George Mallory and the Stracheys: A Situationship Timeline
George Mallory and his climbing partner, Andrew “Sandy” Irvine were two of the first men to try to climb Mount Everest. They sadly died in their attempt in 1924. There’s been a lot of analysis since about whether or not they reached the summit, because if they did they would have been the first to stand at the top of Everest.
I was watching an Everest documentary about the Mallory–Irvine expedition, and I was struck by how inherently homoerotic their summit attempt seemed. Here were two men, dressed in obviously, tragically inappropriate clothing, tied to each other by a rope, trying to climb this mountain for absolutely no reason. There was this glorious anti-reproductive drive behind all of it. Like, that the only reason you would do it was because you wanted to be tied to a man you were in love with and couldn’t express your feelings to in any other way.
Then I looked up George Mallory and saw that he had been married with three children. Not only that, but he is historically portrayed as a “wife guy”. According to tradition, he was extremely devoted to his wife, Ruth, and had even promised to leave a photograph of her on the summit of Everest. The fact that no photograph was recovered from his body is sometimes used as "evidence" that he did reach the summit. We can talk about how the photo thing is a complete myth another time…
Because my point is: this is why you should never doubt your gaydar. After further investigation, I realized that George Mallory was actually extremely into men. So this series will be about some of Mallory’s gay relationships, mostly while he was a student at Cambridge between 1909-1910 and his complex friendships with the Bloomsbury Group members.
I used these as my main sources:
The Wildest Dream: The biography of George Mallory by Peter and Leni Gillman. This is the best Mallory biography and does explore George’s gay relationships in detail, although it misses a lot of the story and portrays George’s past as a youthful experiment.
The Letters of Lytton Strachey. ed. Paul Levy
Friends and Apostles: The Correspondence of Rupert Brooke and James Strachey, 1905–1914. ed. Keith Hale.
What I could find from a Bonham’s auction of George Mallory’s letters to Lytton Strachey (the full letters are, to my understanding, not available)
I originally tried to organize everything to make a structured timeline for George, but I realized that just isn’t possible, because everyone in the Cambridge/Bloomsbury gay friendship circle was hooking up with everyone else at the same time. George himself said, “probably nobody is monogamous”. I think this might seem a bit strange or cynical to modern readers, but that’s really how the culture was at the time.
But what I think is even more strange to us, is how these men placed a lot of emphasis on who they were “in love” with, and worried a lot about this. Even if they were hooking up with multiple men at once, being “in love” with a man was something much more significant. In fact, as we will see, they often report having sex with another man and then clarify that they were not “in love” with him.
For this series, I’m going to focus on George’s relationships with James and Lytton Strachey.
James and Lytton were brothers who were both queer and members of the Bloomsbury Group, which was a group of liberated, intelligent, artist-types, very queer, and included people like Virginia Woolf. I am not well-read on Bloomsbury yet, so I won’t go into detail here and will just stay in my lane and focus on the George stuff.
Our Cast of Characters
George Mallory: Everest mountaineer. Our main character! During his Cambridge days he was known for being extremely handsome <3
James Strachey: George’s first love, but unfortunately he was too in love with another man, Rupert Brooke, to have feelings for George. He later became a Freudian psychoanalyst.
George called him “my sweet James” ;)
He’s actually such an interesting person, but he is unfortunately only talked about in context with the more famous people around him. I would love to know more about him!
Lytton Strachey: James’s more famous older brother. He’s known for having a massive beard (see below), but I found this painting of him when he was a bit younger, which is probably what he looked like during the George era.
But the massive beard is still sending me. I think that the beard is a fuck you I’m going to be sexy and ugly and a biblical patriarch and gay and THE BEARD IS DRAG OKAY. George said that Lytton was “very striking – a man you just can’t ignore”.
Duncan Grant: Artist, and also part of the Bloomsbury Group. He had many gay relationships, but also a whole relationship and child with Vanessa Bell. And yes, he painted and took nude photos of George, including ones with FULL PEEN.
