The Bitterweed Path: A Rediscovered Novel

by Thomas Hal Phillips, John Howard (Foreword by), Harry Thomas Jr. (Afterword)

Overview

Originally published in 1950, the long out-of-print novel The Bitterweed Path was rediscovered in 1996 with the support of John Howard’s critical introduction. In the years since, new generations have witnessed its subtle yet daring contribution to Southern gay literature. This 75th anniversary edition includes a new foreword by John Howard and a new afterword by Harry Thomas Jr. that provide fresh insight into the workings of race, class, and queerness in this enduring novel.

In The Bitterweed Path, Thomas Hal Phillips vividly recreates rural Mississippi at the turn of the twentieth century. In elegant prose, he draws on the Old Testament story of David and Jonathan and writes of the friendship and love between two boys—one a sharecropper’s son and the other the son of the landlord—and the complications that arise when the father of one of the boys falls in love with his son’s friend. Defying stereotypes about both Mississippi and the 1950s, The Bitterweed Path challenges conceptions of the US South as a place devoid of queerness and reimagines it as alive with same-sex desire.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781469691756
Publisher:	The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date:	10/21/2025
Series:	Radical Souths
Edition description:	75th Anniversary Edition, with a New Foreword by John Howard and New Afterword by Harry Thomas Jr.
Pages:	370
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 8.00(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Thomas Hal Phillips (1922–2007) was a novelist, actor, and Hollywood screenwriter and consultant from Mississippi. His film work includes Nashville, The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, Ode to Billy Joe, and Walking Tall II, and he authored the novels The Golden Lie, Search for a Hero, Kangaroo Hollow, and The Loved and the Unloved.

John Howard is emeritus professor of arts and humanities at King’s College London and author of several books including Men Like That: A Southern Queer History.

Harry Thomas Jr. is an independent scholar based in Durham, North Carolina, and author of Sissy! The Effeminate Paradox in Postwar US Literature and Culture.

What People are Saying About This

David Bergman

"An extraordinary find. It will force many critics to reexamine the nature of pre-stonewall gay fiction and the range of how homosexuality was constructed in post-war America."

From the Publisher

“A remarkable rediscovery. It is in itself a moving, subtle, skillful work of fiction. And its rare depiction of homoerotic relationships in an era in which the subject was largely tabooed redoubles the novel’s importance and impact. John Howard’s excellent introduction to the book, placing it in historical context, further adds to the importance of this publishing event.”—Martin Duberman, author of Stonewall: The Definitive Story of the LGBTQ Rights Uprising That Changed America

“Lyrical, sexy, and fascinating—a haunting work of art from a time and psychological place that is illuminating to revisit in light of where the world is today.”—Howard Cruse, author of Stuck Rubber Baby

“A small gem of a homoerotic novel, written about a time and a place when gay didn’t exist, but male love did. We owe our thanks to John Howard for rediscovering it, and to Thomas Hal Phillips for writing it.”—John D'Emilio, author of Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities: The Making of a Homosexual Minority in the United States, 1940–1970

John D'Emilio

"A small gem of a homo-erotic novel, written about a time and a place when gay didn't exist, but male love did."

Martin Duberman

"A remarkable discovery. A moving, subtle, skillful work of fiction. It's rare depiction of homo-erotic relationshis in an era in which the subject was largely tabooed, redoubles the novel's...impact. John Howard's excellent introduction, further adds to the importance of this publishing event."

Editorial Reviews

This book is a delicate, sensitive work, written in a warm, quiet rhythm which creates and maintains a mood and an atmosphere proper to the story’s locale and period. . . . Phillips has made the action of his story flow as effortlessly as time itself; he has brought [Southern rural] life during the early years of the century into the sort of believable reality which other Southern writers carefully avoid.”—New York Times Book Review

“Phillips’s readable style and his ability to create a feeling of ever-growing tension will hold the reader from beginning to end.”—Library Journal

From the Publisher