Bertram Cope's Year - Paperback

by Henry Blake Fuller (Author), Bryan Washington (Introduction by)

A young college professor becomes the source of gossip among a group of eccentric townspeople in this entertaining comedy of manners, a new reissue for Union Square & Co.'s Herald Classics line.

Originally published in 1919, Bertram Cope's Year is a clever character study following a handsome young academic who has taken a teaching position at a Midwestern university. As Bertram navigates his new environment, he quickly becomes the object of intrigue for both women and men in the ivy-covered college town. However, Bertram's only emotional attachment is to his best friend and housemate, Arthur Lemoyne. After a series of comedic mishaps, including an inadvertent marriage proposal, Bertram realizes that being true to himself is more important than playing the role others ascribe to him.

Often regarded as one of the first American gay novels that avoids the common "bury your gays" ending, Bertram Cope's Year is a witty, comedic portrait of one man's journey to live authentically.

Author Biography

Henry Blake Fuller (1857-1929) was an American novelist, dramatist, short story writer, critic, composer, and editor. Best known for his 1893 novel The Cliff-Dwellers, Fuller wrote one of the first published plays with queer themes in the United States, At Saint Judas's (1896), and one of the first American gay novels, Bertram Cope's Year (1919). Though Fuller never openly revealed his own sexual identity, his writing displayed a sympathetic and unapologetic attitude toward homosexuality. He was inducted into the Chicago LGBT Hall of Fame in 2000 and into the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame in 2017.