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Gay News: The classic novel From Here to Eternity is to be republished with its original gay references included for the first time.
The most famous movie kiss in history?
Gay scenes reintroduced to classic novel
6 April 2011
The 1951 novel by James Jones tells the story of a group of American soldiers stationed in Hawaii in the run-up to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
The 1953 Oscar-winning film of the same name was based on the book and featured possibly the most famous heterosexual kiss in movie history, between Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr in the waves at Hawaii.
However, shockingly for the time, the novel also touched on homosexual themes, which were removed before the book was published.
In the original manuscript, the character of Private Angelo Maggio, played by Frank Sinatra in the movie, admits to performing oral sex on a wealthy man for money.
There is also a scene where the military authorities discuss investigating homosexual activity in the troops.
These scenes, along with four-letter swear words which have also been reintroduced, would have made the novel impossible to sell to the American public in the 1950s, and would certainly have fallen foul of the censors.
Despite his wish to present a truthful story of army life, Jones reluctantly bowed to his publisher’s demands to remove the scenes.
Now his daughter, Kaylie, has agreed to publish the original book in digital form, although the print edition will stay the same.
“My father fought bitterly to hold on to every four-letter word in the manuscript,” she said. “The publisher was concerned about getting through the censors.”
