Harry Thomas

Originally published in 1950, the long out-of-print novel The Bitterweed Path was rediscovered in 1996 with the support of John Howard’s critical introduction. In the years since, new generations have witnessed its subtle yet daring contribution to Southern gay literature. This 75th anniversary edition includes a new foreword by John Howard and a new afterword by Harry Thomas Jr. that provide fresh insight into the workings of race, class, and queerness in this enduring novel. In The Bitterweed Path, Thomas Hal Phillips vividly recreates rural Mississippi at the turn of the twentieth 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. Defying stereotypes about both Mississippi and the 1950s, The Bitterweed Path challenges conceptions of the US South as a place devoid of queerness and reimagines it as alive with same-sex desire.

Originally published in 1950, the long out-of-print novel The Bitterweed Path was rediscovered in 1996 with the support of John Howard’s critical introduction. In the years since, new generations have witnessed its subtle yet daring contribution to Southern gay literature. This 75th anniversary edition includes a new foreword by John Howard and a new afterword by Harry Thomas Jr. that provide fresh insight into the workings of race, class, and queerness in this enduring novel. In The Bitterweed Path, Thomas Hal Phillips vividly recreates rural Mississippi at the turn of the twentieth 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. Defying stereotypes about both Mississippi and the 1950s, The Bitterweed Path challenges conceptions of the US South as a place devoid of queerness and reimagines it as alive with same-sex desire.

Poetry. Haiku in English. Sixty-three original poems by Harry Thomas.

Winner of the Elizabeth Agee Prize in American LiteratureAn innovative exploration of postwar representations of effeminate men and boysSissy!The Effeminate Paradox in Postwar US Literature and Culture expands on recent cultural criticism that focuses on the ways men and boys deemed to be feminine have been--and continue to be--condemned for their personalities and behavior. Critic Harry Thomas Jr. does not dismiss this approach, but rather identifies it as merely one side of a coin. On the other side, he asserts, the opposite exists: an American artistic tradition that celebrates and affirms effeminate masculinity. The author argues that effeminate men and boys are generally portrayed using the grotesque, an artistic mode concerned with the depictions of hybrid bodies. Thomas argues that the often grotesque imagery used to depict effeminate men evokes a complicated array of emotions, a mix of revulsion and fascination that cannot be completely separated from one another. Thomas looks to the sissies in the 1940s novels of Truman Capote and Carson McCullers; the truth-telling flaming princesses of James Baldwin's Giovanni's Room; the superstardom of pop culture icon Liberace; the prophetic queens of Tony Kushner's Angels in America; and many others to demonstrate how effeminate men have often been adored because they are seen as the promise of a different world, one free from the bounds of heteronormativity. Sissy! offers an unprecedented and counterintuitive overview of cultural and artistic attitudes toward male effeminacy in post-World War II America and provides a unique and contemporary reinterpretation of the "sissy" figure in modern art and literature.

Poetry. Selected translations by Harry Thomas: Catullus, Li Bai, Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, Giacomo Leopardi, Salvador Diaz Miron, Paul Valery, Antonio Machado, Umberto Saba, Giuseppe Ungaretti, Pedro Salinas, Eugenio Montale, Jorge Luis Borges, Pablo Neruda, Primo Levi, Yves Bonnefoy, Joseph Brodsky.

Poetry. Translation from the Italian. Harry Thomas's own poems and his translations of the Italian poets Giacomo Leopardi, Umberto Saba, Giuseppe Ungaretti, Eugenio Montale, and Primo Levi.

When rail travel boomed during the early 1900s, it opened the gateway to North Wales for the bucket and spade brigade, showing them that 'happy times were here at last' on their visit to Prestatyn. Picture the scene in those uncluttered years for these early visitors to the town, refreshing, embracing sea air, clean lengthy sands, seaside Pierrots and a stroll up the town's popular hillside to experience the jaw-dropping panoramic view of Prestatyn, Rhyl, the Irish Sea and beyond. The vast number of visitors to the town were subsequently more than keen to settle in this alluring and slow pace of life coastal seaside resort, that still retains an unspoilt village-like charm with a strong sense of community and a heritage and history that would rival any town of its size. This is an affectionate and colourful portrait of one of the oldest seaside resorts in North Wales.