On March 22, 2023, Phillip Gordon presented “The Welcome—Hubert Creekmore’s Lost Novel” as part of the History Is Lunch series.
Water Valley native Hubert Creekmore (1907-1966) published his first book of poetry in 1940. He spent three years in the US Navy on active duty in the Pacific during WW2. After the war, Creekmore split his time between Jackson, Mississippi and New York City, where he worked as a critic and editor. His first novel, The Fingers of the Night, was published in 1946 and was followed by The Welcome in 1948 and The Chain in the Heart in 1953.
“The Welcome is often included in the group of lost gay novels, and I’m so pleased that it has been reissued by the University Press of Mississippi,” said Gordon, who wrote the introduction to the new edition. “The book was ahead of its time in considering the possibility of love and companionship between two men in a small Mississippi town.”
Hubert Creekmore’s sister married a brother of Eudora Welty. “Consequently, Creekmore is most known now for his friendship with Welty,” said Gordon. “They lived near one another in Jackson, and their shared loved of literature, photography, and gardening drew them together. But Creekmore’s writing career never flourished like Welty’s did.”
Memphis native Phillip Gordon is an associate professor of English and the LGBTQ+ Studies Coordinator at the University of Wisconsin–Platteville, as well as advisor to the campus newspaper, The Exponent. Gordon earned his BA in English from the University of Tennessee-Martin and his MA and PhD in English, both from the University of Mississippi. His book Gay Faulkner: Uncovering a Homosexual Presence in Yoknapatawpha and Beyond was published by the University Press of Mississippi in 2020.
History Is Lunch is sponsored by the John and Lucy Shackelford Charitable Fund of the Community Foundation for Mississippi. The weekly lecture series of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History explores different aspects of the state's past. The hour-long programs are held in the Craig H. Neilsen Auditorium of the Museum of Mississippi History and Mississippi Civil Rights Museum building at 222 North Street in Jackson and livestreamed on YouTube and Facebook.
