Les Mouches fantastiques

Les Mouches fantastiques (

The magazine arose out of a local writing circle established by poet Elsa Gidlow,^[4] with Gidlow and journalist Roswell George Mills as its primary contributors. The publication's working title, prior to the publication of its first issue, was Coal from Hades.^[2] Its content included both poetry and non-fiction writing about gay and lesbian identity and politics,^[2] as well as editorials opposing the war.^[5]

The magazine was widely distributed far beyond Montreal, within both gay and lesbian social networks and the underground community of amateur journalists.^[2] The magazine received correspondence from as far away as Havana, Cuba; an Episcopal priest from South Dakota left the priesthood and moved to Montreal to become Mills' partner after being exposed to the magazine;^[6] and the magazine was heavily criticized in a 1918 essay by American writer H. P. Lovecraft.^[2][6] The essay appears in Miscellaneous Writings, a posthumous collection of Lovecraft's shorter writings, which was published in 1995.

Five issues of the magazine were published;^[2] it was discontinued in 1920 when Mills and Gidlow moved from Montreal to New York City.^[2] Few copies of the publication are known to still exist today.^[2] One is in the archives of the University of South Florida,^[2] the University of Iowa library has an original of all five issues,^[7] and the Quebec Gay Archives has a reprint of the final issue. The New York Public Library catalog notes two issues (Vol. I, no. 5, May 1918; and Vol. II, no. 1, March 1920).

References