From Library Journal
"The author's readable style and ability to create a feeling of ever-growing tension will hold the reader from beginning to end," said LJ's reviewer of this novel (LJ 6/15/50), which concerns the love between two boys in Mississippi a generation after the Civil War. Its homosexual theme no doubt limited its original release, but the book should find a much wider audience now.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
"###The Bitterweed Path# is an extraordinary find. It will force many critics to reexamine the nature of pre-Stonewall gay fiction and the range of how homosexuality was constructed in postwar America. It is an important, overlooked book."--David Bergman, author of ###Gaiety Transfigured: Gay Self-Representation in American Literature#
"Originally published in 1950, ###The Bitterweed Path# tells the story of friendship and love between two boys growing up in the cotton country of Mississippi a generation after the Civil War. A fine example of the southern literary tradition, the novel is also part of a very small body of gay literature of the period. As such, it challenges many assumptions about gay representation in the first half of the twentieth century. ""###The Bitterweed Path# is lyrical, sexy, and fascinating--a haunting work of art from a time and psychological place that is illuminating to revisit in light of where the world is today.""--Howard Cruse, author of ###Stuck Rubber Baby# ""A small gem of a homoerotic novel, written about a time and a place when gay didn't exist, but male love did. We owe our thanks to John Howard for rediscovering it, and to Thomas Hal Phillips for writing it.""--John D'Emilio, author of ###Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities: The Making of a Homosexual Minority in the United States, 1940@-1970#"
"""[Phillips's] readable style and his ability to create a feeling of ever-growing tension will hold the reader from beginning to end.""--###Library Journal#, June 15, 1950"
"""Thomas Hal Phillips's 1950 novel, ###The Bitterweed Path#, is a remarkable rediscovery. It is in itself a moving, subtle, skillful work of fiction. And its rare depiction of homoerotic relationships in an era in which the subject was largely tabooed, redoubles the novel's importance and impact. John Howard's excellent introduction to the book, placing it in historical context, further adds to the importance of this publishing event.""--Martin Duberman, author of ###Black Mountain#, ###Paul Robeson#, ###Cures#, and ###Stonewall#"
"[Phillips's] readable style and his ability to create a feeling of ever-growing tension will hold the reader from beginning to end."--###Library Journal#, June 15, 1950
"ÝPhillips's¨ readable style and his ability to create a feeling of ever-growing tension will hold the reader from beginning to end."--###Library Journal#, June 15, 1950
"""###The Bitterweed Path# is an extraordinary find. It will force many critics to reexamine the nature of pre-Stonewall gay fiction and the range of how homosexuality was constructed in postwar America. It is an important, overlooked book.""--David Bergman, author of ###Gaiety Transfigured: Gay Self-Representation in American Literature#"
"[This book] is a delicate, sensitive work, written in a warm, quiet rhythm which creates and maintains a mood and an atmosphere proper to the story's locale and period. . . . Phillips has made the action of his story flow as effortlessly as time itself; he has brought [Southern rural] life during the early years of the century into the sort of believable reality which other Southern writers carefully avoid."--Thomas Sugrue, ###New York Times Book Review#, September 10, 1950
"ÝThis book¨ is a delicate, sensitive work, written in a warm, quiet rhythm which creates and maintains a mood and an atmosphere proper to the story's locale and period. . . . Phillips has made the action of his story flow as effortlessly as time itself; he has brought ÝSouthern rural¨ life during the early years of the century into the sort of believable reality which other Southern writers carefully avoid."--Thomas Sugrue, ###New York Times Book Review#, September 10, 1950
"Thomas Hal Phillips's 1950 novel, ###The Bitterweed Path#, is a remarkable rediscovery. It is in itself a moving, subtle, skillful work of fiction. And its rare depiction of homoerotic relationships in an era in which the subject was largely tabooed, redoubles the novel's importance and impact. John Howard's excellent introduction to the book, placing it in historical context, further adds to the importance of this publishing event."--Martin Duberman, author of ###Black Mountain#, ###Paul Robeson#, ###Cures#, and ###Stonewall#
Originally published in 1950, ###The Bitterweed Path# tells the story of friendship and love between two boys growing up in the cotton country of Mississippi a generation after the Civil War. A fine example of the southern literary tradition, the novel is also part of a very small body of gay literature of the period. As such, it challenges many assumptions about gay representation in the first half of the twentieth century. "###The Bitterweed Path# is lyrical, sexy, and fascinating--a haunting work of art from a time and psychological place that is illuminating to revisit in light of where the world is today."--Howard Cruse, author of ###Stuck Rubber Baby# "A small gem of a homoerotic novel, written about a time and a place when gay didn't exist, but male love did. We owe our thanks to John Howard for rediscovering it, and to Thomas Hal Phillips for writing it."--John D'Emilio, author of ###Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities: The Making of a Homosexual Minority in the United States, 1940@-1970#
"""[This book] is a delicate, sensitive work, written in a warm, quiet rhythm which creates and maintains a mood and an atmosphere proper to the story's locale and period. . . . Phillips has made the action of his story flow as effortlessly as time itself; he has brought [Southern rural] life during the early years of the century into the sort of believable reality which other Southern writers carefully avoid.""--Thomas Sugrue, ###New York Times Book Review#, September 10, 1950"
Review
A small gem of a homoerotic novel, written about a time and a place when gay didn't exist, but male love did. We owe our thanks to John Howard for rediscovering it, and to Thomas Hal Phillips for writing it.--John D'Emilio, author of Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities: The Making of a Homosexual Minority in the United States, 1940-1970
From the Back Cover
Originally published in 1950, The Bitterweed Path tells the story of friendship and love between two boys growing up in the cotton country of Mississippi a generation after the Civil War. A fine example of the southern literary tradition, the novel is also part of a very small body of gay literature of the period. As such, it challenges many assumptions about gay representation in the first half of the twentieth century.
About the Author
Thomas Hal Phillips (1922-2007) was an American writer, film consultant, and actor, who played the character Hal Phillip Walker in Robert Altman's Nashville. He was the author of six novels. John Howard is Emeritus Professor of Arts and Humanities, King's College London.
