| Co-editor | Elsa Gidlow[1] |
|---|---|
| Co-editor | Roswell George Mills[1] |
| Staff writers |
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| Categories | Literary magazine |
| Publisher |
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| Founder |
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| First issue | 1918; 107 years ago (1918) |
| Final issue Number | 1920 (1920) 5 |
| Country | Canada |
| Based in | Montreal |
| Language |
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Les Mouches Fantastiques (lit.The Fantastic Flies) was a Canadianunderground magazine published between 1918 and 1920.[2][3] Based inMontreal,Quebec, it is the first knownLGBT-themed publication in Canadian and North American history.
The magazine arose out of a localwriting circle established by poetElsa Gidlow,[4] with Gidlow and journalistRoswell George Mills as its primary contributors. The publication's working title, prior to the publication of its first issue, wasCoal from Hades.[2] Its content included both poetry and non-fiction writing about gay and lesbian identity and politics,[2] as well as editorials opposing the war.[5]
The magazine was widely distributed far beyond Montreal, within both gay and lesbian social networks and the underground community ofamateur journalists.[2] The magazine received correspondence from as far away asHavana,Cuba; an Episcopal priest fromSouth Dakota left the priesthood and moved to Montreal to become Mills' partner after being exposed to the magazine;[6] and the magazine was heavily criticized in a 1918 essay by American writerH. P. Lovecraft.[2][6] The essay appears inMiscellaneous Writings, a posthumous collection of Lovecraft's shorter writings, which was published in 1995.
Five issues of the magazine were published;[2] it was discontinued in 1920 when Mills and Gidlow moved from Montreal toNew York City.[2] Few copies of the publication are known to still exist today.[2] One is in the archives of theUniversity of South Florida,[2] theUniversity of Iowa library has an original of all five issues,[7] and theQuebec Gay Archives has a reprint of the final issue. The New York Public Library catalog notes two issues (Vol. I, no. 5, May 1918; and Vol. II, no. 1, March 1920).