2015-10-01

Crossposts: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/2389210.html

Entry tags:

days of love

Axel & Eigil Axgil

Axel Axgil (3 April 1915 – 29 October 2011) and Eigil Axgil (24 April 1922 – 22 September 1995) were Danish gay activists and a longtime couple. They were the first gay couple to enter into a registered partnership anywhere in the world following Denmark's legalisation of same-sex partnership registration in 1989, a landmark legislation which they were instrumental in bringing about. They adopted the shared surname, Axgil, a combination of their given names, as an expression of their commitment.

Axel, born Axel Lundahl-Madsen, and Eigil, born Eigil Eskildsen, inspired by the 1948 UN Declaration of Human Rights, together with several friends, founded F-48 or Forbundet af 1948 (The Association of 1948), Denmark's first gay rights organization. By 1951, F-48's membership had grown to 1,339 and there were branches in Sweden and Norway. In 1985, F-48 became the Danish National Association of Gays and Lesbians (Landsforeningen for Bøsser og Lesbiske, Forbundet af 1948 or LBL). The couple launched a magazine, Vennen (The Friend).

In 1989, Denmark became the first nation in the world to recognize domestic partnerships for same-sex couples. On October 1, 1989, the Axgils and 10 other Danish couples were married by Tom Ahlberg, the deputy mayor of Copenhagen, in the city hall, accompanied by worldwide media attention. The Axgils had been a couple for 40 years.

Eigil Axgil died on September 22, 1995 at the age of 73. Axel Axgil died on October 29, 2011 at the age of 96.

Axel Axgil and Eigil Axgil were Danish gay activists and a longtime couple. They were the first gay couple to enter into a registered partnership anywhere in the world following Denmark's legalisation of same-sex partnership registration in 1989. They adopted the shared surname, Axgil, a combination of their given names, as an expression of their commitment. The Axgils had been a couple for 40 years. Eigil Axgil died in 1995 at the age of 73. Axel Axgil died on October 29, 2011 at the age of 96.

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Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eigil_Axgil

Days of Love: Celebrating LGBT History One Story at a Time by Elisa Rolle
Paperback: 760 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform; 1 edition (July 1, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1500563323
ISBN-13: 978-1500563325
Amazon: Days of Love: Celebrating LGBT History One Story at a Time

Days of Love chronicles more than 700 LGBT couples throughout history, spanning 2000 years from Alexander the Great to the most recent winner of a Lambda Literary Award. Many of the contemporary couples share their stories on how they met and fell in love, as well as photos from when they married or of their families. Included are professional portraits by Robert Giard and Stathis Orphanos, paintings by John Singer Sargent and Giovanni Boldini, and photographs by Frances Benjamin Johnson, Arnold Genthe, and Carl Van Vechten among others. “It's wonderful. Laying it out chronologically is inspired, offering a solid GLBT history. I kept learning things. I love the decision to include couples broken by death. It makes clear how important love is, as well as showing what people have been through. The layout and photos look terrific.” Christopher Bram “I couldn’t resist clicking through every page. I never realized the scope of the book would cover centuries! I know that it will be hugely validating to young, newly-emerging LGBT kids and be reassured that they really can have a secure, respected place in the world as their futures unfold.” Howard Cruse “This international history-and-photo book, featuring 100s of detailed bios of some of the most forward-moving gay persons in history, is sure to be one of those bestsellers that gay folk will enjoy for years to come as reference and research that is filled with facts and fun.” Jack Fritscher

Crossposts: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/2446555.html

Entry tags:

days of love

Blanche Oelrichs & Margaret Wise Brown

Blanche Oelrichs (October 1, 1890 – November 5, 1950) was an American poet, playwright, and theatre actress known by the pseudonym, "Michael Strange." Starting in the summer of 1940 until her death, Oelrichs was in a long-term relationship with Margaret Wise Brown, the author of many children's books. The relationship began as something of a mentoring one, but became a romantic relationship including co-habitating at 10 Gracie Street beginning in 1943. Strange, who was twenty years Brown's senior, died in 1950.

Born Blanche Marie Louise Oelrichs at her uncle's Hermann Oelrichs' opulent mansion in Newport, Rhode Island designed by renowned architect Stanford White, Blanche Oelrichs spent summers amidst the Astors, the Vanderbilts and numerous other wealthy elites of American society. Her parents were Charles May Oelrichs, and Blanche de Loosey (whose sister was Emilie de Loosey, later Mrs Theodore A. Havemeyer). Her sister Natalie, always known as Lily, became Mrs Peter Martin of San Francisco, and after Peter Martin's premature death, later married Heinrich Borwin, Duke of Mecklenburg, but they later divorced.

On January 26, 1910, Blanche Oelrichs married Leonard Moorhead Thomas, the son of a prominent Philadelphia banker, with whom she had two children, Leonard Jr. (b. 1911–1968) and Robin May Thomas (1915–1944). A Yale University graduate, her husband had worked in the diplomatic service in Rome and Madrid and served with the United States Army in Europe during World War I, earning the Croix de Guerre from the government of France. Blanche Oelrichs involved herself as an activist for women's suffrage but her love for literature and poetry, especially the works of Walt Whitman, saw her begin writing verse of her own. Using the pen name Michael Strange, she had her first collection of poems published in 1916.

Diana Barrymore
Blanche Oelrichs was an American poet, playwright, and theatre actress known by the pseudonym, "Michael Strange." Starting in the summer of 1940 until her death, Oelrichs was in a long-term relationship with Margaret Wise Brown, the author of many children's books. The relationship began as something of a mentoring one, but became a romantic relationship including co-habitating at 10 Gracie Street beginning in 1943. Strange, who was twenty years Brown's senior, died in 1950.

