Henry Blake Fuller

At
the age of 19 he wrote an imaginary personal advertisement in which he
says, "I would pass by twenty beautiful women to look upon a handsome
man".  In 1924 Fuller embarked upon a final affair with a college
student named William Shepherd, with whom he went to live in Europe.

Henry Blake Fuller (January 9, 1857 – 1929) was an American novelist and short story writer, born in Chicago, Illinois

This
is the one ninety-ninth  post in a series highlighting the best gay and
lesbian authors from the 20th century (with a few before and after that
period) who have recorded in fiction, and nonfiction, the history of
gay people telling what life is, and was,
during an important time of history.
Life and works

Fuller's early works are influenced by the works of Henry James, whose
interest in the contrast between American and European ways of life
informs both The Chevalier of Pensieri–Vani and The Chatelaine of La
Trinité. After 1892, however, his major influence is William Dean
Howells. Novels like The Cliff-Dwellers and With the Procession follow
Howells in describing American institutions as they are transformed by
the economic and demographic changes of the late nineteenth century. The
choice of Howells over James is deliberate, and is the subject of one
of Fuller's important essays.

He
also wrote twelve one-act plays, collected in The Puppet Booth. He was a
recognizable celebrity at the Chicago World's Fair of 1893. He wrote
for various journals, including The Dial, and he provided some editorial
assistance to Poetry in its early years.

While he is considered one of the important novelists of Chicago's early
years, his own relation to the city was often strained. The scion of
one of Chicago's early settler families, he found the increasingly
industrial and multicultural nature of the city offputting. His
ambivalence is expressed in The Cliff-Dwellers and With the Procession,
both of which are set in Chicago. Nevertheless, The Cliff-Dwellers,
which is set in a high rise office building, is one of the first novels
to treat at length social life in the new, skyscraper environment that
was pioneered in Chicago.

His finest achievement, however, is Bertram Cope's Year (1919), a subtle
novel about homosexuals in Chicago and a love affair between Cope and
Arthur Lemoyne, which ends with Cope turning heterosexual. It puzzled
critics and embarrassed his friends. Its recent republication and
enthusiastic reviews finally gave it the serious attention it deserves.

Little is known with any certainty about Fuller's private life and
relationships, although his journals from his teenage days make it clear
he was in love with some dormitory roommates at Allison Classical
Academy. 

At the age of 34 he admitted to being in love with an adolescent boy who
had blue eyes and strawberry blonde hair. Five years later, Fuller
wrote and published a short play, At Saint Judas's, about a homosexual
who commits suicide at the wedding of his fomer lover. It is credited
with being the first American play dealing explicitly with
homosexuality. In 1924 Fuller embarked upon a final affair with a
college student named William Shepherd, with whom he went to live in
Europe.

Fuller was also one of the founding members of the Eagle's Nest Art Colony in Illinois.


Bibliography
The Chevalier of Pensieri–Vani (1890, published under pseudonym Stanton Page)
The Chatelaine of La Trinité (1892)
The Cliff-Dwellers (1893)
With the Procession (1895)
The Puppet-Booth: Twelve Plays (1896)
Under the Skylights (1901)
Waldo Trench and Others (1908)
Bertram Cope's Year (1919)


Regnery, Henry. Creative Chicago. Chicago Historical Bookworks: Evanston, Illinois, 1993.