genesis and writing. The distinguished novelist Francine Prose has selected these pieces as well as essays and appreciations, critical views, and commentary by writers famous and unknown. This complete volume illuminates the creation of a beloved book and the genius of its author.
Call Number: PR6045 O72 M7 2003ISBN: 0151010447Publication Date: 2003-11-15
Nightwood by
Originally published in 1936, "Nightwood" is a haunting tale of sexual obsession. Robin Vote -- the woman at the heart of this strange and richly atmospheric novel -- is a woman whose passions are strong enough to destroy. The novel circles and spirals as, first, Nora's husband, and then, Nora and Jenny, her lovers, are consumed by her insatiable hunger for human contact.
Call Number: PS3503.A614 N5 1995ISBN: 1564780805Publication Date: 1995-08-01
The Terrible Girls by
The girls on the prowl inThe Terrible Girls are indeed terrible--relentless in love, ruthless in betrayal. These thematically linked stories depict a contemporary Gothic world in which body parts are traded for love, wounds never heal, and self-sacrifice is often the only way out. "In this brilliantly original work, Rebecca Brown gives us haunting parables of betrayal and love, of loss and resurrection, of loneliness and solidarity. Like a modern Djuna Barnes, Brown creates a language of telling that is fiercely beautiful and honest. This book is a love story unlike any you have read before. Its subversive and passionate transformation carry the lesbian literary voice onto the 21st century." --Joan Nestle "A dry, witty, graceful-if savage-gift." --Mary Gaitskill "The Terrible Girls comes from one of the fiercest, most potent, original writers around: a bloody flayer of skins, both other's and her own . . . a work of possessed and persuasive visionary power." --The Listener "The Terrible Girls is a powerful account of erotic love which exchanges the comforts of illusion for more complex and less certain rewards." --The Times Literary Supplement Rebecca Brown is the winner of the 2003 Washington State Book Award. Her books, which are all published by City Lights, include:The Haunted House,The Terrible Girls,The End of Youth, The Last Time I Saw You, andThe Dogs,Annie Oakley's Girl. She was awarded a Genius Award and grant from Seattle's weekly magazine,The Stranger.
Call Number: PS3552.R6973 T47 1992ISBN: 0872862666Publication Date: 2001-01-01
Classic Classics!
What are "Classic Classics" ?
Older books that are... well, classics that everyone should read! Enjoy!
The Bostonians by
The plot of this novel revolves around the feminist movement in Boston in the 1870s. F.R. Leavis called it one of "the two most brilliant novels in the language. "The novel's many allusions to the historical and social background of Boston society are explained in the editorialmaterial.
Call Number: PS2116 B6 2009ISBN: 9780199539147Publication Date: 2009-05-15
Claudine at School by Call Number: PQ2605 O28 C5313x 1957ISBN: 0099422476See also: Claudine à l'école: PQ2605.O28 C53x 1969
Death in Venice, Tonio Kroger, and Other Writings by
Thomas Mann (1875-1955) won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1929. This is a collection of his shorter works. "Death in Venice", later filmed by Lucion Visconti starring Dirk Bogarde, was published in 1911. It is a poetic meditation on art and beauty, where the dying composer Aschenbach (modelled on Gustav Mahler) becomes fixated by the young boy Tadzio. The other stories are: "Tonio Kroger"; the collection entitled "Tristan"; "The Blood of the Walsungs"; "Mario the Magician"; and "The Tables of the Law". A number of essays are also included.>
Call Number: PT2625 A44 A2 1999ISBN: 0826409709Publication Date: 1999-04-01
De Profundis and Other Writings by Call Number: PR5811 .P4 1973ISBN: 014043089XPublication Date: 1976-08-26
Gilgamesh by
An English-language rendering of the world's oldest epic follows the journey of conquest and self-discovery by the king of Uruk, in an edition that includes an introduction that places the story in its historical and cultural context.
