LGBTQ Historical Fiction, 20 Years Before Stonewall
Memoirs are a great way to understand what history was really like for the people who lived it. In conjunction with NYPL’s Stonewall 50 exhibition, Love & Resistance, we compiled a list of memoirs from LGBTQ writers talking about their own experiences, in their own words.
But what about fiction—the imagined stories that can help us understand the world around us?
Gay, lesbian, and bisexual characters come to the forefront in these eight books, which are set during the two decades immediately preceding Stonewall. Their novels were sometimes about secrecy and hiding, but also sometimes about coming out, empowerment, and asking questions or finding answers about sexuality.
Many books with similar themes were set and published earlier (The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Well of Loneliness, Orlando, and The Color Purple, among others) and far more came just a bit later.
But this narrow range—books set between 1950 and 1969—showed authors navigating a world just before the gay rights movement gained strength, and imagining different kinds of lives for their LGBTQ characters.
Do you have a favorite historical novel that falls into this category? Let us know in the comments.
Giovanni’s Room
by James Baldwin
A classic for a reason. Published in 1956, Baldwin’s seminal work traces the story of a young American man, David, who’s living in Paris, experimenting with different relationships, and trying to figure out his future.
A Thin Bright Line
by Lucy Jane Bledsoe
A modern author imagines the life of her aunt, Lucybelle, who works in an Army lab studying the Arctic. A fictionalized biography about racism, sexism, and the life of a lesbian in a male-dominated 1950s workplace.
Ruby
by Cynthia Bond
A young, bisexual, Black woman flees the suffocating Southern town of her youth in the 1950s and heads to New York City, searching for her mother, and then returns home as a changed person.
Rubyfruit Jungle
by Rita Mae Brown
This semi-autobiographical coming-of-age story starts in the 1950s, with young Molly Bolt having her first sexual experiences with another girl in her small hometown in Pennsylvania. Molly travels, having relationships with both men and women along the way, and winds up in New York City as an aspiring filmmaker.
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
by Michael Chabon
This epic story about in WWII America ends in 1954, so just squeaked in under the wire for this post. But the relationship between the gay love interests—Sammy, one of the main characters, and Tracy, the radio voice of the comic book character Sammy helped create—is a tragic and vital part of this sweeping historical novel.
The Price of Salt
by Patricia Highsmith
Adapted into a 2016 film, this 1952 novel was originally published by Highsmith under a pseudonym (read this profile to find out why!). It’s a compelling, romantic novel with two compelling women at its center: Therese, a city department-store clerk, who falls in love with Carol, a rich suburbanite in the midst of a divorce. The two women venture off on an illicit road trip, pursued by a private investigator, and the novel veers into noir thriller territory.
A Single Man
by Christopher Isherwood
A day in the life of a gay English professor, bereft over the death of his partner. The original 1964 Kirkus review of the book notes, “the homosexual has never appeared more wretchedly alone than he does here through his own admissions”— a lonely and sad lens, but also a beautiful one.
City of Night
by John Rechy
Published in 1963, this story about “the neon-lit world of hustlers, drag queens, and the denizens of their world” set shock waves through the literary establishment.
The Cosmopolitans
by Sarah Schulman
This highly stylized novel—set in mid-20th-century Greenwich Village—is a modern-day retelling of an 1846 Balzac novel, La Cousine Bette, which had a distinct homoerotic subtext. Schulman’s takeoff is more straightforward, with a middle-aged Bette and her gay neighbor Earl investigating the new paths toward freedom that their lives might take in a new era of civil rights.
Want to go deeper into the history of LGBTQ activism? Have a look at our core reading list. And if you're looking for more LGBTQ historical fiction, from more time periods before and this one, check out extensive lists from ABE Books, Book Riot, and The Advocate.
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Staff picks are chosen by NYPL staff members and are not intended to be comprehensive lists. We'd love to hear your ideas too, so leave a comment and tell us what you’d recommend. And check out our Staff Picks browse tool for more recommendations!