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Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blanche_Oelrichs

Margaret Wise Brown (May 23, 1910 – November 13, 1952) was a prolific American writer of children's books, including the picture books Goodnight Moon and The Runaway Bunny, both illustrated by Clement Hurd. In the summer of 1940 Brown began a long-term relationship with Blanche Oelrichs (nom de plume Michael Strange), poet/playwright, actress, and the former wife of John Barrymore. The relationship, which began as a mentoring one, eventually became romantic, and included co-habitating at 10 Gracie Square in Manhattan beginning in 1943. Strange, who was twenty years Brown's senior, died in 1950.

The middle child of three whose parents suffered from an unhappy marriage, Brown was born in the Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, granddaughter of Benjamin Gratz Brown. In 1923 she attended boarding school in Woodstock, Connecticut, while her parents were living in Canterbury. She began attending Dana Hall School in Wellesley, Massachusetts, in 1926, where she did well in athletics. After graduation in 1928, Brown went on to Hollins College in Roanoke, Virginia.

Following her graduation with a B.A. in English from Hollins in 1932 Brown worked as a teacher and also studied art. While working at the Bank Street Experimental School in New York City she started writing books for children. Her first was When the Wind Blew, published in 1937 by Harper & Brothers.

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Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Wise_Brown

GoodNight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown and Clement Hurd is the last book I read to my one year old son every night before he falls asleep and it will forever represent eternal, unconditional love and wonderful memories. --K.L. Going

Crossposts: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/2086942.html

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days of love

Harold Nicolson & Vita Sackville-West

Alvilde Lees-Milne (née Bridges; formerly Viscountess Chaplin) (born London 13 August 1909; - died Badminton, Avon 18 March 1994) was a British gardening and landscape expert.

Born in 1909, she was the daughter of the Governor of South Australia (1922-27) Lt.-Gen. Sir (George) Tom Molesworth Bridges by his wife Janet Florence Menzies, and was the great-niece of the poet laureate (1913-30), Robert Bridges.

She met James Lees-Milne, who became her second husband, during World War II while she was engaged in an affair with the arts patron Winnaretta de Polignac. By 1949 they were in love, but from the outset the relationship was not without complications. She had been married since 1933 to Anthony Freskin Charles Hamby Chaplin, who would in 1949 become the 3rd Viscount Chaplin, and had one daughter, (Oenone) Clarissa, born in 1934. At one point the Chaplins, Lees-Milne, and Anthony Chaplin's girlfriend Hon. Rosemary Lyttelton all lived in the same house. Lord and Lady Chaplin divorced in 1950, whereupon the viscount married Rosemary Lyttleton (by whom he later had two daughters).

She and Lees-Milne were candid with each other about their true sexual nature, and they did not generally hide their affairs from one another. During the 1930s James Lees-Milne had been the lover of Harold Nicolson, husband of the writer Vita Sackville-West who was herself noted for her high-profile lesbian affairs. Both Harold and Vita acted as witnesses at the Lees-Milnes' wedding (also present was James' former lover the composer Lennox Berkeley and Berkeley's wife Freda). Vita Sackville-West's former lover Violet Trefusis had been the long-term lover of Princess de Polignac, and in turn in the 1950s Sackville-West became involved in a love affair with Alvilde Lees-Milne (who tried to conceal the fact from her husband).

Photograph of Ralph Jarvis, Randolph Spencer Churchill, Diana Mitford, Tom Mitford, Diana Spencer Churchill, and James Lees-Milne, 1927, From: James Lees-Milne papers, 1907-1997, Beinecke Library, Object ID: 2007219
Alvilde Chaplin was a British gardening and landscape expert. She met James Lees-Milne, who became her second husband, during WW II, while she was involved with Winnaretta Singer, who died in 1943, and married to Anthony Freskin Charles Hamby Chaplin, 3rd Viscount Chaplin. Lees-Milne had loved Tom Mitford at Eton, and was devastated when Tom was killed in action in Burma in 1945. Lord and Lady Chaplin divorced in 1950, whereupon the viscount married Rosemary Lyttleton. During the 1930s, Lees-Milne was involved in an affair with Harold Nicolson, the husband of the writer Vita Sackville-West, who, in the 1950s became involved with Alvilde.

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Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvilde_Chaplin

Evelyn Graham Irons (June 17, 1900 – April 3, 2000) was a Scottish journalist, the first woman war correspondent to be decorated with the French Croix de Guerre.

Irons's relationship with the writer Vita Sackville-West was well-known - months before her death, an Evening Standard headline identified her as the "war correspondent who broke Vita's heart" - but the romance was brief.

According to biographer Victoria Glendinning, in 1931 Irons went as editor of the Daily Mail women's page to interview Sackville-West at Sissinghurst where she was designing and shaping the famous gardens. Sackville-West was married to Harold Nicolson ( and had already had several extra marital including Violet Trefusis ), while Irons was involved with Olive Rinder. As if this were not complex enough, Rinder also became a lover of Sackville-West, forming a menage a trois during 1932 that ended when Irons met a fellow journalist, Joy McSweeney.

Sackville-West's 1931 love poems are addressed to Irons, though the "more erotic ones" were never published. Irons and Sackville-West remained lifelong friends who "corresponded warmly".

In 1935, Irons won the Royal Humane Society's Stanhope Gold Medal "for the bravest deed of 1935". She "rescued a woman from drowning under very courageous circumstances at Tresaith Beach, Cardiganshire." It was the first time the medal had been awarded to a woman.