Geoffrey Winthrop Young: Mountaineer. He would later marry and have three children which seems to be a theme with a lot of queer men from this era. According to Young’s biographer when he asked Young’s widow if Young was a homosexual, “ her eyes filled with tears before she replied: ‘Yes, he was.’”
Rupert Brooke: Extremely hot bisexual poet, but also a very polarizing person. He wrote war poems, but died very young from sepsis before the height of the carnage of WWI, so his poems glorify war. George’s crush, James, was madly in love with Rupert, so it was really messing up George’s relationship situation. George later said that he and Rupert were friends at Cambridge. They would read poetry together at this other old gay man’s house lol.
Maynard Keynes: The future father of macroeconomics’s greatest contribution to society was setting everyone up and reporting all the deets.
The next post will be all about George and his first love, James Strachey.
James Beaumont Strachey (26 September 1887, London – 25 April 1967, High Wycombe) of the Strachey family was a British psychoanalyst, and, with his wife Alix, translator of Sigmund Freud into English. He is perhaps best known as the general editor of The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, "the international authority" of Freud's works.
George Mallory and the Stracheys Part 3: George’s Travels and the Charterhouse Incident
When we left off last time, George was entangled with multiple men at once, namely James and Lytton Strachey, and possibly Geoffrey Winthrop Young.
In the first week of November 1909, George left to go to Paris to stay with the painter Simon Bussy. The Wildest Dream book says George was perhaps trying to get away from all the Strachey drama, which seems plausible. Interestingly, however, Simon Bussy was actually married to Lytton and James’s sister, Dorothy Strachey, but he became “entranced” with George, and even painted a picture of him. Also, apparently Dorothy was bisexual and is most known for writing a lesbian coming-of-age novel called Olivia. There are no straight people in this story lol.
November 30, 1909: George writes a letter from Paris to Lytton. It is extremely gay, flirty, and shows George has a crush on a man in Paris!
”But you may perhaps find some compensation for living in Cambridge in the excellent opportunities it affords for a strenuous intellectual life: it is a great advantage too that there should be so many young men from whom to choose suitable companions. I myself have found that it is the young whom I desire (I believe this to have been your experience also) and I feel it to be a misfortune that the only young man whom I know out here is not one with whom I am ever likely to love on the most intimate terms.”
December 20, 1909: George writes an emotional letter to James. He’s clearly still in love with James. James does not appear to have replied to the letter.
Note: Unfortunately, I can’t find the whole letter. This is all I was able to reconstruct from two different books. Some of the quotes may be out of order.
“My dear James, Write to you I will at last. What do you think of me? That I’m proud? that I’m injured? that I’m angry? that I’ve forgotten? It is six weeks yesterday since I said goodbye to you at Hampstead and I haven’t sent you a word. I who love you! Probably you know the reason for my silence as well as I do. There has never been anything to say since the day when I told you I loved you. Am I to repeat continually the wearisome news that I want to kiss you? It is about all that I am capable of. And it is all too much for both of us.”
“You had better forget that I was ever your lover.”
George also said he hoped James would treat him, in the time-honoured phrase, “as an ordinary friend… Do you think James, that would be possible? You’re much cleverer than I am I know, but I can understand a good deal of you, and I could understand more if you’d let me. And you understand a good deal of me—but not all yet.”
George wondered if it had been foolish to write as he did. “One can’t arrange one’s feelings. It might have been better to go on saying nothing–but I couldn’t.”
“How pleasant it was! For you I believe as well as for me, wasn’t it? [...] You will see that I am unhappy which I believe will be unpleasant for you. But isn’t there something also rather comforting about being loved? Or does it just make you feel you would like to kill yourself? You needn’t at all events feel like that for me. I’m not always as I am tonight. And if it is quite certain that I love you, yet I don’t love you really as much as loving goes. Now Good Night– and please my sweet James send me a line sometimes.”
February 1910: George writes to James again saying he’s feeling rather better and has recovered his sanity. George travels in Italy and sends a postcard to Lytton from Venice asking him to come to Paris.
