Author Archives: Gabriel François

Stan and Gus, Gilded Age and Secrets in New York City

In New York last weekend to see The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, the opera that opened the season at the Met. Despite the lukewarm review from The New York Times. Clay is homosexual, but it’s a secret he doesn’t accept, … Continue reading

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Flaubert and Caillebotte

While reading Michel Winock’s biography of Flaubert (Gallimard, 2013), I came across these reflections: The trip Flaubert undertook in Brittany with his friend Du Camp proves that, when he wanted to free himself from his mother’s control, Gustave did so … Continue reading

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Random Links

Donald Trump’s Big Gay Government: On the town with the A-Gays of Washington, who have never been happier to be out, proud and Republican (The New York Times). Florida Paints Over Rainbow Memorial for Victims of Pulse Nightclub Shooting (The … Continue reading

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From Gregory to Gloria: How DEI Shapes the Remembrance of a Hemingway

A surprising detail appeared in the recent New York Times obituary of Patrick Hemingway, Ernest Hemingway’s last surviving son, who died at the age of 97. The article referred to his sibling this way: Hemingway’s third child, Gloria Hemingway, was … Continue reading

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A new biography of C. P. Cavafy

Constantine Cavafy: A New Biography (G. Jusdanis and P. Jeffreys, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2025) has been released recently. Its review in the TLS starts with: Constantine Petrou Cavafy (1863–1933): a poet of obscure history and an eroticism so gentle, … Continue reading

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Queer Lives : Joseph Lovett, 1945-2025

The New York Times, in an obituary published last week, Joseph Lovett, TV Producer Who Shed an Early Light on AIDS, Dies at 80, writes: As an openly gay producer, Mr. Lovett was a rarity in the broadcast news world of the … Continue reading

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Paul Yonnet on Gide

From Zone de mort, Stock, 2017 (not translated) : This book of correspondence ends with an excerpt from Paul Valéry’s Notebook 24. In it, he noted down a conversation he had just had with André Gide, in 1925. Gide, who was … Continue reading

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Queer Lives: Gilles Dowek, 1966-2025

The brilliant mathematician and computer scientist, an alumnus of the École Polytechnique, died of cancer in Paris on July 21, 2025, at the age of 58. In 2007, he published a fascinating short book on the history of mathematics: The … Continue reading

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An Art-Filled Weekend in Chicago 

Despite the ridiculous name change (Painting His World) – to make it more “inclusive” according to the Chicago curator Gloria Groom, I enjoyed the Caillebotte exhibition at the Art Institute (Painting Men). The focus and commentary beside the works remain … Continue reading

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Random Links 

How ‘Gay’ Became an Identity in Art: Two groundbreaking exhibitions in Chicago explore the shift in portrayals of same-sex attraction. They are being staged at a fraught moment. (New York Times) How a Times Reporter Eluded a Ban on the Word … Continue reading

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