Volume 55, Number 3 · March 6, 2008
Portrait of a Sissy
By Edmund White
The novel Belchamber, first published in 1904, is the portrait of a sissy and as such it was initially disliked by everyone, including Henry James and Edith Wharton, who should have known better.[*] Curiously, the author, Howard Sturgis, was a beloved, amiable sissy who made no effort to hide his embroidery frame and the basket of silk thread he kept beside him at all times. Just as 'Sainty,' the hero of his novel, finds the only happiness of his boyhood in his 'work,' so Sturgis plied his needles with modest contentment and unremitting application.
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