George then stays in Paris for another month.
April 4, 1910: Lytton writes to Clive Bell that a letter [I think he means the postcard] came from George urging him to come to Paris and he is embittered because he is not able to go because he’s spent all his cash in having a “change” with Rupert.
Note: Ok but Lytton is now with Rupert Brooke?! Like basically the brothers keep dating/trying to date the same guys! This is a recurring theme with them.
[Such an aside but these Rupert Brooke and Lytton letters are kind of funny and I want to explore this more later (!!!), because when I first read this I naturally assumed Rupert and Lytton were hooking up. Lytton first asks Rupert to go away with him for a week or so to a cottage on Dartmoor. Cozy cottagecore! Then he suggests a place near the sea and that it “sounds as if it might be attractive – with brigs coming in and beautiful sailor-boys.” The reason I find this is funny is because the biographies of Rupert don’t discuss this side of his relationship with Lytton at all, or these gay AF details.]
April 9, 1910: George writes another flirty and gay letter to Lytton from Paris. It sounds like Lytton currently has many lovers/crushes. George says he’s almost forgotten about James.
“My dear, unfortunate Lytton, you don't know how loudly I should bewail your fate if I ever had time to be sorry for anyone else. As it is I have merely to remark what a wicked old sodomite you are – with your Antinous and your Rupert and beautiful young Lamb. Yes Antinous – I never remember to have seen the whole of him – or even half of him, but I like his head – not however enough to have a cult. Do you know the Idolino in Florence? Ah! That is ravishing – the most delicate, cultured, graceful young man that ever you say – only perhaps a little too modest for you. But leave the Greeks – I’m in France and how long I’m going to remain nobody knows […] You might give a message of respectful affection to Rupert – is that permitted? And to James? Well really you know I've almost forgotten him lately.”
George goes back to Cambridge at the end of April.
June 1910: George writes a letter to Lytton.
My dear Lytton,
A word I must write to you to tell of the …
[I can’t read the other stuff in the middle i’m already terrible at reading cursive I did try]
I was gone from Cambridge without so much as a farewell to my friends!
It is a queer place in all; I suppose the queerest part of it is “the staff” or rather the older members of it,
it is monstrous really they exist – they don't merely conform to a type; they are the living essence of it in every detail, a different kind of being, as distinct from you & me as the polar bear – & rather like it.
Well anyway it was mostly rotten luck having such putrid weather for the Wellington match today and a master apparently is a [I cannot see this word lol], or at least some masters are.
Yrs. ever affectly [sic], George Mallory
July 1910: George goes to the Alps and takes a 15 year old boy named John Bankes-Price with him. The boy’s parents wanted George to teach him climbing but he hurts his knee and hates climbing lol. George writes a letter to Lytton that says:
I am in the most ridiculous state – madly energetic & too lazy to do anything but walk up mountains. I have a pleasant lazy companion - only 15 ½ & quite absurd. G. M.
I’m going to guess this letter is from this time. The Wildest Dream book makes it sound like George was annoyed by his job, but it sounds like he found John pleasant. George can be a bit of a creep with boys as we see later. Like why did he emphasize fifteen and a HALF?? I think he’s definitely trying to imply he found John attractive or something. He also hangs out with a female climber named Cottie Saunders while he is in the Alps, but even though she’s super into him, nothing ends up happening between them.
September: George starts his job teaching at Charterhouse.
September 19, 1910: George writes a letter to Lytton.
"I can hardly write you a letter now – the atmosphere of you & the atmosphere of me are too far apart"
He also writes "But have I not promised to go to Wales after Xmas & to Scotland at Easter – & that with a young lady. And oh! Yes I shall fall in love with her I suppose – & all because she can climb. Oh! woe! woe! it is all too absurd, but who knows?"
Note: Here, George means Cottie Saunders. I feel like this is him thinking he needs to be heterosexual. I don’t think he really “liked” Cottie in that way, sort of “I shall fall in love with her I suppose because she can climb” doesn’t seem like someone that excited about that prospect.
