Henry Blake Fuller (1857 - 1929) was an American novelist and short story writer. Fuller was from Chicago and his novel The Cliffdwellers is set in a skyscraper in Chicago. This was the first novel to investigate the social life in the high-rise environment. Fullers most notable novel is Bertram Copes Year (1919), a subtle novel about homosexuals in Chicago. The work puzzled critics and embarrasses his friends. In the last part of the 20th century it received enthusiastic reviews and is receiving the serious attention it deserves. Cope is a young college professor just arrived in a...

Presents a scathing portrayal of capitalism and its discontents in nineteenth-century Chicago. This edition - with its frenetic pace and many interrelated stories - remains a compelling document of Chicago's social history, as well as a searing indictment of modern American life at the close of the nineteenth century.

Written in 1918, this is the story of Bertram Cope, a young college student, who is befriended by Medora Philips, a wealthy older woman who tries to match him with several eligible young women. However, Bertram is emotionally attached only to his friend, Arthur Lemoyne. The novel's portrayal of their friendship is subtle but has clear overtones of sexual attraction. Largely dismissed by contemporary critics, the novel is now considered a pioneering work of both American realism and gay literature.