Call Number: PJ3771.5 G5 E5 2004ISBN: 074326164XPublication Date: 2004-09-28
Man Who Fell in Love with the Moon by
Set against the harsh reality of an unforgiving landscape and culture, The Man Who Fell in Love with the Moon provides a vision of the Old West unlike anything seen before. The narrator, Shed, is one of the most memorable characters in contemporary fiction: a half-Indian bisexual boy who lives and works at the Indian Head Hotel in the tiny town of Excellent, Idaho. It's the turn of the century, and the hotel carries on a prosperous business as the town's brothel. The eccentric characters working in the hotel provide Shed with a surrogate family, yet he finds in himself a growing need to learn the meaning of his Indian name, Duivichi-un-Dua, given to him by his mother, who was murdered when he was twelve. Setting off alone across the haunting plains, Shed goes in search of an identity among his true people, encountering a rich pageant of extraordinary characters along the way. Although he learns a great deal about the mysteries and traditions of his Indian heritage, it is not untilShed returns to Excellent and witnesses a series of brutal tragedies that he attains the wisdom that infuses this exceptional and captivating book.
Call Number: PS3569.P339 M36 1991ISBN: 080213663XPublication Date: 2000-01-06
A Season in Hell and the Drunken Boat by
New Directions is pleased to announce the relaunch of the long-celebrated bi- lingual edition of Rimbaud's A Season In Hell & The Drunken Boat -- a personal poem of damnation as well as a plea to be released from "the examination of his own depths."Rimbaud originally distributed A Season In Hell to friends as a self-published booklet, and soon afterward, at the age of nineteen, quit poetry altogether. New Directions's edition was among the first to be published in the U.S., and it quickly became a classic. Rimbaud's famous poem "The Drunken Boat" was subsequently added to the first paperbook printing. Allen Ginsberg proclaimed Arthur Rimbaud as "the first punk" -- a visionary mentor to the Beats for both his recklessness and his fiery poetry.This new edition proudly dons the original Alvin Lustig-designed cover, and a introduction by another famous rebel -- and now National Book Award-winner -- Patti Smith.
Call Number: PQ2387.R5 S313 2011ISBN: 9780811219488Publication Date: 2011-10-05
Selected Letters by
A new and newly annotated selection of letters--the only selected edition available in hardcover--from the English eighteenth-century historian, novelist, and politician whose correspondence is one of the most admired in English literature. Author of the first gothic novel and son of the first prime minister of Great Britain, Horace Walpole had wide-ranging interests that included literature, politics, world affairs, collecting, antiquities, and architecture. He wrote to his numerous correspondents on these and other topics in prose that is celebrated for its charm, eloquence, and wit. This new Everyman's edition offers an extensive selection of Walpole's letters, helpfully arranged by subject so the reader can choose from themes including social life, the Court, politics, literature, and the evolution of his Gothic castle and art and book collections at Strawberry Hill. This edition offers new annotations throughout, with introductions to its various sections and a general introduction on Walpole as a letter writer. In addition, the text of the letters has been corrected and previously excised passages have been restored.
Call Number: DA483 W2 A4 2017ISBN: 9781101907894Publication Date: 2017-06-27
A Shropshire Lad and Other Poems by
'All things may end, for all began; And truth and singleness of heart Are mortal even as is man'A. E. Housman (1859 - 1936) was one of the best-loved poets of his day. His poems conjure up a potent and idyllic rural world imbued with a poignant sense of loss and sadness. Their scope is wide - ranging from religious doubt and doomed love to intense nostalgia for the countryside and patriotic celebration of the life of the soldier - and they are made all the more memorable by their distinctive diction and perfectly modulated rhythm and sound. This volume brings together the works Housman published in his lifetime, A Shropshire Lad (1896) and Last Poems (1922), along with the posthumous selections More Poems and Additional Poems, and three translations of extracts from Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides that display his mastery of Classical literature. This edition has been revised by Archie Burnett and includes updated notes on the text and indexes of first lines and titles. Revised edition by ARCHIE BURNETT with an afterword by JOHN LAIRD
Call Number: PR4809 H15 A12 2010xISBN: 0140424741Publication Date: 2010-09-28
Sweetbitter Love: Poems of Sappho by
Sappho is the greatest lyric poet of antiquity. Plato, a century after her death, referred to her as "the Tenth Muse," and Longinos, in his first-century treatise "On the Sublime," uses her verse to exemplify that transcendent quality in literature. In Sappho's lyrics we hear for the first time in the West the words of an individual woman of her own world: her apprehension of sun and orchards; the troubles and summits of love, desire, and friendship. Her poems combine an impression of intimate self-involvement with an almost modern sense of detachment. Though time has reduced the nine volumes of her work to a handful of complete poems and a collection of fragments, each word and phrase that survives is poignantly significant. The clarity of her voice, its absolute candor, its amazing fresh authority--whether in addressing a goddess, dancers before a night altar, the moon and stars, a sweet apple or mountain hyacinth, a lamb or cricket, a lover or companion--are qualities that compel us today as in antiquity. Willis Barnstone has given us a close and beautiful lyrical version. His translation, with the original Greek on facing pages, includes a dozen hitherto unintelligible fragments that have been brought vibrantly back to life by him, as well as Sappho's newly discovered poem from the Cologne papyrus in its complete form. It also contains the translator's essay placing the poet in her historic and artistic context; a glossary; extensive notes; an epilogue and metrical guide by William E. McCulloh, Professor Emeritus of Classics at Kenyon College; and a special section of testimonia: appreciations of Sappho in the words of her ancient admirers.
