Bertram Cope’s Year
by Henry Blake Fuller
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In 1919, at the age of 62, Henry Blake Fuller was one of Chicago’s leading literary lights—the author of several novels and a contributor to publications such as Harper’s and the Dial who counted among his friends and admirers figures like Jane Addams, Hamlin Garland, and Thornton Wilder. Despite his reputation, however, he was forced to self-publish his sixth novel, Bertram Cope’s Year, one of the first American literary works about homosexuality. It failed miserably, and Fuller consigned the manuscript and proofs to the fire.
“If Theodore Dreiser had written this book, it would certainly have been suppressed,” wrote Van Vechten. “If Ben Hecht had written it, he would probably be languishing in jail.” Fuller’s light touch kept him out of the clink, but it’s also kept him and his quiet masterpiece out of the Chicago canon for far too long.