September 26, 1910: Lytton writes to Maynard Keynes that he has received letters from the “ever-faithful” George who is now working at Charterhouse. He jokes that George is getting ready to teach his students “the Lower Sodomy”, claims George is incompetent, and may end up getting fired and have to do sex work. “After a year’s training he’s almost fit for it, but by the time he is quite it’ll probably be too late, and he’ll be so fat and heavily bearded that I shall be the only person in England capable of erecting over him.”
October 15–16, 1910 - Lytton travels to Charterhouse to see George. An INCIDENT happens.
October 19, 1910: James writes to Rupert in detail about the incident:
“Lytton seems to have had a hot time of it with George … I gather that on Sunday he only didn’t go right through with it out of terror that someone would come in – as there way [sic] no key to the door. But on Monday evening they had a conversation which left Lytton quite dechire. George said in fact that such things couldn’t ever be repeated. They bored him so. No, he felt no actual repulsion. He was just ‘indifferent’. Lytton hastened to agree that there was no point in anything short of actual copulation. But surely, as he was merely indifferent he’ld be obliging enough to allow that. No. Just once? No, never.
Another one of these virgins.
However, he was awfully upset in the end because Lytton said he never wanted to see him again on those conditions – as it would simply be boring. It appears the poor fellow had imagined all along that Lytton was deeply in love with him.”
The Wildest Dream book adds that Lytton wrote to Duncan Grant that “the copulation never came, though there were some singular moments. He has a fond of prudery–also of “indifference– but then why make a fuss? At least there was a conversation which left me dechire, and a little nearer love. Am I after all in love with him? I believe his feelings are as exquisite as his face. He was too charming, and his affection also killed me. I would have given worlds for an embrace, but it was too late–and I am not in love.”
Note: Whatever happened during this weekend is so confusing and contradictory. The part that confused me at first was why James referred to George as a “virgin” when James had had sex with George! Why would he think George is a virgin!? That made me realize that James is calling George a “virgin” because he knows George never bottomed before. This also explains George’s whole “no actual repulsion, just indifference” comment.
So my thought is: Lytton wanted George to bottom for him. George refused, said the idea didn’t repulse him but he just didn’t want to. Lytton told George if that’s the case, he didn’t want to see him again. George was upset about this because he had feelings for Lytton. Lytton was conflicted because George did seem to have affection for him, but ultimately decided he wasn’t in love with George. Well, I don’t think Lytton ever was in love, given his cruel comments about George’s body and intelligence.
The reason I think this is important to bring up is because The Wildest Dream book tries to make it sound like this incident proves George was no longer interested in men/gay sex after James, who was just of course an experiment and now we can move on to the great love story of George and his wife kinda vibe. Which I think is obviously completely untrue and not what was happening with George at all, and the whole incident with Lytton was GEORGE HAVING FEELINGS and upset Lytton seemingly only wanted him for a particular sex act.
Okay, this part was also long and hopefully it will be useful to somebody one day! There will be at least one more part about some final George/Lytton nonsense, George’s marriage, and why he was not a wife guy.
George Mallory and the Stracheys Part 2: Vast, Pink, Unbelievable
When we left off, George had just confessed his love to James Strachey, but was brutally rejected. I feel for George, but I think we all know what is going to happen next, given Lytton’s obvious interest!
May 21, 1909: Lytton meets George for the first time. Lytton comes to Cambridge for a two-week stay, still wanting to meet George. James invited George to have tea with both of them. Lytton then writes his famous passionate letter to Vanessa and Clive Bell describing George as “six foot high, with the body of an athlete by Praxiteles”.
In the full letter, Lytton explains how George declared his passion for James but was rejected. Lytton says he met George for the first time right after the rejection and “what followed was remarkable – though infinitely pure [...] desire was lost in wonder, and there was profanation even in a kiss.”
The full letter is so beautiful and poetic.
Lytton asks George to stay, but he is leaving and going to be a schoolmaster. Lytton says that George’s intelligence is not remarkable. But he seems very into George.