Call Number: PA4408 E5 B35 2006ISBN: 9781590301753Publication Date: 2006-12-12
Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass by
"I celebrate myself, And what I assume you shall assume, For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you. I loafe and invite my soul, I lean and loafe at my ease....observing a spear of summer grass." So begins Leaves of Grass, the first great American poem and indeed, to this day, the greatest and most essentially American poem in all our national literature. The publication of Leaves of Grass in July 1855 was a landmark event in literary history. Ralph Waldo Emerson judged the book "the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom America has yet contributed." Nothing like the volume had ever appeared before. Everything about it--the unusualjacket and title page, the exuberant preface, the twelve free-flowing, untitled poems embracing every realm of experience--was new. The 1855 edition broke new ground in its relaxed style, which prefigured free verse; in its sexual candor; in its images of racial bonding and democratic togetherness;and in the intensity of its affirmation of the sanctity of the physical world. This Anniversary Edition captures the typeface, design and layout of the original edition supervised by Whitman himself. Today's readers get a sense of the "ur-text" of Leaves of Grass, the first version of this historic volume, before Whitman made many revisions of both format and style. Thevolume also boasts an afterword by Whitman authority David Reynolds, in which he discusses the 1855 edition in its social and cultural contexts: its background, its reception, and its contributions to literary history. There is also an appendix containing the early responses to the volume,including Emerson's letter, Whitman's three self-reviews, and the twenty other known reviews published in various newspapers and magazines. This special volume will be a must-have keepsake for fans of Whitman and lovers of American poetry.
Call Number: PS3201 2005bISBN: 0195183428Publication Date: 2005-04-15
Even more Classic Classics!!!
The Cancer Journals by
Literary Nonfiction. Memoir. African American Studies. LGBT Studies. Moving between journal entry, memoir, and exposition, Audre Lorde fuses the personal and political as she reflects on her experience coping with breast cancer and a radical mastectomy. Includes photos and tributes to Lorde written after her death in 1992. "Grief, terror, courage, the passion for survival and for more than survival, are here in the searchings of a great poet."—Adrienne Rich "This book teaches me that with one breast or none, I am still me."—Alice Walker
Call Number: RC280 B8 L58 1997ISBN: 1879960737Publication Date: 2006-09-01
Constantine P. Cavafy by
C.P. Cavafy (Konstantinos Petrou Kavafis) is one of the most important and influential Greek poets since antiquity. Based on a thirty-year scholarly and literary interaction with Cavafy s poetry and its Greek and Western European intertexts, John Chioles has produced a most authoritative and exceptionally nuanced translation of the complex linguistic registers of Cavafy s "Canon" into English. This paperback volume contains only the English rendition of the Canon, which previously appeared alongside a new edition of the Greek text in Volume 1 of the Harvard Early Modern and Modern Greek Library."
Call Number: PA5610 K2 A6 2011bISBN: 9780983532231Publication Date: 2012-08-13
Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Call Number: PR6073 I558 O7 1987ISBN: 0871131633Publication Date: 1994-01-11
Paradiso by
"Su trayectoria poetica confluye de forma natural en ""Paradiso"". La poesia nace de la conjuncion de las palabras, de sus enlaces y conexiones insolitas de las que brota como ente inefable lo poetico."
Call Number: PQ7389.L49 P3 1976ISBN: 8437602203Publication Date: 1976
Betrayed by Rita Hayworth by
Finally back in print, Manuel Puig's celebrated first novel is a startling anatomy of a small town in thrall to its own petty lusts, betrayals, scandals, thefts, and gossip--but most of all, to the movies. Centering around a boy named Toto, privy to the town's secrets and always eager to fill in the ugly or upsetting moments of his childhood with Hollywood-inspired fantasy, Betrayed by Rita Hayworth is a symphony of disappointed, comic, bitter, and bawdy voices, all hemmed in by life's refusal to behave like the silver screen, and is perhaps the funniest and most honest coming-of-age story of its time.
