Hugh Stevens

In Henry James and Sexuality, Hugh Stevens argues for a new interpretation of James's fiction. Stevens argues that James's writing contains daring and radical representations of transgressive desires and marginalized sexual identities. He demonstrates the importance of incestuous desire, masochistic fantasy, and same-sex passions in a body of fiction which ostensibly conforms to, while ironically mocking, the contemporary moral and publishing codes James faced. James critiques the very notion of sexual identity, and depicts the radical play of desires which exceed and disrupt any stable construction of identity. In a number of his major novels and tales, Stevens argues, James anticipates the main features of modern 'gay' or 'queer' fiction through plots and narrative strategies, which opposes heterosexual marriage and homo-erotic friendship. This original and exciting work will transform our understanding of this most enigmatic of writers.

Before Cam Townsend died in 1982, he oversaw the development of one of the largest independent mission organizations in the world, Wycliffe Bible Translators. Townsend's remarkable and inspirational story of pioneering missions is continued in this second biography, a follow-up to Wycliffe in the Making, Memoirs of W. Cameron Townsend, 1920-1933.