Jeb and Dash: A Diary of Gay Life, 1918-1945

By Ina Russell

Book Overview

It occurred to me today with something of a shock how horrible it would be for this diary of mine to be pawed over and read unsympathetically after I am dead, by those incapable of understanding...... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0571198171
• ISBN13: 9780571198177
• Release Date: January 1993
• Publisher: Faber & Faber
• Length: 285 Pages
• Weight: 1.19 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.3" x 1.0" x 6.3"

Customer Reviews

I Really Enjoyed Reading This

I really enjoyed reading this book right from the beginning. As Jeb got older however, it became harder to deal with Jeb who I believe became an alcoholic. He spoke a lot about drinking, both pre and post prohibition and it's effect and results. It's interesting to think of how and what he might have lived and become in the years beyond his death in 1965. He never lived during any period when homosexuality was dealt with openly, and in that respect I was really surprised how much of a gay life he was able to lead. He was very fortunate to have several friends. Even though the book is called "Jeb and Dash", it really is more about Jeb. He tried his darndest to romance and make Dash 'his', but as time went on....well, I don't want to spoil the story for those who want to read it. I just found this a very lovely, interesting story of this man's life. But to quote Jeb himself from page 233 he says "....became engrossed in the diaries. It is strange to relive one's life in that manner. So many complaining, unhappy days, so few contented ones." I'm not sure how he could have changed things. I'm not sure if he got out of life what he has hoping for. Not unlike many other human beings throughout time. But this was one man's time and I'm glad he put it in writing to share with the public. One thing that was fairly useless were the photos. They were terrible and did very little to help the reader see Jeb when young and active in life. Most of them had nothing to do with the content of the book or were of a historical nature. I find it hard to believe that there were no photos of Jeb and all his friends, but I suppose without permission to print them maybe they couldn't be done. Too bad. I wondered throughout the book what this one and that one looked like.

A guy to break your heart

Jeb Alexander wanted to be a writer and he had the talent to do it, but he lacked the drive. Partly perhaps from writer's block, but I got the sense that there was a lot of fear there too, fear of rejection. Jeb was a very sensitive soul, a sweet shy man who didn't let people see on the outside all the wonderful things going on inside his head. He had his faults. He was judgmental and possessive and at times a little overly sensitive. But those traits made him all the more interesting to read about and empathize with. He just wanted to love and be loved, to be a twosome with his beloved Dash, but he spent a lot of lonely time (wasted time, some would say) pining for what he couldn't have. Jeb's diary gives a wonderful flavor of Washington D.C. in another era, from the 1920's to the 1940's, from the interesting and sometimes wrenching viewpoint of a gay man who was not ashamed of what he was, but had to hide it nevertheless. By the end of the diary, I wanted to hug the poor guy and I wished that Ms. Russell hadn't edited the diary so severely (though she did an excellent job - I just wanted to read more!). I wanted more about Jeb and his day to day experiences in a period of time I find so interesting. I also wanted to know what became of all his friends, who were basically his family over the years, in a way his real family couldn't have been. I enjoyed the book immensely and highly recommend it to anyone, gay, straight, male, female. Jeb will touch and break your heart and serve as a reminder not to let your dreams fall by the wayside.

