The Bitterweed Path: A Rediscovered Novel(Radical Souths)

Originally published in 1950, the long out-of-print novel The Bitterweed Path was rediscovered in 1996 with the support of John Howard’s critical introduction. In the years since, new generations have witnessed its subtle yet daring contribution to Southern gay literature. This 75th anniversary edition includes a new foreword by John Howard and a new afterword by Harry Thomas Jr. that provide fresh insight into the workings of race, class, and queerness in this enduring novel. In The Bitterweed Path, Thomas Hal Phillips vividly recreates rural Mississippi at the turn of the twentieth century. In elegant prose, he draws on the Old Testament story of David and Jonathan and writes of the friendship and love between two boys—one a sharecropper’s son and the other the son of the landlord—and the complications that arise when the father of one of the boys falls in love with his son’s friend. Defying stereotypes about both Mississippi and the 1950s, The Bitterweed Path challenges conceptions of the US South as a place devoid of queerness and reimagines it as alive with same-sex desire.

About the Author :
Thomas Hal Phillips (1922–2007) was a novelist, actor, and Hollywood screenwriter and consultant from Mississippi. His film work includes Nashville, The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, Ode to Billy Joe, and Walking Tall II, and he authored the novels The Golden Lie, Search for a Hero, Kangaroo Hollow, and The Loved and the Unloved. Harry Thomas Jr. is an independent scholar based in Durham, North Carolina, and author of Sissy! The Effeminate Paradox in Postwar US Literature and Culture. John Howard is emeritus professor of arts and humanities at King’s College London and author of several books including Men Like That: A Southern Queer History.

Review :
"A remarkable rediscovery and moving, subtle, skillful work of fiction. John Howard's excellent introduction to the book, placing it in historical context, further adds to the importance of this publishing event."--Martin Duberman, author of Stonewall "A small gem of a homoerotic novel, written about a time and a place when gay didn't exist but male love did. We owe our thanks to John Howard for rediscovering it and to Thomas Hal Phillips for writing it."--John D'Emilio, author of Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities "Lyrical, sexy, and fascinating--a haunting work of art from a time and psychological place that is illuminating to revisit in light of where the world is today."--Howard Cruse, author of Stuck Rubber Baby