•  NEW BOOK: Don Leon & Leon to Annabella.  The great gay epic, written in the early 19th century.  A forceful outcry against Britain's sodomy statute and a witty and moving defence of male love.  To read it click here.

•  John Lauritsen gave a talk, “Don Leon and Underground Gay Scholarship”, at the Outing The Past 2018 Conference in Liverpool.  To read it click here.

•  NEW BOOK:  The Shelley-Byron Men: Lost angels of a ruined paradise.
For a description click here.

• “Shelley's Ashes” recounts male couples who were buried together in a common tomb. It argues that ashes of the great English poet, Percy Bysshe Shelley, are mixed together with those of his beloved friend, Edward Ellerker Williams. To read “Shelley's Ashes” click here.

• Fiona MacCarthy's 2002 biography, Byron: Life and Legend, is the best ever written. To read my review click here.

• Percy Bysshe Shelley's translation of Plato's dialogue on Love, the Symposium (or Banquet) is almost unknown, even among students of English literature — yet it is by far the best in English, a masterpiece in its own right. The 2001 Pagan Press edition is the only one in print, and the only one for many decades, to publish both Shelley's translation and his introductory essay, “A Discourse on the Manners of the Antient (sic) Greeks Relative to the Subject of Love”. For a description and reviews of this and other Pagan Press books click here.

• My recent book, The Man Who Wrote Frankenstein, has three theses: 1) Frankenstein is a great work, which has consistently been underrated and misinterpreted; 2) the real author of Frankenstein is Percy Bysshe Shelley, not his second wife, the former Mary Godwin; and 3) male love is a central theme of Frankenstein. To visit the Frankenstein Pages click here.

• Harriet Shelley. These pages are devoted to the memory of Harriet Shelley, first wife of the Poet and mother of his living descendants. A good and lovely woman, she has been treated cruelly by mainstream biographers. Here are descriptions of Harriet by those who knew her best, and a brilliant defence of her character by America's greatest novelist, Mark Twain.  To learn about her click here.

• Percy Bysshe Shelley was influenced by Plato's dialogue, ION, whose central conceit is that poets and their interpreters are all mad — or divinely inspired. To read Shelley's translation of ION click here.

•  Oresteia, The Medwin-Shelley Translation.  The Aeschylus trilogy translated by Shelley and his cousin, Thomas Medwin.  The greatest translation of a supreme masterpiece of world literature.  For description of book click here.

• Jeremy Bentham: Essay on Paederasty. The earliest known plea for reform of England's sodomy statute, written in the late 18th century but only published in the late 20th century. Commentary by Louis Crompton and John Lauritsen. There was overlap between the Bentham and the Shelley circle.
        Introduction to Bentham's Essay on Paederasty. Click here.
        Bentham's essay: “Offenses Against One's Self: Paederasty”. Click here.

• Byron's Boyfriends. My review of Byron and Women (and Men) (2010), edited by Peter Cochran. Click here.


I write books and am proprietor of Pagan Press, a small book publisher.  Each of our books is unique and well produced.  Please check out the Pagan Press BOOKLIST  — John Lauritsen