M/M Timeline

 

  • 1953
    • Mary Renault’s “gay” Greek historical novel The Charioteer is published in the UK. Other novels by Renault with significant gay themes include The Last of the Wine (1956), Fire from Heaven (1969), and The Persian Boy (1972).
  • 1963
    • (June) Marion Zimmer Bradley and Juanita Coulson (as John J. Wells) co-write the short science-fiction story “Another Rib” for The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. The story involves love between male astronauts and the preservation of the human species from extinction.
  • 1974
    • Patricia Nell Warren’s novel The Front Runner, about the romance between coach Harlan Brown and runner Billy Sive, is the first book of gay fiction to reach the NYT Bestseller list and inspires the creation of an LGBT running/walking club, The Frontrunners, in San Francisco that now has chapters around the world.
  • 1976
    • Anne Rice’s homoerotic paranormal novel Interview with a Vampire shows the vampire Louis describing his relationship with Lestat and Armand.
  • 1979
    • Marion Zimmer Bradley’s The Catch Trap is a romance set in the 1940s and 1950s and features trapeze artists Mario Santelli and Tommy Zane Jr.
  • 1982
    • Anne Rice’s historical novel Cry to Heaven describes the life of castrato Tonio, who takes several male lovers over the course of the novel. It’s not a romance novel per se, however.
  • 1985
    • Anne Rice’s The Vampire Lestat addresses the vampires’ homosexual relationships more openly, a theme that continues through later novels in The Vampire Chronicles.
  • 1987
    • Ellen Kushner’s Swordspoint is a fantasy novel featuring the romantic relationship between Alec and swordsman Richard St. Vier.
  • 1989
    • Mercedes Lackey’s novel Magic’s Pawn is published, the first book of the Last Herald Mage fantasy series. The other books in the series are Magic’s Promise (1990) and Magic’s Price (1991). The series follows Vanyel Ashkevron, who is lifebonded to Tylendel and, later, Tylendel’s reincarnation, Stefan.
  • 1994
    • Anne Rice’s Interview with a Vampire is made into a feature film.
  • 1996
    • Lynn Flewelling’s fantasy novel Luck in the Shadows suggests a developing romantic relationship between characters Alec and Seregil. The relationship develops in the rest of the novels in The Nightrunner Series.
  • 2000
    • Josh Lanyon, a male writer who self-identifies as a male/male rather than gay romance author, publishes his first novel, Fatal Shadows.
  • 2005
    • Phillipa Gregory’s Earthly Joys is a historical novel about gardener John Tradescant and George Villiers, the Duke of Buckingham.
  • 2009
    • (April) Running Press becomes the first mainstream publisher to publish gay romances: Transgressions, by Erastes, and False Colors, by Alex Beecroft.
    • (December) Harlequin opens Carina Press, a digital-only publishing line that includes male/male romance within its purview.
  • 2011
    • (Feb 11) An article in The Globe and Mail reports about m/m romance, “Amazon’s Kindle has had such success with the genre that the e-book site has tripled its ‘m/m’ stock since January, 2010.”