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Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evelyn_Irons

Sir Harold George Nicolson KCVO CMG (21 November 1886 – 1 May 1968) was an English diplomat, author, diarist and politician. He was the husband of writer Vita Sackville-West, their unusual relationship being described in their son's book, Portrait of a Marriage.

Nicolson was born in Tehran, Persia, the younger son of diplomat Arthur Nicolson, 1st Baron Carnock. He was educated at Wellington College and Balliol College, Oxford.

In 1909 he joined HM Diplomatic Service. He served as attaché at Madrid from February to September 1911, and then Third Secretary at Constantinople from January 1912 to October 1914. During the First World War, he served at the Foreign Office in London, during which time he was promoted Second Secretary. As the Foreign Office's most junior employee, it fell to him in August 1914 to hand Britain's revised declaration of war to the German ambassador in London. He served in a junior capacity in the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, for which he was appointed Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in the 1920 New Year Honours.

Promoted First Secretary in 1920, he was appointed private secretary to Sir Eric Drummond, first Secretary-General of the League of Nations, but was recalled to the Foreign Office in June 1920.

From left to right: Harold Nickolson, Vita Sackville-West, Rosamund Grosvenor, Lionel Sackville-West, 1913
Vita Sackville-West (March 9, 1892 – June 2, 1962) was an English author, poet & gardener. She won the Hawthornden Prize in 1927 & 1933. She was famous for her exuberant aristocratic life, strong marriage (although she and her husband, Harold Nicolson, were both bisexual), her passionate affair with novelist Virginia Woolf, and Sissinghurst Castle Garden, which she and Nicolson created at Sissinghurst. Sir Harold George Nicolson KCVO CMG was an English diplomat, author, diarist and politician.

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Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Nicolson

(George) James Henry Lees-Milne (born Wickhamford, Worcestershire 6 August 1908 – died Tetbury, Gloucestershire 28 December 1997) was an English writer and expert on country houses. He was an architectural historian, novelist, and a biographer. He is also remembered as a diarist.

Lees-Milne was born into a prosperous manufacturing family on 6 August 1908 in Wickhamford, Worcestershire. He attended Lockers Park School in Hertfordshire, Eton, and Oxford University. From 1931 to 1935, he was Private Secretary to George Lloyd, 1st Baron Lloyd of Dolobran.

In 1936 he was appointed secretary of the Country Houses Committee of the National Trust. He held that position until 1950, apart from a period of military service from 1939–1941. During that time he was a regular contributor to the Trust's member newsletter, penning various features. He was instrumental in the first large-scale transfer of country houses from private ownership to the Trust. After resigning his full-time position in 1950, he continued his connection with the National Trust as a part-time architectural consultant and member of committees.

Lees-Milne was visiting Diana Mosley when King Edward VIII abdicated. His visit there was to examine the seventeenth-century house she and her husband Sir Oswald Mosley were then renting; he recorded later how he and Diana (her husband was in London) had listened to the King's broadcast abdication speech with tears running down their faces. He had loved her brother Tom Mitford at Eton, and was devastated when Tom was killed in action in Burma in 1945.

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Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Lees-Milne

Leonard Sidney Woolf (/ˈwʊlf/; 25 November 1880 – 14 August 1969) was an English political theorist, author, publisher and civil servant, and husband of author Virginia Woolf.

Woolf was born in London, the third of ten children of Solomon Rees Sidney Woolf (known as Sidney Woolf), a barrister and Queen's Counsel, and Marie (née de Jongh). His family was Jewish. After his father died in 1892 Woolf was sent to board at Arlington House School near Brighton, Sussex. From 1894 to 1899 he attended St Paul's School, and in 1899 he won a classical scholarship to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was elected to the Cambridge Apostles. Other members included Lytton Strachey, John Maynard Keynes, GE Moore and EM Forster. Thoby Stephen, Virginia Stephen's brother, was friendly with the Apostles, though not a member himself. Woolf was awarded his BA in 1902, but stayed for another year to study for the Civil Service examinations.

In October 1904 Woolf moved to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) to become a cadet in the Ceylon Civil Service, in Jaffna and later Kandy, and by August 1908 was named an assistant government agent in the Southern Province, where he administered the District of Hambantota. Woolf returned to England in May 1911 for a year's leave. Instead, however, he resigned in early 1912 and that same year married Virginia Stephen (Virginia Woolf).

Together Leonard and Virginia Woolf became influential in the Bloomsbury group, which also included various other former Apostles.

Virginia Woolf was an English writer, and one of the foremost modernists of the 20th century. She married writer Leonard Woolf on August 10, 1912.The couple shared a close bond. Indeed, in 1937, Woolf wrote in her diary: "Love-making—after 25 years can't bear to be separate ... you see it is enormous pleasure being wanted: a wife. And our marriage so complete." Virginia committed suicide by drowning at the age of 59. Leonard died in 1969 from a stroke and was cremated with his ashes being buried beneath an elm tree in his beloved garden at Monk's House, with his wife's ashes, in Rodmell, Sussex.

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Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Woolf

Adeline Virginia Woolf (25 January 1882 – 28 March 1941) was an English author, essayist, publisher, and writer of short stories, regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century. (Picture: Virginia Woolf by George Charles Beresford)

During the interwar period, Woolf was a significant figure in London literary society and a member of the Bloomsbury Group. Her most famous works include the novels Mrs Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927) and Orlando (1928), and the book-length essay A Room of One's Own (1929), with its famous dictum,

"A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction."

Virginia Woolf was born Adeline Virginia Stephen in London in 1882 to Sir Leslie Stephen and Julia Prinsep Stephen (née Jackson).

