straight writers: gay people can’t get happy endings in historical fiction, it’s just not realistic…
an actual gay author in 1914:
OKAY LISTEN UP THIS IS MY JAM. This book is Maurice by E.M. Forster and it was published posthumously in 1971. He wrote it in 1914 and revised it a few times over his lifetime, even showed it to a few close friends, but never tried to get it published because he believed that the views on same-sex marriage and queer love would make it impossible. It was a labor of love in its entirety, complete with its main character, Maurice, having a happy strings-free ending (which is preceded by the most epic “Bye, Felicia” speech to his ex that I have ever witnessed).
What makes this book so fucking incredible? It reads like early 20th century fanfic. Because Forster never meant to publish it, he wrote it purely for his own enjoyment, and it reads that way. I was assigned this novel in a queer lit class in college and although I struggled to read the other books, I blew through this one in 48 hours. The copy I used for school was from the library, but I went out and bought the book for myself afterwards so I could reread it. I live in Japan and I brought it with me when I moved here 4 years ago.
If you haven’t read Maurice, you absolutely must.
This was made into a film some years back with Hugh Grant and Rupert Graves – no clue how it compares to the original book , but the film was quite good.
The Brain Squirrel Monologues 