Gay Student Fiction from 1914-1923
"What did it look like to voice queer identity on a campus
seemingly repressed in a world focused on tradition and norms?"
This exhibit examines queer storylines in Dartmouth student fiction that were previously explored by the Hidden Queer Stories project. In particular, we were interested in how romantic feelings were expressed during a time of increased homophobia on campus. Clifford Orr's story "Watch that Jazz!" offers a coded narrative, in which a straight romance contains strong queer undertones. Gilbert Patillo's story "Dorymates" and George Blanchard Phillips's story "An Evening with Phil O'Frenis" both push the boundaries of what friendship might mean. In every instance, hints of queer existence or love are shrouded within plausible deniability.
Photograph of Clifford Orr ‘22. From his alumni file.
Orr, author of "Watch that Jazz!", would continue to write. His first book, The Dartmouth Murders, would become a 1935 film titled Shot in the Dark. In addition to his literary pursuits, he worked for The New Yorker, where one of his colleagues later described him as a "homosexual" and a heavy drinker. He died in Hanover in his early fifties.
Photograph of George Phillips ‘24. From the 1916 Aegis.
George Blanchard Phillips, author of "An Evening with Phil O'Frenis", later received his PhD in Philosophy, then worked in various academic appointments, most notably at Washington University. His later years were spent in service to the Army. He never married.
Photograph of Gilbert Pattillo ‘14. From the 1914 Aegis.
Pattillo, author of "Dorymates," would later go on to serve in the army and write children's stories. He never married, though his obituary mentioned a dorymate of his own, Sherman Saltmarsh '14.
Orr, Clifford. "Watch that Jazz!" The BEMA 10:3 (1921). DC History LH1.D3 B4.
"Watch that Jazz" is a story of romance without romance. Damon meets Bertha Trent, and their music tastes are just too incompatible to have a relationship. Only after Damon's music taste saves the life of Bertha's mother does she agree to marry him.
"You don't like my ‘high brow stuff' as you call it. You don't understand it. You've never been educated up to it. Well it's the same with me. I can't bear your ragtime…I've never been educated down to it, that's all." - pg 8
Bertha, upon initially meeting Damon. ‘High brow stuff' refers to classical music, while ragtime is another word for jazz. ***
"Too bad she's that way." - pg 8
"...Miss Trent was different. Even sort of queer sometimes." - pg 8
Damon's thoughts of Bertha shortly after their initial encounter. ***
"I don't want to get married. Our tastes are absolutely different. Why, mother, he actually worships this ragtime!" - pg 29
Bertha's response to her mother's pointed questions about Damon. ***
"I am very sorry, but don't you see this distinct barrier between us." - pg 33
Bertha, initially refusing Damon's proposal. ***
Pg. 36, entire column.
Damon and Bertha's long, extended conversation where they agree to marry, their tastes in music used for comedic effect. ***
Pattillo, Gilbert. "Dorymates". The BEMA 2:7 (1914). Call number LH1.D3 B4
"Dorymates" is a story of one love lapsing in favor of another. When two lifelong ‘friends', Donald and Angus McDonald, fall in love with the same woman, Kate, they confront each other about their friendship's future while out at sea. A storm comes and breaks their ship, and while in mortal danger, Donald calls out for Angus to "hold on" if he loves Kate. Angus passes away, and later, Donald does too.
"Angus and Donald were not brothers, nor even cousins, in spite of their common name, but they had been dorymates ever since they had first sailed together, and that was now several years since." - pg. 19
This is the characters' introduction at the beginning of the work. How could they have the same last name if they weren't related to each other? ***
"No closer friends had ever left the home port; no dorymates of their age had braved so many adventures together. In every emergency that had yet surprised them they had been able to trust each other wholly, but now there had arisen an emergency which neither knew how to meet." - pg.19
An ambiguous description of their relationship. It is never made clear what these adventures are, or what their days were filled with. Instead, the two are close, and call themselves friends. ***
"Neither man noticed the storm clouds brewing in the north, neither felt the subtile increase of the cold, for their thoughts of Kate and of each other occupied their minds." - pg. 20
The narrative can not mention Kate without mentioning their relationship shortly after. Kate does not ever exist as a person; only as a prop between Angus and Donald. ***
"Donald was bending forward and back in short powerful strokes." - pg. 21-22
Donald attempts to right the ship, though the description feels more like a double-entendre than anything else. ***
"We can both be saved I tell you. If you go, I go too—you can't help me any by going! You're crazy, you don't know what you're saying! For the love of God, hold on!" - pg. 23
Donald desperately pleads with Angus to live, referencing their binded identities. ***
"Angus! Angus!" Donald's voice was choking with the passion of his final appeal. "Angus! this is no time to settle between you and me; no time for friends to part! Live, boy, and I'll give you Kate! Live, and you can have her! Hold on if you love Kate!" - pg 23-24.
Donald pleads again, bringing up the heterosexual romance as a motivator to live. Angus dies. ***
""Hold on!" he whispered, "hold on!—hold on!—hold on if you —love—Kate!" And with his voice growing weaker, still tensely whispering, "Hold on !—hold on"—in spite of his own warning, he, too, slipped into eternity." - pg. 24
Donald repeats the line after he has been recovered, in agonizing ignorance that Angus is already dead. Donald then dies, too in his absence. ***
Phillips, George. "An Evening with Phil O'Frenis". The BEMA 2:4 (1914). DC History LH1.D3 B4
The narrator sits down and talks with his long time friend, Phil O'Frenis. They discuss poetry and literature, and the original works of the narrator imply queer love, though also with a layer of deniability built in.
‘The historians gravely inform us that the heroes of Greece fell in love with each other. I think that is what many Dartmouth men do in absence of something better. Such do I consider my relationship to Phil O'Frenis, an old friend, with whom I became acquainted in Prep. school." - pg. 28
The opening lines of Phillips' story, which hints at queer love between the characters and also shuns it. ***
"There's a magic in the moon-beams, There's a wonder in the night, When you're safe away from people, And your heart is beating right. For the cricket's chirp reminds you Of the past's onrushing sea … Then you see sweet visions rising From the waters as they flow; Hear desire from out the future, Calling tenderly and low." - pg. 31
The narrator reads his poetry to Phil O'Frenis. ***
"Don't tell people that you are crazy and they won't lock you up. Next time you write, get a meter, a rhyme, and a subject; then perhaps you'll do better. I might help you with rhyme and meter, though I confess I do not know about the plot and subject." - pg. 31
O'Frenis' response to the narrator's poetry . ***
"It was a very beautiful girl of about her own age, but as pale as chalk. The new-comer seemed strangely familiar, but Mildred did not realize for a moment, that the other young lady was very, very like herself. She drew near the silent one, fearing, she knew not what, till at last their fingers touched. The hand that grasped here was as cold as death, and sent a strange thrill rushing the length of her body. '" - pg. 32
The narrator shares this story within a story as the final lines of the work. ‘Very, very like herself' is a suggestive phrase that might invite a queer reading.