Virginia's father, Sir Leslie Stephen (1832–1904), was a notable historian, author, critic and mountaineer. He was the editor of the Dictionary of National Biography, a work which would influence Woolf's later experimental biographies.

Virginia's mother Julia Stephen (1846–1895) was a renowned beauty, born in India to Dr. John and Maria Pattle Jackson. She was also the niece of Julia Margaret Cameron née Pattle, the famous photographer. Julia moved to England with her mother, where she served as a model for Pre-Raphaelite painters such as Edward Burne-Jones.

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Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Woolf

Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway is, in many ways, the perfect modern novel. Or, a novel born of modernity, and perfectly expressive of modernity. I've reread my copy of Mrs. Dalloway so many times that it's fallen apart. The prose is deceptively casual, a style that would be characterized as "stream of consciousness" yet, unlike Faulkner's work, a stream that's layered yet accessible. What Mrs. Dalloway seems to offer are a series of short characterizations. But Woolf's technique is so blended with sensibility or impulse, that she creates pieces that become greater than the sum of the whole. --Tomas Mournian

A Room of One's Own has been described by some as a feminist tract, but it never felt stuffily political in my opinion. I must have skipped an introduction when I read it, because I didn't realize the book is based on a series of college lectures given by Ms. Woolf. I suppose I was thrown by the fact that, she compiled the lectures and published them as told by a fictional narrator. According to Wikipedia, "By taking on different identities, the narrator transcends one single voice and consequently she makes herself a force to be reckoned with." Scared of her. lol. --Aaron Fricke

Orlando is a classic in so many ways, the history behind this book makes the meaning and the layers even more eloquent and opens up a whole new world of interpretation. Essentially a love letter to one of Woolf’s partners, Vita Sackville-West, Orlando is a coded lesbian romance. Orlando is a nobleman who simply decides through his own will that he will never grow old. He moves through the centuries, has many romances and even changes sex, becoming the Lady Orlando. It was because of the gender-bendering and ‘fantastical’ elements that Woolf could, at the time, explore gender and sexuality in a way that had never been done before. It is a brilliant work that should be read by everybody. --Sean Kennedy

The Hon Victoria Mary Sackville-West, Lady Nicolson, CH (9 March 1892 – 2 June 1962), best known as Vita Sackville-West, was an English author, poet and gardener. She won the Hawthornden Prize in 1927 and 1933. She was famous for her exuberant aristocratic life, her strong marriage (although she and her husband Harold Nicolson were both bisexual), her passionate affair with novelist Virginia Woolf, and Sissinghurst Castle Garden, which she and Nicolson created at Sissinghurst.

Vita Sackville-West was born at Knole House near Sevenoaks Kent, the only child of Lionel Edward Sackville-West, 3rd Baron Sackville and his wife Victoria Sackville-West, who were cousins. Her mother was the natural daughter of Lionel Sackville-West, 2nd Baron Sackville. Christened "Victoria Mary Sackville-West", she was known as "Vita" throughout her life, to distinguish her from her mother.

The Sackville family custom of following the Salic rules of agnatic male primogeniture prevented Vita from inheriting Knole on the death of her father. The house was bequeathed instead by her father to his younger brother Charles Sackville-West, 4th Baron Sackville. The loss of Knole would affect her for the rest of her life; of the signing in 1947 of documents relinquishing any claim on the property, part of its transition to the National Trust, she wrote that "the signing... nearly broke my heart, putting my signature to what I regarded as a betrayal of all the tradition of my ancestors and the house I loved."

Vita's portrait was painted by Hungarian-born portrait painter Philip de Laszlo in 1910, when she was seventeen. She thought it made her look like a vacuous Edwardian aristocrat, and kept it in her attic throughout her life.

Portrait of Violet Trefusis by Sir John Lavery, 1919
Violet Trefusis was a writer and socialite. She was the daughter of Alice Keppel, a mistress of King Edward VII. She is chiefly remembered for her lesbian affair with the poet Vita Sackville-West. The affair was featured in novels by both parties, and also in Virginia Woolf's Orlando: A Biography. When she was 10, Violet met Vita (who was two years older) for the first time. Despite Vita and Violet’s marriages, they remained close until 1921, with a lot of passion and jealousy in the middle.

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Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vita_Sackville-West

Violet Trefusis née Keppel (6 June 1894 – 29 February 1972) was an English writer and socialite. She is most notable for her lesbian affair with Vita Sackville-West, which was featured under disguise in Virginia Woolf's Orlando: A Biography. In this romanticized biography of Vita, Trefusis appears in it as the Russian princess Sasha. (P: ©Jacques-Emile Blanche (1861-1942)/NPG 5229. Violet Trefusis, 1926 (©4))

Born Violet Keppel, she was the daughter of Alice Keppel, a mistress of King Edward VII of the United Kingdom, and her husband, the Hon. George Keppel, a son of an Earl of Albemarle. Her biological father, however, was considered by members of the Keppel family to be William Beckett, subsequently 2nd Baron Grimthorpe, a banker and MP for Whitby.

Trefusis lived her early youth in London, where the Keppel family had a house in Portman Square. When Trefusis was four years old, Alice Keppel became the favorite mistress of Albert Edward (Bertie), the Prince of Wales, who became King Edward VII on 22 January 1901. He paid visits to the Keppel household in the afternoon around tea-time (while her husband, who was aware of the affair, was conveniently absent), on a regular basis till the end of his life in 1910. In 1900 Violet's only sibling, Sonia, was born.

Orlando: A Biography was not the only account of the love affair between Violet and Vita, which appears in reality to have been very much more strenuous than Woolf's enchanting account: both in fiction (Challenge by Sackville-West and Trefusis, Broderie Anglaise a roman à clef in French by Trefusis) and in non-fiction (Portrait of a Marriage by Sackville-West with extensive "clarifications" added by her son Nigel Nicolson) further parts of the story appeared in print.

