Amory is best known for his 1966 novel Song of the Loon: A Gay Pastoral in Five Books and an Interlude and its sequels, including Song of Aaron and Listen, the Loon Sings.[3] Variously described as "a gay American version of famous sixteenth-century Spanish pastoral novels"[4] and "a gay version of The Last of the Mohicans,"[5]Song of the Loon has been called "one of the most important gay books of the 20th century."[6] In 1994 one bibliographer estimated that one third of American gay men had read the novel.[7]
Song of the Loon was adapted as an erotic film in 1970 without Amory's involvement and much to his disgust.[8] It also inspired a spoof, Fruit of the Loon by "Richard Armory" (in reality veteran porn writer George Davies who wrote under pen names including Clay Caldwell or Lance Lester).[9]
Amory briefly partnered with fellow authors Dirk Vanden, Phil Andros, Peter Tuesday Hughes, Larry Townsend, and Douglas Dean in an attempt to found the first all-gay publishing company, which was to be called The Renaissance Group. The group was unable to secure funding for the attempt and several of its members ceased publishing shortly thereafter.[10]
^See Drewey Wayne Gunn, Gay American Novels, 1870-1970: A Reader's Guide (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2016), 152-54.
^Beth M. Bouloukos, "Shepherds Redressed: Richard Amory's Song of the Loon and the Reinvigoration of the Spanish Pastoral Novel," 1960s Gay Pulp Fiction: The Misplaced Heritage, ed. Drewey Wayne Gunn and Jaime Harker (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2013), 212-28.
^Angelo d'Arcangelo, The Homosexual Handbook, 2nd ed. (Ophelia Press, 1969), 235. See also Susan Stryker, Queer Pulp: Perverted Passions from the Golden Age of the Paperback (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2001), 117; Neil DeWitte, "The Gay Western: Trailblazing Heroes Stake Their Claim," The Golden Age of Gay Fiction, ed. Drewey Wayne Gunn (Albion, NY: MLR Press, 2009), 224-27.
