There must be a pony!
- Title
- There must be a pony!
- Description
- Written in a style distinctly reminiscent of J.D. Salinger’s ‘The Catcher in the Rye’ (1951), this is the story of “sensitive” sixteen-year-old Josh, his film star mother Rita Cydney, and her relationship with the mysterious Ben. Its queer content is largely subtextual, but a 1963 write-up in the ‘Mattachine Review’ by Gene Damon (pseudonym of legendary lesbian bibliographer Barbara Grier) noted its “sensitive handling of a boy’s first comprehension of homosexuality, with the aid of an older, well-presented man”. ‘There Must Be a Pony!’ was adapted into a television drama in 1986, starring Elizabeth Taylor as Rita. James Kirkwood (1924-1989) stated in an interview that the book was based on his own relationship with his mother, actress and silent film star Lila Lee, about whom he said, “She should have had puppies or kittens, not a kid”. Kirkwood’s ‘'P.S. Your Cat is Dead’ was also seized in ‘Operation Tiger’.
- Creator
- James Kirkwood (1924-1989)
- Location
- London (England)
- Publisher
- Jonathan Cape
- Date
- 1961
- Tags
- Gay Fiction
- Gay Youth
- Gay Youth Literature
- LGBTQ+ Fiction
- LGBTQ+ Youth
- LGBTQ+ Youth Literature
- Rights
- All images within the Seized Books! Online exhibition are to be used exclusively for the promotion of the library and to facilitate research. If you download and subsequently share any images from the exhibition website, you agree it is your responsibility to ensure appropriate usage is upheld for that image. Commercial use or distribution of this content is not permitted without prior permission of the copyright holder. Copyright to content may be held by authors, artists, or their heirs, or may be in the public domain. Senate House Library does not automatically claim copyright on any images shown in the Seized Books! online exhibition.