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Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violet_Trefusis

Days of Love: Celebrating LGBT History One Story at a Time by Elisa Rolle
Paperback: 760 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform; 1 edition (July 1, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1500563323
ISBN-13: 978-1500563325
CreateSpace Store: https://www.createspace.com/4910282
Amazon (Paperback): http://www.amazon.com/dp/1500563323/?tag=elimyrevandra-20
Amazon (Kindle): http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MZG0VHY/?tag=elimyrevandra-20

Days of Love chronicles more than 700 LGBT couples throughout history, spanning 2000 years from Alexander the Great to the most recent winner of a Lambda Literary Award. Many of the contemporary couples share their stories on how they met and fell in love, as well as photos from when they married or of their families. Included are professional portraits by Robert Giard and Stathis Orphanos, paintings by John Singer Sargent and Giovanni Boldini, and photographs by Frances Benjamin Johnson, Arnold Genthe, and Carl Van Vechten among others. “It's wonderful. Laying it out chronologically is inspired, offering a solid GLBT history. I kept learning things. I love the decision to include couples broken by death. It makes clear how important love is, as well as showing what people have been through. The layout and photos look terrific.” Christopher Bram “I couldn’t resist clicking through every page. I never realized the scope of the book would cover centuries! I know that it will be hugely validating to young, newly-emerging LGBT kids and be reassured that they really can have a secure, respected place in the world as their futures unfold.” Howard Cruse “This international history-and-photo book, featuring 100s of detailed bios of some of the most forward-moving gay persons in history, is sure to be one of those bestsellers that gay folk will enjoy for years to come as reference and research that is filled with facts and fun.” Jack Fritscher

Crossposts: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/2941922.html

Entry tags:

Jaime Flores & Nick Nolan

Nick Nolan was born and raised in Los Angeles, the city he has haunted for over two decades. Working nights and weekends selling furniture to put himself through college, Nolan went on to direct a group home for homeless and abused GLBT youth. During his scant spare time, he began writing. Inspired by the works of writers like Armistead Maupin, Paul Russell, and Paul Monette, he penned his debut novel, Strings Attached, the first in a planned trilogy. Shortly after its release, Strings Attached was named the 2006 Gay/Lesbian Book of the Year by ForeWord Magazine, hit #1 in Gay Fiction on Amazon.com, and spent nearly a year in that genre's Top 10. Two years later Nolan's second thriller Double Bound won Book of the Year awards for Gay/Lesbian Fiction by both ForeWord Magazine and ReaderViews.

Nick, his partner Jaime, and their two beloved dogs divide their time between their home in the San Fernando Valley and their cabin high in the mountains of California. Together since 1987 (Anniversary October 1), they married on November 23, 2013.

In 2009 Nick was delighted to sign with AmazonEncore, so that his two novels might reach a wider audience. AmazonEncore released an edited and improved 'Strings Attached' on March 9, 2010, and 'Double Bound' followed on May 25. 'Black as Snow' was published by AmazonEncore on 2011 and 'Wide Asleep' in 2014.

Wide Asleep won a 2014 Rainbow Awards as Best Gay Paranormal Romance.

Nick Nolan is an American author known for his series “Tales from Ballena Beach,” which transforms traditional fairy tales into contemporary gay thrillers. Nick, his partner Jaime Flores, and their two beloved dogs divide their time between their home in the San Fernando Valley and their cabin high in the mountains of California. Together since 1987 (Anniversary October 1), they married on November 23, 2013. Nick and Jaime were both born in 1961 (Nick on March 14), exactly 40 weeks apart to the day…, which means Jaime was conceived on the day Nick was born.

Days of Love: Celebrating LGBT History One Story at a Time by Elisa Rolle
Paperback: 760 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform; 1 edition (July 1, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1500563323
ISBN-13: 978-1500563325
CreateSpace Store: https://www.createspace.com/4910282
Amazon (Paperback): http://www.amazon.com/dp/1500563323/?tag=elimyrevandra-20
Amazon (Kindle): http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MZG0VHY/?tag=elimyrevandra-20

Days of Love chronicles more than 700 LGBT couples throughout history, spanning 2000 years from Alexander the Great to the most recent winner of a Lambda Literary Award. Many of the contemporary couples share their stories on how they met and fell in love, as well as photos from when they married or of their families. Included are professional portraits by Robert Giard and Stathis Orphanos, paintings by John Singer Sargent and Giovanni Boldini, and photographs by Frances Benjamin Johnson, Arnold Genthe, and Carl Van Vechten among others. “It's wonderful. Laying it out chronologically is inspired, offering a solid GLBT history. I kept learning things. I love the decision to include couples broken by death. It makes clear how important love is, as well as showing what people have been through. The layout and photos look terrific.” Christopher Bram “I couldn’t resist clicking through every page. I never realized the scope of the book would cover centuries! I know that it will be hugely validating to young, newly-emerging LGBT kids and be reassured that they really can have a secure, respected place in the world as their futures unfold.” Howard Cruse “This international history-and-photo book, featuring 100s of detailed bios of some of the most forward-moving gay persons in history, is sure to be one of those bestsellers that gay folk will enjoy for years to come as reference and research that is filled with facts and fun.” Jack Fritscher

Crossposts: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/2036215.html

Entry tags:

days of love

William Courtenay, 9th Earl of Devon & William Thomas Beckford

William "Kitty" Courtenay, 9th Earl of Devon (c. 1768 – 26 May 1835), was the only son of William Courtenay, de jure 8th Earl of Devon, 2nd Viscount Courtenay and his wife Frances Clack. He attracted infamy for a homosexual affair with art collector William Beckford from boyhood when it was discovered and publicised by his uncle. From October 1788 until 1831, his official title was The Rt. Hon. The 3rd Viscount Courtenay of Powderham.

