This study of 20th-century-gay (male) creative writing was conceived from an anti-heterosexist viewpoint. Unlike much mainstream academic criticism, which has as its starting point the idea that homosexuality is sick and depraved, or both, Mark Lilly identifies society's homophobia as the central problem. In addition to an extensive opening chapter, analyzing the assumptions of conventional literary criticism, there are individual chapters on Cavafy, Forster, World War I poets, Genet, Williams, Mishima, Baldwin, Orton, Isherwood, Holleran and Leavitt.