Queer Places:
Witton Old Jewish Cemetery
Metropolitan Borough of Birmingham, West Midlands, England
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Alan Dale (May 14, 1861 - May 21, 1928)[1][2] was an influential British theatre critic, playwright and book author of the late Victorian and early 20th Century eras. A Marriage Below Zero is the
first novel in English to explicitly explore the subject of male
homosexuality. Written by a British émigré to America, the New York theater
critic Alfred J. Cohen, under the pseudonym of “Alan Dale,” this first-person
narrative is told by a young Englishwoman, Elsie Bouverie, who gradually
discovers that her new husband, Arthur Ravener, is romantically involved with
another man. Denounced on publication (“a saturnalia in which the most
monstrous forms of human vice exhibit themselves shamelessly,” wrote one
reviewer), the novel was published during the public exposure of a London
homosexual brothel frequented by upper-class men and telegraph boys. A
Marriage Below Zero reflected late-nineteenth-century fears and anxieties
about homosexuality, women’s position in marriage, and the threat that
seemingly new, illicit forms of desire posed to marriageable women and to the
Victorian family.
Alan Dale was born Alfred Jacob Cohen in Birmingham, England. He arrived in New York in 1887 and became a drama critic for several New York papers i.e., New York Evening World, New York Journal and the New York American. His reviews of plays were often negative but helped sell a lot of William Randolph Hearst's newspapers. The theatre world despised Dale for his acid reviews.[3]
His spouse was Carrie L. Frost and they had at least one child Margaret (or Marjorie).[2]
Dale died aboard train while traveling from Plymouth to Birmingham. He had undergone several operations previously after health problems.[2]
My published books:
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