Courtenay was baptized on 30 August 1768, the fourth of 14 children (his siblings all being girls) and was known as "Kitty" to family and friends. On his father's death he became The 3rd Viscount Courtenay of Powderham. With his new title and wealth, the young Lord Courtenay led an excessively flamboyant lifestyle. He was responsible for the addition of a new Music Room at Powderham Castle, designed by James Wyatt, which included a carpet made by the newly-formed Axminster Carpet Company.

As a youth, 'Kitty' Courtenay was sometimes named by contemporaries as the most beautiful boy in England. Courtenay was homosexual and became infamous for his affair with the extremely wealthy art collector and sugar plantation owner William Beckford, which possibly started when Courtenay was ten. In the autumn of 1784, a houseguest overheard an argument between The Hon. William Courtenay (as he then was) and Beckford over a note which Courtenay had. There is no record of what the note said, but the houseguest said that Beckford's response on reading it was that he entered Courtenay's room and "horsewhipped him, which created a noise, and the door being opened, Courtenay was discovered in his shirt, and Beckford in some posture or other — Strange story." Beckford was subsequently hounded out of polite British society when his letters to Courtenay were intercepted by Coutenay's uncle, Lord Loughborough, who then publicised the affair in the newspapers.

William "Kitty" Courtenay, 9th Earl of Devon
William Courtenay was the only son of William Courtenay, de jure 8th Earl of Devon, 2nd Viscount Courtenay. ‘Kitty’ Courtenay was the most beautiful boy in England. He attracted infamy for a homosexual affair with William Beckford, discovered and publicized by his uncle. Beckford was an art collector, critic, travel writer and sometime politician, reputed to be the richest commoner in England. After the scandal, Beckford chose exile in the company of his wife. Courtenay was forced to live abroad, and lived in the United States where he owned a property on the Hudson River in New York, and later in Paris.

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Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Courtenay,_9th_Earl_of_Devon

William Thomas Beckford (1 October 1760 – 2 May 1844), usually known as William Beckford, was an English novelist, a profligate and consummately knowledgeable art collector and patron of works of decorative art, a critic, travel writer and sometime politician, reputed to be the richest commoner in England. He was Member of Parliament for Wells from 1784 to 1790, for Hindon from 1790 to 1795 and 1806 to 1820. He is remembered as the author of the Gothic novel Vathek, the builder of the remarkable lost Fonthill Abbey and Lansdown Tower ("Beckford's Tower"), Bath, and especially for his art collection. (Picture: William Beckford in 1782 by George Romney)

Beckford was born in the family's London home at 22 Soho Square. At the age of ten, he inherited a fortune consisting of £1 million in cash (£110 million as of 2012), land at Fonthill (including the Palladian mansion Fonthill Splendens) in Wiltshire, and several sugar plantations in Jamaica from his father William Beckford, usually referred to as "Alderman Beckford", who had been twice a Lord Mayor of the City of London. This allowed him to indulge his interest in art and architecture, as well as writing. He was briefly trained in music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, but his drawing master Alexander Cozens had a much greater influence on him, and Beckford continued to correspond with him for some years until their falling-out.

On 5 May 1783 he married Lady Margaret Gordon, daughter of the fourth Earl of Aboyne. However, Beckford was bisexual, and was hounded out of polite English society when his letters to the Hon William Courtenay, later 9th Earl of Devon, were intercepted by the boy's uncle, who advertised the affair in the newspapers. Beckford chose exile in the company of his wife, whom he grew to love deeply, but who died in childbirth at the age of 24. He had an affair with his cousin Peter's wife Louisa Pitt (c.1755-1791).

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Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Thomas_Beckford

Crossposts: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/2917546.html

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in the spotlight

Michael Thomas Ford (born October 1, 1968)

Michael Thomas Ford (born October 1, 1968) is an American author of primarily gay-themed literature. He is best known for his "My Queer Life" series of humorous essay collections and for his award-winning novels Last Summer, Looking for It, Full Circle, Changing Tides and What We Remember.

Michael Thomas Ford is the author of more than fifty books for both young readers and adults. He is best known for his best-selling novels Last Summer, Looking for It, and Full Circle and for his five essay collections in the "Trials of My Queer Life" series. His work has been nominated for eleven Lambda Literary Awards, twice winning for Best Humor Book and twice for Best Romance Novel. He was also nominated for a Horror Writers Association Bram Stoker Award (for his novel The Dollhouse That Time Forgot) and a Gay lactic Spectrum Award (for his short story "Night of the Were puss").

Ford began his writing career in 1992 with the publication of 100 Questions & Answers about AIDS: What You Need to Know Now (Macmillan), one of the first books about the AIDS crisis for young adults. Named an American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults, the book became the most widely-used resource in HIV education programs for young people and was translated into more than a dozen languages.

The follow-up to that book, The Voices of AIDS (William Morrow, 1995), was a collection of interviews with people whose lives have been affected by the AIDS crisis. This book too was named an ALA Best Book, as well as a National Science Teachers Association-Children's Book Council Outstanding Science Trade Book for Children and a Booklist magazine Editors' Choice.

