Les Mouches Fantastiques
Les Mouches Fantastiques was a Canadian underground magazine, published between 1918 and 1920.[1] Based in Montreal, Quebec, it is the first known LGBT-themed publication in Canadian and North American history.
The magazine arose out of a local writing circle established by poet Elsa Gidlow,[2] with Gidlow and journalist Roswell George Mills as its primary contributors. The publication's working title, prior to the publication of its first issue, was Coal from Hades.[1] Its content included both poetry and non-fiction writing about gay and lesbian identity and politics.[1]
The magazine was widely distributed far beyond Montreal, within both gay and lesbian social networks and the underground community of amateur journalists.[1] The magazine received correspondence from as far away as Havana, Cuba; an Episcopal priest from South Dakota left the priesthood and moved to Montreal to become Mills' partner after being exposed to the magazine;[3] and the magazine was heavily criticized in a 1918 essay by American writer H. P. Lovecraft.[1][3] The essay appears in Miscellaneous Writings, a posthumous collection of Lovecraft's shorter writings which was published in 1995.
Five issues of the magazine were published during its lifetime.[1] It was discontinued in 1920 when Mills and Gidlow moved from Montreal to New York City.[1]
Few copies of the publication are known to still exist today.[1] One copy is in the possession of the Quebec Gay Archives, three are held by the American Antiquarian Society and one is in the archives of the University of South Florida.[1]