Items

• Male love : a problem in Greek ethics and other writings
  Poet and literary critic John Addington Symonds (1840-1893) had several same-sex relationships both before and after his marriage in 1864 to Janet Catherine North, with whom he had four daughters. ‘A Problem in Greek Ethics’, an extensive study of sexuality in Ancient Greece, including the culturally sanctioned practice of pederasty (sex between men and adolescent boys), was written in 1873 and published privately a decade later in an edition of ten. In 1897, it was expanded as an appendix to sexologist Havelock Ellis’s ‘Sexual Inversion’ (though immediately suppressed) and was subsequently reprinted over the course of the twentieth century, often using fictitious imprints to avoid prosecution. The Pagan Press edition of 1983, edited by John Lauritsen, marked the centenary of the work’s first publication and was named one of the ten best gay books of the year by ‘The Advocate’ newspaper.