From The Publisher

Reviewer: Wishful (in Tennessee) - See all my reviews Jeb and Dash: A Diary of Gay Life, 1918-1945 FROM OUR EDITORS Here is the journal of Jeb Alexander, a gay man who lived in Washington, D.C. during the first half of the 20th century. Documents his life and details the joy & anguish of his on- & -off love affair with college chum C.C. Dasham. FROM THE PUBLISHER It occurred to me today with something of a shock how horrible it would be for this diary of mine to be pawed over and read unsympathetically after I am dead, by those incapable of understanding... And then the thought of the one thing even more dreadful and terrible than that - for my diary never to be read by the one person who would or could understand. For I do want it to be read - there is no use concealing the fact - by somebody who is like me, who would understand. Jeb Alexander was a gay man who lived in Washington, D.C., during the first half of the twentieth century. From 1918, when he was nineteen years old, until the late 1950s, he chronicled his daily life engagingly and unsparingly, leaving behind a unique record of ordinary gay life before Stonewall, a history that has remained largely hidden until now. Jeb came of age as the century did, witnessing and recording political and social change from the position of insider as an editor for the U.S. Government and outsider as a gay man. Painfully shy, and frustrated in his ambition to be a novelist by writer's block, Jeb turned to his diary as a way of expressing himself as well as recording events, creating a full emotional self-portrait and unforgettable sketches of the men who made up his lively circle of friends. Jeb and Dash also details the joy and anguish of an extraordinary on-and-off love affair between Jeb and C. C. Dasham (Dash), whom he met in college and with whom he remained friends throughout his life. A rare and important historical document, a beautifully written memoir, a love story, an ode to old Washington, D.C., Jeb and Dash is a remarkable find and an enduring literary achievement.

The story of all our lives

When I read "Jeb and Dash" I knew I had to own it. The book was lent to me by my gay comrade; he had written rubrics throughout the book expressing his own angst and joy. I found my joy in the book; I had already experienced the angst.The life of these young men in a Washington I know, knew, love and loved, reaches deep within me. The college life at W & L is mirror of many gay men -- especially those of us who attended university in the 1950s -- and the saddness, anger, anxiety that Jeb experiences creates for the reader a powerful catharsis. Yes, it was me -- then.What makes this beautiful book readable is the writing. Jeb obviously had a skill to weave and relate his story, to observe homosexual life accurately, to be part of a homosexual world and feel the anger of repression. Yet he functions in the unreal heterosexual world that dominates all our lives.Lastly, as the book unfold in his "beautiful" Washington -- a place he does not want to leave -- my home, my Meridian Hill, my parks, my capitol, my White House all become as real as if we were there in his day. The comrade,who lent me the book, and I spoke at length of this text. I told him, since I am over 60, this is a Washington I remember. A Washington that came to an end with the murder of JFK and Martin Luther King, Jr. Yet, when homosexual oppression reared its ugly head, Lady Bird and President Johnson were loath to condemn the people they worked with and trusted. Jeb's adoration of Wilson mirrored my adoration of JFK. This book pleases. The four stars say that the book is not a "masterpiece." It certainly is a treasure in gay literature.

Interesting Details Mingled With A Very Human Story

"Jeb Alexander" is a pseudonym for a gay man who lived in Washington, D.C., for the first half of the twentieth century. He was prolific in keeping a diary, which he left to his niece, Ina Russell, who has edited the many volumes down to this one small, but meaty, book.As a native Washingtonian, I most appreciated Jeb's take on the mundane details of Washington life, and of gay life at a time when homosexuals had no socially-accepted methods of meeting each other. Somehow, he managed to find several like-minded friends, including his school chum, "Dash," for whom he seemed to have carried a lift-long torch. More accurately, he was fixated on Dash.Jeb Alexander, was a government worker; not a bureaucrat, simply one of the many people who do their daily stints year after year until they are eligible for a pension. He wanted to be a writer. He was a copious writer, but only when it came to his hand-written diaries. One could argue that at least he ultimately was published (30 years after his death) but he was not the kind of writer he aspired to be.There seems to be an underlying sad parallel between the prolific diarist / stalled writer that Jeb was and the energy that he wasted as a result of his obsession with his friend. Because of either his constitution or his circumstances, he seemed averse to being alive, and frittered away his time in pursuits that I can't imagine he ever felt would amount to anything."Jeb and Dash" is a portrait of a "small" life-small like the lives most of us live. I enjoyed the view the book gave of some of the trivia of daily life and of my hometown. I also enjoyed the view it gave of some of the ways gay men lived their lives at a time when it was tougher than today. And I enjoyed Jeb's story-sometimes it struck a familiar chord. And sometimes I just wanted to reach back through time and smack him on the face and say "Get over it."But he lived in a different time.