Love in A Dark Time
Encyclopedia
Love In a Dark Time: Gay Lives from Wilde to Almodóvar is a collection of essays by Irish novelist Colm Tóibín
published in 2002.
The first essay was a long review, published originally in the London Review of Books
, on A History of Gay Literature: The Male Tradition by Gregory Woods
. The other pieces are devoted to individual artists.
'Writing these pieces' said Tóibín
, 'helped me to come to terms with things - with my own interest in secret, erotic energy (Roger Casement
and Thomas Mann
), my pure admiration for figures who, unlike myself, weren’t afraid (Oscar Wilde
, Bacon
, Almodóvar
), my abiding fascination with sadness (Elizabeth Bishop
, James Baldwin
) and, indeed, tragedy (Thom Gunn
and Mark Doty
).' http://www.colmtoibin.com/books/nonfiction/loveInADarkTime/content/CTLDSynopsis.htm
The book also contains an essay on Henry James
, a figure to whom the author would later devote a novel, The Master
.
Colm Tóibín
Colm Tóibín is a multi-award-winning Irish novelist, short story writer, essayist, playwright, journalist, critic, and, most recently, poet.Tóibín is Leonard Milberg Lecturer in Irish Letters at Princeton University in New Jersey and succeeded Martin Amis as professor of creative writing at the...
published in 2002.
The first essay was a long review, published originally in the London Review of Books
London Review of Books
The London Review of Books is a fortnightly British magazine of literary and intellectual essays.-History:The LRB was founded in 1979, during the year-long lock-out at The Times, by publisher A...
, on A History of Gay Literature: The Male Tradition by Gregory Woods
Gregory Woods
Gregory Woods is a British poet who grew up in Ghana.Woods began his teaching career at the University of Salerno. Since 1990 he has worked at Nottingham Trent University, where, in 1998, he was appointed Professor of Gay and Lesbian Studies, the first such appointment in the United Kingdom...
. The other pieces are devoted to individual artists.
'Writing these pieces' said Tóibín
Colm Tóibín
Colm Tóibín is a multi-award-winning Irish novelist, short story writer, essayist, playwright, journalist, critic, and, most recently, poet.Tóibín is Leonard Milberg Lecturer in Irish Letters at Princeton University in New Jersey and succeeded Martin Amis as professor of creative writing at the...
, 'helped me to come to terms with things - with my own interest in secret, erotic energy (Roger Casement
Roger Casement
Roger David Casement —Sir Roger Casement CMG between 1911 and shortly before his execution for treason, when he was stripped of his British honours—was an Irish patriot, poet, revolutionary, and nationalist....
and Thomas Mann
Thomas Mann
Thomas Mann was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and 1929 Nobel Prize laureate, known for his series of highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novellas, noted for their insight into the psychology of the artist and the intellectual...
), my pure admiration for figures who, unlike myself, weren’t afraid (Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
, Bacon
Francis Bacon (painter)
Francis Bacon , was an Irish-born British figurative painter known for his bold, austere, graphic and emotionally raw imagery. Bacon's painterly but abstract figures typically appear isolated in glass or steel geometrical cages set against flat, nondescript backgrounds...
, Almodóvar
Pedro Almodóvar
Pedro Almodóvar Caballero is a Spanish film director, screenwriter and producer.Almodóvar is arguably the most successful and internationally known Spanish filmmaker of his generation. His films, marked by complex narratives, employ the codes of melodrama and use elements of pop culture, popular...
), my abiding fascination with sadness (Elizabeth Bishop
Elizabeth Bishop
Elizabeth Bishop was an American poet and short-story writer. She was the Poet Laureate of the United States from 1949 to 1950, a Pulitzer Prize winner in 1956 and a National Book Award Winner for Poetry in 1970. Elizabeth Bishop House is an artists' retreat in Great Village, Nova Scotia...
, James Baldwin
James Baldwin (writer)
James Arthur Baldwin was an American novelist, essayist, playwright, poet, and social critic.Baldwin's essays, for instance "Notes of a Native Son" , explore palpable yet unspoken intricacies of racial, sexual, and class distinctions in Western societies, most notably in mid-20th century America,...
) and, indeed, tragedy (Thom Gunn
Thom Gunn
Thom Gunn, born Thomson William Gunn , was an Anglo-American poet who was praised both for his early verses in England, where he was associated with The Movement and his later poetry in America, even after moving toward a looser, free-verse style...
and Mark Doty
Mark Doty
Mark Doty is an American poet and memoirist.-Biography:He was born in Maryville, Tennessee, earned his Bachelor of Arts from Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, and received his Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from Goddard College in Vermont.In 1989, his partner Wally Roberts tested...
).' http://www.colmtoibin.com/books/nonfiction/loveInADarkTime/content/CTLDSynopsis.htm
The book also contains an essay on Henry James
Henry James
Henry James, OM was an American-born writer, regarded as one of the key figures of 19th-century literary realism. He was the son of Henry James, Sr., a clergyman, and the brother of philosopher and psychologist William James and diarist Alice James....
, a figure to whom the author would later devote a novel, The Master
The Master (novel)
The Master is a novel by Irish writer Colm Tóibín. It is his fifth novel and it was shortlisted for the 2004 Booker Prize and received the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, the Lambda Literary Award, the Los Angeles Times Novel of the Year Award and, in France, Le prix du meilleur livre...
.