Customer Reviews

Love Stories: Sex between Men before Homosexuality

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Jonathan Katz, who by now is one of the most respected scholars of gay history, has written another telling volume about same-sex love in America. This one centers around the nineteenth century. Well-known names appear in these pages, principally the towering figure of poet Walt Whitman, who not only espoused the ideal of love between men in his own life, but was a mentor and inspirational figure to others struggling with their desires for those of their own gender.

Katz's overall point is that one cannot judge the sexual behavior of men of the past by today's standards and attitudes--for much of the nineteenth century, there existed no sharp dichotomy between man-woman (heterosexual) and man-man or woman-woman (homosexual) behavior. Rather, distinctions were made between _types_ of love, spiritual as opposed to carnal, and _types_ of erotic behavior, procreative as opposed to non-procreative. Even among acts judged early on to be immoral or wrong, some were more wrong than others--oral copulation for a long time was not regarded with the same revulsion as other penetrative acts, for example. Having delineated these basic arguments, Katz then tells the stories of individual men and specific incidents (trials, arrests, news reports, et al.) against this background, bringing a historical perspective of unusual lucidity to all of these disparate tales.

Although he does not specifically attempt to tie his history toward attitudes and behavior of the present day, one of the beneficial effects of Katz's study is that the careful reader can discern where the frequently virulent prejudices against gays and lesbians that remain today got their start. The fact that many of these once did NOT exist, moreover, gives hope for the future. This is an unusual, valuable, candid and ultimately very moving chronicle.

In addition to being a wonderful collection of most if not all of the known facts about sex between men in the Western world during the nineteenth century, this book is a well-written narrative about how the mystery and the cultural taboo surrounding gay sex was gradually, sometimes awkwardly, unravelled and revealed and finally relaxed. The story of gay liberation in America and England begins here, with Abraham Lincoln and Walt Whitman and John Addington Symonds and the dozens of unknown but courageous men who were unwilling to let themselves be crushed by the social pressure to be less like themselves and more like the heterosexual, morally acceptable "norm." We should all be grateful to these early freedom-fighters and non-conformists, and grateful, too, to Jonathan Ned Katz for telling these stories with such passionate and admirable accuracy and feeling.

..and then was very disappointed in the content. When I bought the book, I assumed it was truly about "sex between men before homosexuality." Instead, I found a thinly veiled biography of Walt Whitman and his writings. Nowhere on the cover does it indicate this. Only way in the back in the acknowledgments, is this "acknowledged." When I started the book, the section on Abraham Lincoln was fascinating and I'm glad Katz advocates ensuring we look at relationships within their own context of society and culture. But he spends too much time on Whitman and hyperanalyzing every word he wrote. I am not interested at all in poetry or Walt Whitman, so it was a shame that I bought this hardcover and had to try and pick out the parts without Whitman. The only time this became interesting was toward the end where the focus was more on Whitman's life.
The best part of the book, and I have to agree with another reviewer, are the wonderful vintage photographs.
While I believe Katz is an expert and writes fairly well, I would not recommend this book to someone looking for a wide range of subjects.

"Love Stories" is about a struggle for men who love men to find a place for themselves within their own imaginations. Katz examines the 19th century intellectual nexus where same-sex male lust, emotional intimacy between men and, to a lesser extent, male femininity meet and from which the origins of contemporary gay male identity are found. This book gives context to those who believe the "gay community" as it is popularly thought of today is not a point of arrival, but a temporary and, in the history of same-sex attraction, relatively short-lived form. In a time when being gay is a commodified identity analagous to rooting for a sports team, Love Stories gives substance, history and meaning to those seeking to understand where we come from. Love Letters reads easy, in parts like a Vanity Fair-style social history, with famous names and well-known historical circumstances. I hope Jonathan Ned Katz lives, researches and writes forever.

I must applaud this author for producing a fine book which takes the pain to explain people and their actions in the light of their times; before we invented the label 'gay'.

A lot of reserach went into this work, and it shows. Facts are shown which have nowadays been glossed over by urban myths and have become distorted. I found the book fascinating and full of aspects that highlighted historical backgrounds.

Recommended for all who wish to study the facts.

Katz does a wonderful job in dissecting history and presenting his thesis in a clear, concise manner. This book is valuable to Historians and people who are interested in history. Some people may feel a little lost or overwhelmed in the text of the book which looks at the concept of sexual deviance legally, socially as well as historically. It is important to know the Homosexuality is a modern construct of the 20th Century. This book is about men struggling to name and identify what was yet to be named. The passages dealing with the legal definition of sodomy are crucial towards understanding the roots of prejudice against homosexuals today. Great book!

