The Bitterweed Path : A Rediscovered Novel

Thomas Hal Phillips

ISBN 10: 0807845957 / ISBN 13: 9780807845950

Published by The University Of North Carolina Press, 1996

About this Item

nach der Bestellung gedruckt Neuware - Printed after ordering - 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.

Seller Inventory # 9780807845950

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Bitterweed Path : A Rediscovered Novel
• Publisher: The University Of North Carolina Press
• Publication Date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0807845957
• ISBN 13: 9780807845950
• Binding: Taschenbuch
• Condition: Neu
• Dimensions: 203W x 133H x 20D millimeters 203 millimeters width by 133 millimeters height by 20 millimeters depth
• Weight: 427 grams

About this title

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 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.