Turns Out "From Here to Eternity" Wasn't the Only Classic Novel to be De-Gayed!

Ever read a literary classic and find yourself thinking how the otherwise fantastically-written book might really benefit from a steamy gay sex scene or two? Well, for those lovers of James Jones’ hefty WWII novel From Here to Eternity - adapted into the Oscar-winning 1953 film starring Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr – who always felt there weren’t enough scenes of man-on-man action spread across those 861 pages, consider your wishes granted.

Because according to this week’s New York Times, Jones’ classic tome is now being released digitally by Open Road Integrated Media, an online publisher of backlist titles, with two previously-excised references to explicit gay sexual activity restored.

Montgomery Clift and Burt Lancaster in From Here to Eternity?
What might have happened next in this scene?

This is truly great news for any gay man out there who counts himself as a lover of classic literature, but did you know that several other distinguished novels similarly had references to gay subject matter removed prior to publication?

That’s right, boys – we were robbed of some genuinely boner-ific material in high school English class, and we have those stuffy old book publishing execs to thank for it. Nevertheless, AfterElton.com’s got the dirt on three particularly shocking examples (and one not-so-shocking) that will shed a decidedly more stimulating light on some of the most esteemed works of fiction in the history of the printed word.

1984 by George Orwell

Considering the book’s obvious condemnation of censorship, it’s pretty ironic that the publishing company behind Orwell’s classic dystopian novel chose to engage in the exact same practice the author himself was criticizing. You see, Orwell originally conceived of Winston’s lover “Julia” as “Julian,” meaning the central love story at the center of one of the greatest novels of the 20th century was entirely transformed through the omission of one tiny letter in a character’s name (not to mention substituting the word “breasts” in place of “penis”).

The worst part of it is, in the book Winston and Julia screw like rabbits in practically every secret place they can think of – the forest clearing, the church belfry, the room above the antique shop – meaning us gays were essentially deprived of some truly hot man-on-man action in favor of a whole lot of boring straight-people sex.

Yes, 1984 is still a brilliant work of allegory – nothing in this world could ever change that – but taking into account its heavy themes of repression, alienation, and “groupthink” assimilation, in retrospect the whole gay love-affair thing kinda makes sense, no?

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Racial injustice certainly goes down hard in Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, but the concept of forbidden man-love was unfortunately still too controversial in 1960 to be considered for publication in a mainstream work of fiction. You see, the famously reclusive author, not content to wave the proverbial finger at only one form of prejudice, originally intended to tackle gay discrimination in the novel as well. And she did, in her initial manuscript – only that part of the story was extracted from the book by publisher J.B. Lippincott before it reached the eyes of the general public.

Believe it or not, in Lee’s original version of Mockingbird it was heavily implied that Tom Robinson and Atticus Finch – the black man accused of raping a white woman and the white lawyer assigned to defend him, respectively – were in fact engaged in a homosexual love affair.

Talk about attorney client privilege!

Since the narrative is told through the eyes of Atticus’ precocious young daughter Scout, we aren’t privy to all the intimate details but rather brief, informative glimpses at various points in the book: the tellingly affectionate glances across the courtroom; Scout’s recollection of a night in which she spied a late-night kiss between Tom and Atticus at the back door of their house after getting up for a glass of water; her father’s mournful tears when he finds out Tom was shot and killed attempting to escape from prison.

Needless to say, no attorney in the history of the world has ever been more convinced of his/her client’s innocence (rape a female? he doesn’t even like women!) than Mr. Atticus Finch.