Gordon Merrick Wing

"The Lord Won’t Mind"  by Gordon Merrick  A Retro Review  by Mountman/Joe Wright      Why did I call it a Retro Review? Well, “The Lord Won’t Mind” was first published in 1970. Which means that it was written around the time of the Stonewall riots and 4 years before “The Front Runner” was published.      I want to first give a little information about Gordon Merrick himself. I got this information from http://libweb.princeton.edu/libraries/firestone/rbsc/aids/merrick.html .

“Gordon Merrick was born on August 3, 1916, in Cynwyd, Pennsylvania, a wealthy suburb of Philadelphia. His great grandfather was the founder of the Pennsylvania Railroad, and his father was a stockbroker. He enrolled at Princeton University as a member of the Class of 1939….” “…his first novel The Strumpet Wind (1947)”. “…he ended up by dividing his time between France and Ceylon (Sri Lanka), where he died of lung cancer on March 27, 1988.”

     “The Lord Won’t Mind” appeared on the New York Times best-seller list in 1970 for sixteen weeks. It’s the story about Charlie and Peter. It is set in the mid to late 1930’s.

     “ ”The Lord Won’t Mind” is a completely honest and sensitive story of a young Princeton man named Charlie, and his beautiful friend Peter – their first meeting, their discovery of each other and their turbulent, and happy, love affair in the dazzling, sophisticated worlds of the theatre and publishing in New York. It is one of the most outspoken, graphic, and extraordinarily romantic novels of gay life ever written.” (This comes from the back cover of the 1971 addition by Avon Books).

     I was 16 when I first read “The Lord Won’t Mind” and just coming to grips with my own sexuality. It gave me hope. There wasn’t much positive information about the ‘Gay Life’ then. You’ve got to remember that the Stonewall riots had just happened and our community was really in it’s infancy. If you want to see what Gay Life was like in the earlier part of the last century this is a book to read. As it says on the back cover, it does get sort of graphic at times. So, I wouldn’t suggest this one to a child. 

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