LGBT Literature and the Twentieth Century: Collection Highlights from the McCain Library and Archives, The University of Southern Mississippi

Scholars interested in the publishing history of gay and lesbian literature will find key resources available at the McCain Library & Archives at the University of Southern Mississippi. As Curator of Special Collections, I did not set out to create a collection of LGBT materials, but as I worked with items from writers and others with Mississippi connections I noticed a fair amount of books and periodicals related to gay and lesbian topics on our shelves. Curators always hope for multifaceted research potential with the resources we obtain for our libraries, and I was pleased to discover the emerging opportunities for research in LGBT publication history and all of the possibilities for scholars of cultural studies, literature, political science, history, and many other disciplines. The purpose of this article is to highlight a few significant collections that represent and document the history of publications written by, about, and for LGBT readers. In the stacks of the Mississippiana & Rare Books collections researchers may discover one of the first novels featuring gay protagonists, The Young and Evil (1933), an almost complete catalog of gay pulp paperbacks by Mississippian Carl Corley, and an assortment of late-twentieth century feminist materials donated by civil rights activist Sue Sojourner which deal with lesbian issues