A Visit To Priapus And Other Stories

A resurgence of interest in Glenway Wescott is long overdue, especially now that the early 20th century mid-Westerner is firmly being established as a great American gay writer. The University of Wisconsin Press has followed up Jerry Roscoe's biography "Glenway Wescott, Personally" with a new collection, "A Visit to Priapus and Other Stories." Wescott inexplicably held the sexually explicit "Priapus" from publication during his lifetime, even though it had been circulated privately by the author for decades.

"Priapus" alludes to Wescott's m�nage with photographer George Platt Lynes, and his open relationship with MOMA curator Monroe Wheeler. The work constitutes a wry memoir of the healthiness of gay male sex, decades before it was openly discussed. Its frankness, by now, seems stylistically dated, but it's still astonishing that a young man's enormous penis becomes the focal point- both for comedic purposes and as an open discussion about athletic sex.

In some stories Wescott is more cryptic, but imprints of gay American archetypes are present. This style is demonstrated indelibly in the collection's first story: "Adolescence" concerns two male friends, aged 15 and 13, who are getting ready for their town's Halloween party. The older boy talks the younger boy into wearing a dress, which sets the boy in drag up for ridicule. He retreats from the party, but another boy, dressed as a soldier, follows him and tries to kiss him. He pushes him away, but recognizes the attraction and a certain maturity. "He was sick of the age he had been too long, the age of envy and masquerades, of petty martyrdoms..." Wescott writes. Such poetic gay subtext, in its time, is, in itself, unique documentation.

"The Stallions" is a description of the mating rituals of stallions and brood mares. Westcott's nature writing is prose poetry in its intensity, clarity and power, displaying fine craft and literary artistry. "Why I Love New York" is a Valentine to the city and an essay on the people and rhythm of the city. "Mr. Auerbach in Paris" examines anti-Semitism and racist opinions in Europe before WWII, reported deftly, by Wescott's fictional alter ego.

This collection is not only an example of Wescott's mastery of short form prose, it also foreshadows the concept of non-fiction novel writing in such experimental pieces as "The Valley Submerged" and "A Visit to Colette." Wescott's contribution to GLBTQ literature, should put this collection on every gay library shelf.