“Dancer” was released in the same year as Kramer’s serious satire “Bassoon”. Both are notes about the moth-to-flame nature of gay nightlife, and both reach their climax on Fire Island. But where Kramer was controversial, Horrelan was poetic — quieter and more political, but nevertheless political as a pioneer of literature in the post-Stonewall era.
“I don’t think Larry’s work is inferior,” Kushner continued. “But in’Dancers’, there is some confusion about how this particularly bent human wood forms a community. It was a big problem at the time.”
Horrelan was amazed at the attention the book received. Today, Johnson said it was equivalent to “our’Rye’s Catcher’, the book you read when you were young.” But since its publication, Horrelan has been a hot topic more than can be seen. Widely described as likable, very entertaining, and seemingly unaffected by literary feuds, he is also very shy. He was relieved to know that the pandemic would limit the amount of advertising he had to do for the “Kingdom of Sand”.
Edmund White, an elder politician in gay literature, called him a “rabbit,” like Horrelan, a member of the informal group Violet Quill in the 1970s. “He will appear and then disappear,” White added. “And when you get too close to him, he gets a little nervous. In New York, he was a big part of the Fire Island scene. I met him on a gay bus many years ago. But he wouldn’t have sex. He would just observe. “
For decades, Horrelan entered and exited the city on his condition. His family moved to Florida in the early 1960s and now lives in a small town on the outskirts of Gainesville. “We couldn’t understand why my dad chose this place,” he said. “But I’ve been here many times since then. It’s been a while; for Florida, it’s like three ice ages.”
He has also built a life as a writing teacher at American University in Washington. He is a “very married city”, mostly attending the National Gallery and the gym, but has been maintained by a recent pandemic. Limited to Florida. He could have left forever at any time before that, but he never left. Writing “The Kingdom of Sand” was like an exercise to understand why, he said.