Call Number: PQ7798.26 U4 T713 1971 ; See also original Spanish version, La traición de Rita Hayworth: PQ7798.26.U4 T7 1976ISBN: 1564785300Publication Date: 1971
A la recherche du temps perdu by Call Number: PQ2631.R63 A7 1987ISBN: 2080704753Publication Date: 1987
Memoirs of Hadrian by
Both an exploration of character and a reflection on the meaning of history, Memoirs of Hadrian has received international acclaim since its first publication in France in 1951. In it, Marguerite Yourcenar reimagines the Emperor Hadrian's arduous boyhood, his triumphs and reversals, and finally, as emperor, his gradual reordering of a war-torn world, writing with the imaginative insight of a great writer of the twentieth century while crafting a prose style as elegant and precise as those of the Latin stylists of Hadrian's own era.
Call Number: PQ2649.O8 M413 1963ISBN: 9780374529260Publication Date: 2005-05-18
A Taste of Honey by
A sensational theatrical success in London, A Taste of Honey was written by Shelagh Delaney at the age of 18. The play prompted Graham Greene to say that it had "all the freshness of Mr. Osborne's Look Back In Anger and a greater maturity." A Taste of Honey won Miss Delaney two national awards, the sale of film rights productions at Stratford, London, and Paris, and a round of applause from the critics. The play is the story of a working-class, adolescent girl and her relationships with the Black sailor who makes her pregnant; the homosexual art student who moves into her apartment to help her through her pregnancy; her fun-loving, saloon-frequenting mother; and Peter, her mother's newly acquired husband. Jo moves, in a very detached way, within this economic and emotional whirlpool. Miss Delaney translates these emotionally charged situations into a non-sentimental and realistic play.
Call Number: PR6007.E32 T3 1959bISBN: 0802131859Publication Date: 1994
Forbidden Colors by
From one of Japan's greatest modern writers comes an exquisitely disturbing novel of sexual combat and concealed passion, a work that distills beauty, longing, and loathing into an intoxicating tale. An aging, embittered novelist sets out to avenge himself on the women who have betrayed him. He finds the perfect instrument in Yuichi, a young man whose beauty makes him irresistible to women but who is just discovering his attraction to other men. As Yuichi's mentor presses him into a loveless marriage and a series of equally loveless philanderings, his protégé enters the gay underworld of postwar Japan where Yuichi is defenseless as any of the women he preys upon.
Call Number: PL833 I7 K5313 1968ISBN: 0375705163Publication Date: 1999-02-22
The World Only Spins Forward by
The oral history ofAngels in America, as told by the artists who created it and the audiences forever changed by it--a moving account of the AIDS era, essential queer history, and pure "theater magic" (NPR). A STONEWALL BOOK AWARDS HONOR BOOK When Tony Kushner'sAngels in America hit Broadway in 1993, it won the Pulitzer Prize, swept the Tonys, launched a score of major careers, and changed the way gay lives were represented in popular culture. Mike Nichols's 2003 HBO adaptation starring Meryl Streep, Al Pacino, and Mary-Louise Parker was itself a tour de force, winning Golden Globes and eleven Emmys, and introducing the play to an even wider public. This generation-defining classic continues to shock, move, and inspire viewers worldwide. Now, on the 25th anniversary of that Broadway premiere, Isaac Butler and Dan Kois offer the definitive account ofAngels in America in the most fitting way possible: through oral history, the vibrant conversation and debate of actors (including Streep, Parker, Nathan Lane, and Jeffrey Wright), directors, producers, crew, and Kushner himself. Their intimate storytelling reveals the on- and offstage turmoil of the play's birth--a hard-won miracle beset by artistic roadblocks, technical disasters, and disputes both legal and creative. And historians and critics help to situate the play in the arc of American culture, fromthe staunch activism of the AIDS crisis through civil rights triumphs to our current era, whose politics are a dark echo of the Reagan '80s. Expanded from a popularSlate cover story and built from nearly 250 interviews,The World Only Spins Forward is both a rollicking theater saga and an uplifting testament to one of the great works of American art of the past century, from its gritty San Francisco premiere to its starry, much-anticipated Broadway revival in 2018.
Call Number: PS3561 U778 A8533 2018ISBN: 9781635572988Publication Date: 2020-01-07