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Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Thomas_Ford

Last Summer was the first in a line of books from Ford that at first glance were guilty pleasures but ended up being meaningful reading experiences. Starting with the readily identifiable covers that define the series of books, each one delivered the same thing: an immersion in the lives of gay characters who we wanted to spend time with, going through life, battling troubles we could relate to, finding and losing love and loved ones. Last Summer is a particular favourite because the memories it evokes of Provincetown. I’ve only been there once in person. But with this book I can visit any time I want. I love when a book can do that. --Anthony Bidulka

( Further Readings )

Crossposts: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/2128320.html

Entry tags:

days of love tb

Leszek Soliński & Miron Białoszewski

Miron Białoszewski (June 30, 1922 – June 17, 1983), born in Warsaw, Poland, was a Polish poet, novelist, playwright and actor.

According to Joanna Nizynska from University of California in Los Angeles:

This most "private" author of postwar Polish literature disregards discourses of history so deeply embedded in the Polish literary tradition; rather he focuses on the mundane aspects of the everyday life, usually from an autobiographical perspective and using an overtly colloquial language. Although Białoszewski's works have stirred many discussions, most of these have focused on his treatment of genres and language...

Białoszewski studied linguistics at the clandestine courses of the University of Warsaw during German occupation of Poland. Following the capitulation of the Warsaw Uprising he was sent to a labour camp in Third Reich, and returned to Warsaw at the end of World War II. (Picture: Leszek Soliński)

First, he worked at the central post office, and then as a journalist for a number of popular magazines, some of them for children. In 1955 Białoszewski took part in the foundation of a small theatre called Teatr na Tarczyńskiej, where he premiered his plays Wiwisekcja and Osmędeusze, and played in them with Ludmiła Murawska. In the same year Białoszewski debuted in Życie literackie along with another renown Polish poet and his contemporary, Zbigniew Herbert. For many years, since 1958, Białoszewski shared an apartment at pl. Dąbrowskiego 7 with his live-in partner, the painter Leszek Soliński (October 1, 1926 - June 5, 2005), who was the heir to Białoszewski's estate.

Miron Białoszewski (June 30, 1922 – June 17, 1983), born in Warsaw, Poland, was a Polish poet, novelist, playwright and actor. Since 1958, Białoszewski shared an apartment at pl. Dąbrowskiego 7 with his live-in partner, the painter Leszek Soliński (October 1, 1926 - June 5, 2005), who was the heir to Białoszewski's estate. His highly acclaimed memoir was published in 1970. In it, Białoszewski gave a philosophical account of his wartime experiences 27 years after the fact.

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Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miron_Bia%C5%82oszewski

( Further Readings )

More Real Life Romances at my website: http://www.elisarolle.com/, My Ramblings/Real Life Romance

Crossposts: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/2577210.html

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particular voices

John Gilgun (born October 1, 1935)

Irish American novelist, poet, memoirist, fabulist, and short fictionist. John Gilgun is openly gay and sees coming out and homosexuality as a struggle for self-identity fighting against the back-drop of the repressive and oppressive traditional Catholic Church of the Boston Irish, the United States Army, and family. His works include Everything That Has Been Shall Be Again: The Reincarnation Fables of John Gilgun (1981), the novel Music I Never Dreamed Of (1989), the poetry collections The Dooley Poems (1991) and From The Inside Out (1991), and Your Buddy Misses
You: Stories {1994). Additionally, his stories and poems have been published in many journals and anthologies.

Everything That Has Been Shall Be Again: The Reincarnation Fables of John Gilgun is a collection of first-person fables about humans reincarnated as animals, such as an ant, a bear, a cow, a worm, and a fox, among others. Overall, Gilgun's fables are intensely sarcastic and mocking. Although the tract of the worker ant can be read as an attack on the conformity of communism with its reference to "the Party," Gilgun seems more concerned with and against conformity of any kind. The ant has a vision of a revolution of individualization, but this is just that: a vision. The state is too powerful, ideas are poison, and nonconforming individualism leads to
imprisonment. Although the animals tell the truth of their existence, this truth is most often that they are suffering failures. ln the tract on the bear, Gilgun mocks organized religion, showing it as something to which the weak turn. The leaders of the religion seem determined to keep the weak powerless, take their money, and make it seem like this is the Lord's will. The religious leaders create a world in which one can never know the truth, so it should not be pursued, just accepted. Furthering his attack on religion, in the tract of the cow, Gilgun shows the members of religious congregations to be stupid, gluttonous hypocrites. Extremely sarcastic with anti-responsibility messages, these are not fables meant for children, but rather for adults like Gilgun who have felt oppressed and repressed by traditions that do not welcome alternative lifestyles.

John Gilgun, 1988, by Robert Giard (http://beinecke.library.yale.edu/dl_crosscollex/brbldl_getrec.asp?fld=img&id=1123795)

American photographer Robert Giard is renowned for his portraits of American poets and writers; his particular focus was on gay and lesbian writers. Some of his photographs of the American gay and lesbian literary community appear in his groundbreaking book Particular Voices: Portraits of Gay and Lesbian Writers, published by MIT Press in 1997. Giard’s stated mission was to define the literary history and cultural identity of gays and lesbians for the mainstream of American society, which perceived them as disparate, marginal individuals possessing neither. In all, he photographed more than 600 writers. (http://beinecke.library.yale.edu/digitallibrary/giard.html)

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Source: Rosco, Jerry "John Gilgun." Contemporary Gay American Novelists: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook. Ed. Emmanuel S. Nelson. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1993. l49—54.

