The Bitterweed Path: A Rediscovered Novel (Chapel Hill Books) - Softcover

Phillips, Thomas Hal

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0807845957 ISBN 13: 9780807845950

Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press, 1996

Synopsis

This long out-of-print and newly rediscovered novel tells the story of two boys growing up in the cotton country of Mississippi a generation after the Civil War. Originally published in 1950, the novel's unique contribution lies in its subtle engagement of homosexuality and cross-class love. In The Bitterweed Path, Thomas Hal Phillips vividly recreates rural Mississippi at the turn of the century. In elegant prose, he draws on the Old Testament story of David and Jonathan and writes of the friendship and love between two boys-one a sharecropper's son and the other the son of the landlord-and the complications that arise when the father of one of the boys falls in love with his son's friend. Part of a very small body of gay literature of the period, The Bitterweed Path does not sensationalize homosexual love but instead portrays sexuality as a continuum of human behavior. The result is a book that challenges many assumptions about gay representation in the first half of the twentieth century.

About this title

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.

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.

Reviews

"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.

Edition details

• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0807845957
• ISBN 13: 9780807845950
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 336