Detail from Hermia and Helena (after Shakespeare’s 1595 fantasy/comedy, A Midsummer Night’s Dream – III.ii “So we grew together, / Like to a double cherry—seeming parted / But yet an union in partition— / Two lovely berries molded on one stem”), oil on canvas by gay/bi Washington Allston, before 1818, Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer-Plus (LGBTQ+) Literature Resources at This Website

Happy to announce that, throughout this entire site, all public domain (pre-1927) works link to free online copies. Enjoy!

SELECTED LGBTQ+ CLASSIC BOOKS BRIEFLY *FREE (TO OWN)* (click here)

Above link goes to Homepage Announcements, updated periodically

LGBTQ+ Literature Resources at This Website

GLOBAL TRADITIONS: While this site focuses largely on Western works, I value other cultures’ LGBTQ+ artistic heritages. As they become accessible in English, I look forward to exploring the additional worlds that they encompass. As a global community, standing upon millennia of history and empowerment, the future of LGBTQ+ arts is brilliantly diverse!

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Resources at External Websites

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* LGBTQ+ Literature Encyclopedia

Editor Claude J. Summers’s encyclopedic Gay & Lesbian Literary Heritage (New York: Henry Holt, 1995; rev. ed., Routledge, 2002) is INDISPENSABLE, with hundreds of articles on individual LGBTQ+ authors, national literatures, artistic forms (such as the novel, drama, poetry), genres, and more. Although the complete online version, retitled as the GLBTQ Encyclopedia, is no longer available (it needs to be restored), the more recent 1,500+ articles – regarding theater, film, visual arts, music, social sciences, history, law – remain freely available as downloadable PDFs. NOTE that the 185+ online literature essays, all excellent, solely encompass authors NOT in the print versions, because of a legal rights issue. Still, the over 1,500 articles available online are an essential resource; and the print edition of the complementary The Gay & Lesbian Literary Heritage earns my HIGHEST RECOMMENDATION, even though it stops with the year 2002.

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Also Film Resources

LGBTQ+ Literature
LGBTQ+ Literature

Begun 1997 / Updated April 1, 2022

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