When John returned to his teaching job in St. Joseph, his novel came out. So did he, in a public address. To their great credit his students were behind him, petitioning the college to add John‘s novel to the curriculum. As a result, John was able to teach Music I Never Dreamed Of to his literature classes. When I think of those students, most of them encountering an authentic gay voice for the first time in this heartfelt, exuberant novel, it gives me a great feeling. Suddenly I‘m right back there in South Boston in 1954, with Stevie Riley, and we‘re both feeling frightened and confused, yet alive — gloriously alive, in ways we never dreamed of. --Wayne Courtois, The Lost Library

( Further Readings )

More Particular Voices at my website: http://www.elisarolle.com/, My Ramblings/Particular Voices

Crossposts: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/3210596.html

Entry tags:

gayromlit

GRL: Kendall McKenna

Starting from June 1, 2015, I will daily feature authors attending the three conventions I will join, Euro Pride in Munich (July), UK Meet in Bristol (September) and GRL in San Diego (October).

For the GRL in San Diego, October 15-18, 2015, today author is Kendall McKenna: Kendall McKenna is an author of M/M erotic romance novels featuring well-developed characters, complex stories, and realistic action sequences.

Kendall McKenna is the MLR Press 2013 Author of the Year. Her first work of fiction was written at the worldly age of nine, and was a transformative work that expanded on the story told in a popular song of the time.

She tried her hand at vampire and cowboy fiction, winning high school poetry and short story contests along the way. It wasn’t until she discovered the world of m/m erotic fiction and found her stride with cops, Marines and muscle cars, that she felt inspired to share her stories with readers who enjoy the same things.

Putting herself through college by working in a newly-created HIV testing clinic in her local Department of Health, introduced Kendall to the gay and lesbian community. Understanding and empathy has made her a lifetime advocate of GLBT issues.

A brief bout of unemployment gave Kendall the time and focus she needed to finally produce a novel worth submitting for publication. Her first novel, Brothers In Arms , introduced the world to her authentic military stories and characters. Kendall’s second novel, Strength of the Pack, was nominated for a 2013 Bookie Award, by Author’s After Dark.

Kendall was born and raised in Southern California, where she still lives and works. A non-conventional relationship has kept her happy for the last decade. Her four dogs enjoy it when she writes, as she sits still long enough for them to curl up around her.

Further Readings:

Waves Break My Fall by Kendall McKenna
Publisher: LNA Press; Second edition (November 8, 2014)
Amazon Kindle: Waves Break My Fall

Kage is a Marine, struggling to adjust to life after combat. He tries to decompress with a quiet trip to Puerto Vallarta. Zach just graduated from college. He’s facing the realities of adulthood, and a new career.

They meet in Mexico, and their erotic vacation fling leaves them both wanting – and hoping for – more, once they’re home. Zach enters the police academy, Kage reports to Camp Pendleton, and they settle into daily lives as a new couple.

When Kage’s post-combat issues nearly destroy everything he and Zach have built, can they find the right help? Can they hold on, even if they do?

Crossposts: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/3211372.html

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rainbow awards 2015

2015 Rainbow Awards Submission: Phoenix by Racheline Maltese & Erin McRae

Phoenix (Love in Los Angeles Book 3) by Racheline Maltese & Erin McRae
Gay Contemporary General Fiction
Paperback: 250 pages
Publisher: Torquere Press (June 10, 2015)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1610409272
ISBN-13: 978-1610409278
Amazon: Phoenix (Love in Los Angeles Book 3)
Amazon Kindle: Phoenix (Love in Los Angeles Book 3)

Sometimes the end of everything... Now happily married to writer and producer Paul Marion Keane, television star J. Alex Cook's life has been a fairytale of success and romance for years. But when an unexpected tragedy throws his and Paul's social circle into chaos, the alumni of hit TV show The Fourth Estate are forced to pick up the creative pieces left behind. ...is just the beginning Confronted with his own mortality, Paul suggests he and Alex start a family. But figuring out what family means when your best friends' polyamorous marriage may be melting down and you have Hollywood's most malevolent fairy godmother to thank for your success is no easy proposition. As Alex questions whether anyone in a profession full of make believe can truly have fame, fortune, kids, and the happily ever after of their dreams, he sets out to take control of his own life and discovers that the best love stories never truly end. Phoenix is Book 3 in the Love in Los Angeles series.

2015 Rainbow Awards Guidelines: http://www.elisarolle.com/rainbowawards/rainbow_awards_2015.html

Crossposts: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/3211646.html

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rainbow awards 2015

2015 Rainbow Awards Submission: Starling by Racheline Maltese & Erin McRae

Starling (Love In Los Angeles Book 1) by Racheline Maltese & Erin McRae
Gay Contemporary General Fiction
Series: Love in Los Angeles (Book 1)
Paperback: 272 pages
Publisher: Torquere Press (September 10, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1610408055
ISBN-13: 978-1610408059
Amazon: Starling (Love In Los Angeles Book 1)
Amazon Kindle: Starling (Love In Los Angeles Book 1)

Be careful what you wish for... When J. Alex Cook, a production assistant on The Fourth Estate (one of network TV's hottest shows), is accidentally catapulted to stardom, he finds himself struggling to navigate both fame and a relationship with Paul, one of Fourth's key writers. Despite their incendiary chemistry, Alex's inexperience and the baggage they're both carrying quickly lead to an ugly break-up. Because the stars aren't benign Reeling from their broken hearts, Alex has an affair and Paul has an ill-advised reunion with an old flame. Meanwhile, the meddling of their colleagues, friends -and even the paparazzi!-quickly make Alex and Paul's real life romance troubles the soap opera of the television season. But while the entertainment value may be high, no one knows better than Alex and Paul that there are no guarantees when it comes to love in Los Angeles.

2015 Rainbow Awards Guidelines: http://www.elisarolle.com/rainbowawards/rainbow_awards_2015.html