Despised and Rejected

Under the pseudonym A.T. Fitzroy, prolific author Rose Allatini wrote her 1918 novel Despised and Rejected against the backdrop of the First World War.

Set in England slightly before and during the War, this powerful novel is considered by many an important landmark in the literature of pacifism and also early gay and lesbian literature. Its publication was risky and consequential for both the author and the publisher—who was arrested, prosecuted, and threatened with wartime imprisonment, and the British Government seized and destroyed the remaining unsold copies of the book within months of publication. The book languished for decades, until its recent revival.