A Gentleman of Pleasure

One Life of John Glassco, Poet, Memoirist, Translator, and Pornographer

Brian Busby

• Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press
• Year: 2011
• ISBN:
  9780773586284
• Topic: Littérature
• Subtopic: Biographies littéraires

A Gentleman of Pleasure not only spans Glassco's life but delves into his background as a member of a once prominent and powerful Montreal family. In addition to Glassco's readily available work, Brian Busby draws on pseudonymous writings published as a McGill student as well as unpublished and previously unknown poems, letters, and journal entries to detail a vibrant life while pulling back the curtain on Glassco's sexuality and unconventional tastes. In a lively account of a man given to deception, who took delight in hoaxes, Busby manages to substantiate many of the often unreliable statements Glassco made about his life and work. A Gentleman of Pleasure is a remarkable biography that captures the knowable truth about a fascinatingly complex and secretive man.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Introduction
• One 1909–1928
• Two 1928–1931
• Three 1931–1938
• Four 1938–1947
• Five 1948–1957
• Six 1957–1961
• Seven 1961–1966
• Eight 1967–1969
• Nine 1970–1973
• Ten 1973–1981
• Coda
• Appendix: “Extract from an Autobiography”
• Acknowledgments
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Credits
• Index