early "gay" cite (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Jonathan Lighter]

Worth checking. HDAS quotes earlier McAlmon writings, however, none of which
appeared to me to use the word in the given sense.

The word he preferred in _A Companion Volume_ (1923) was "queer."


JL

On Wed, Sep 21, 2011 at 4:22 PM, Mullins, Bill AMRDEC <
Bill.Mullins at us.army.mil> wrote:

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> Poster:       "Mullins, Bill AMRDEC" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL>
> Subject:      early "gay" cite (UNCLASSIFIED)
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
> Caveats: NONE
>
> Natalie Galustian's "Catalogue of Early Gay Fiction"
> http://www.nataliegalustian.com/theyWereWhatTheyWere.pdf
> includes four editions of "Scarlet Pansy" by Robert Scully (probably a
> pseud. for Robert McAlmon), published as far back as 1932.
>
> The catalogue quotes Hugh Hagius as saying "McAlmon is, I believe, the
> first writer to use 'gay' in the sense of same-sex orientation."  And
> Fred Shapiro in a Jul 15 2003 ADS-L posts quotes part of a Gary Simes
> article which has citations from "Scarlet Pansy" which support this.
>
> The citations are not given any significant context by Simes, and the
> auction catalogue doesn't elaborate either, but it is clear that the
> book is full of gay content.
> Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
> Caveats: NONE
>
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