I find the subject of all-male attraction finally being validated in this work and presented in a realistic manner--not meant to trash but to inform and educate. To see such honored men among the group, which attests to male on male sexual attraction as being part of a "normal" everyday sensation that so many men encounter, is more than welcomed. I also find the subtlety of this subject matter written in an erotic fashion (although presented as "fiction" for reasons of the people meant to protect) in a recent, although little known work, entitled Love, Lust & Terror.

Before Freud ruined so much of human relationships with his misguided and anti-human theory, people could have deep friendships across many, if not all, social and gender boundaries without fear of being labeled as deviate or shameful. In the mid-to-late 19th century, deep, and sometimes sexual relationships between men, found a common theme. Male/male love was now seen, by well-educated devotees, as a rediscovery of ancient Greek traditions. Britain and America thought themselves the heirs to the Greco-Roman legacy, and those platonic (or not) friendships were a part of that. The role that Walt Whitman played in giving the movement a voice and a testament gets thorough treatment here.

Unfortunately, the book has three significant flaws, two of which could be solved by editing and the third of which should send Katz back to the library. First, the jacket subtitle is `Sex Between Men Before Homosexuality" which is misleading and needlessly provocative. The book is much more about deep male friendships; the sexual aspects are really secondary to the narrative. Secondly, the author indulges in far too many snickering, leering asides, such as "Could this have meant...?" "Were they really referring to (insert name of sexual act)?" To add insult, he feels compelled to explain the double -entendre of the word `tight'. One thinks he didn't know his audience. He should have just used a lot of emoticons!

The third, and most serious flaw is the lack of context. Having carefully established the nature and wide range of these relationships, he omits any mention of Freud and other researchers into human sexuality who only succeeded in making everyone more uptight than they were. To judge from this book these Victorian proto-queens were only slightly bothered about the moral aspects of male-male sex, but after Freud, all that changed. Just a few pages about the difference in post-Freudian sexual anxieties would help the reader appreciate just how good most, if not all, of Katz's 19th century subjects had it.

An important book that needs to get over itself in some ways, Love Stories needs just a few more minutes in the dressing room before going back to the cotillion.

When C.A. Tripp began to exchange information with Larry Kramer about Lincoln's homosexual experiences, I warned him that because Larry was so close to Jonathan Ned Katz, Katz might be inspired to revisit the question about Honest Abe's homosexuality and take an equivocal position on it, which he did in Love Stories. Katz was hampered by his adherence to "social constructionism" - the notion that before the coining of the word homosexual in 1869 homosexuals didn't exist.

I found this book interesting at times. Jonathan Katz is wise to not attempt to label 19th century males when it comes to their sexuality. He makes a point of this, and then labels them all the same when they engage in common 19th Century practices.

Yes, 19th Century men often slept together. All types of men did this, Gay, straight or whatever. Katz, also attempts to slip in quotes taking today's meaning of a word, for example, the word "intimate" did not have a sexual connotation in the 19th century.

In regards to the Lincoln, Speed "relationship," did you know:

1) Lincoln's law partner of 18 years and friend for longer said in a letter "Lincoln and Speed were quite familiar, to go no further, with the women, I cannot tell you what I know, especially in ink..." Read Honor's Voice By Douglas Wilson

2) Joshua Speed in Springfield was known to be a womanizer and reportedly kept a female prostitute. Lincoln asked him where he could "get some" and Speed gave Lincoln this woman's address. Read- Hidden Lincoln, From the Letters and Papers of William Herndon edited By Emmanuel Hertz.

3) Joshua Speed was by all reports, very happily married for around 40 years. Lincoln and Speed only saw each other 3-4 times from 1842 until 1865. If you read all the(authentic)letters they exchanged there is nothing "erotic" in them. Read-Joshua Fry Speed, Lincoln's Most Intimate Friend.

4) At least 4 of Lincoln's friends(and Lincoln Himself) mention Lincoln's involvement with female prostitutes when he was single. Read- Herndon's Informants: Letters and Statements about Abraham Lincoln.

5) Lincoln's secretaries John Hay and John Nicolay slept in the same bed in the White House for 4 years. Robert Lincoln also slept there at times. See John Hay's Diary.