• 24/02/2023
• By wizewebsite
• 290 Views

For the passionate gay romance of prison, falling on the social bottom and execution: Which writer aces experienced hell because of its orientation?<

The names of some authors are familiar to us from school. But we rarely suspect what they had to face during their lives and what joys, but also numerous sufferings, which are often encoded even in their greatest works, they managed to go through...

Were they or weren't they?

While in antiquity no one was particularly surprised by gay and lesbian relationships and they were quite common, in the Middle Ages and early modern times Christian society already considered them a sin. It is therefore not surprising that even the writers who created at that time preferred not to publicly declare their orientation. We can only speculate about some authors and their affiliation to the LGBT community when reading their works.

Such personalities include the playwright and poet William Shakespeare, who, according to many, was bisexual. Some of his sonnets are supposed to be the proof. Many people also see hints of homosexuality in the work of the poet and Anglican priest John Donne or in one of the most important works written in English - the extensive poem Paradise Lost by John Milton. But the name of the romantic poet and probably also the anorexic George Gordon Byron must not be missing from the list. In addition to his weight fluctuations, his bisexuality added to his worries. In addition, the main reason for Byron's escape from his homeland was accusations of sexual scandals of all kinds (including incest and same-sex intercourse), which could result in the death penalty. But Zubatá still came for the poet, at only 36 years old.

In later centuries, however, queer literati did not have it any easier, so they remained silent about their privacy, just like their predecessors. With the passage of time, however, even when analyzing the work of these authors, one cannot help but speculate. They especially evoke the works of the poet Walt Whitman, or the writers Herman Melville or Henry James. Whitman lived with his mother for most of his life, and neither he nor James ever married. In addition, not one of them stood up from the contemporary testimonies about the marriage. It was no different for the novelist Marcel Proust or the poet Emily Dickinson, who also remained single and apparently maintained a long-term love relationship with her sister-in-law, with whom she lived in the same household. Several films and series have been made about the poet and her lover. On the other hand, the poet T. S. Eliot married twice, but his first wife maintained that he was secretly gay.

One of the most famous Spanish poets, Federico García Lorca, apparently also struggled with his homosexuality, and he paid the highest price for it. Salvador Dalí's close friend from his student days was imprisoned for three days and then shot by fascists at the start of the Spanish Civil War. The official report states that the poet, who was platonically in love with Dalí (confirmed by the painter himself), was executed in cold blood not only because of politics, but also because he participated in "homosexual and abnormal practices". Since he was buried in a mass grave, his remains have never been found.

A proud rebel

Irish poet and playwright Oscar Wilde made history not only with his prolific work, but also with controversies. He certainly did not lack self-confidence as a proper dandy - he was repeatedly immortalized in photographs, and from the images that have survived, it is clear that Wilde was a very eccentric person. In addition to his high intelligence and good speaking skills, he stood out above all for his extravagant clothing and lifestyle. In addition, his marriage to the wealthy Constance Lloyd made him financially secure. They had two sons together, to whom he was a loving father. But for the whole family, the previous idyll was turned upside down when Wilde met Lord Alfred Douglas, who was 16 years younger. But Douglas's father had a problem with the gay romance, and he took the playwright to court. That Wilde lost and, in addition to the public scandal, was sentenced to two years in prison and hard labor. Except for a few of his most loyal friends, everyone turned away from him. After Wilde was freed, he moved to Paris, in failing health and under a changed name. There, not only his creativity died out, but also his life. The former celebrity died penniless and in absolute poverty. But the following generations did not forget him.

But there were many, many more queer authors. The tumultuous relationship of the two cursed poets Paul Verlaine and Arthur Rimbaud is known, and it is safe to talk about homosexuality, or bisexuality, in connection with the important French poet, graphic artist, theater and filmmaker Jean Cocteau, the German writer Thomas Mann, the playwright Tennessee Williams, the writer Truman Capote or representatives of the beat movement Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs or Jack Kerouac. And we must not leave out the women either. Although most of them lived a life of misfortune and suffered a very cruel fate (writers and poets Virginia Woolf and Sylvia Plath both committed suicide), they decided to actively promote and strive for freedom of speech and sexuality - the writer, poet, playwright and translator Gertrude Stein credits authorship of one of the earliest coming out works entitled Q.E.D.