Note: Okay so many biographers portray Lytton as having an unrequited crush on George, but I do not think that is the case! How could Lytton know that George had a body like an athlete if he was wearing full Edwardian-era clothing? George had a lean muscular figure that I don’t think would show up as “obviously Greek statue” in clothes. Therefore, clearly Lytton had already seen George in a state of undress if he was making these comments!
May 27, 1909: Lytton writes to Leonard Woolf that James “proposed” to Rupert Brooke at Easter but was brutally refused. “He proposed merely for affection and didn’t even get that” (poor James).
He then references George’s “offered to copulate” incident with James:
“At Cambridge he [James] at once found himself in Rupert’s situation. George Mallory proposed to him. – The sequel I shall for the present leave unwritten – partly because I don’t know it, and partly because – but who is George Mallory?”
Note: It sounds like Lytton wants to be part of the sequel! The Wildest Dream book says that around this time George and James were still seeing each other, “although George confided he thought Lytton was now in love with him.” My thoughts are at this stage, Lytton had already gotten some sexual/flirtatious behavior from George after James rejected him, and was hopeful of getting more.
June 9, 1909 - Maynard writes to Duncan that George “moves in a cloud of intrigue” and “where he’ll find himself next, heaven knows… Poor George lives in a world to which he really has no clue whatever.”
The Wildest Dream book says that George wrote to James asking to meet and to “please don’t be angry” so clearly George was still into James, despite Lytton’s orbiting.
June 18, 1909: Things Get Weirdly Sexual. James writes to Rupert Brooke that George is staying with them at Hampstead. He says that Lytton spends all his time trying to persuade George to rape him. “I feel that I ought to enjoy it. Shall I?”
Note: The Wildest Dream book says that the visit was “sedate” and nothing bad happened. After reading some of Lytton and James’s other letters, I think it’s very clear that they mean “rape” in a dark humour way.
Meanwhile, Lytton told George how pleasant it was “to find oneself with someone who really likes things.”
July 7, 1909: George is still into James, but maybe also Lytton? George writes James two invitations on the same day. “Will you, damn you, come to lunch tomorrow?” and another one asking to call on James at 10 pm on Saturday “my pleasure, if I should find you there, could hardly be increased”. However, George also writes a letter on July 7 to Lytton! I don’t know what it says because the full letter wasn’t posted by Bonhams, but it could be evidence that George was exploring his options.
July 16, 1909: George is perceived as stupid. James is at Cambridge and writes to Rupert that poor George didn’t distinguish himself. He thought the Norwegian playwright Ibsen was a celebrated English dramatist. “Translations? Then what language did he write in?”
Note: This is a common theme for George. The Bloomsbury members often imply he has low intelligence, which is clearly not true when you read his writing! George loved art, music, poetry, etc. and was a true romantic at heart. But I suppose he wasn’t a match for the super witty and artistic Bloomsbury crowd.
July 1909: George and James have sex before George goes to the Alps. George tops.
We know this because in September, James writes to Rupert about the incident. He tells Rupert that he never had the courage to tell him that they "copulated" before George left for the Alps (lol people from that era use the word copulate non-ironically and it sends me every time).
“Poor George has returned, he tells me, from the Alps. By the way, I never had the courage to tell you that he insisted, before we parted, on copulating. No, I didn’t in the least lead him on. In fact I was very chilling. But as he seemed so very anxious & I couldn’t pretend to have all that virgin horror, I submitted. So we went through with it – in poor old Dickinson’s bed. Are you dreadfully shocked? I didn’t enjoy it much – I was rather bored. Nor, oddly, did he. He, I think, was shocked. At anyrate he shewed no desire to repeat the business. Really, you know, it’s only in the most special circumstances that copulation’s tolerable.
Note: A few things to consider here at this pivotal moment. The sex obviously doesn't sound like it was very good, but we need to remember James was in love with Rupert and was writing to him, so I don’t think he is a reliable narrator of this moment. I don’t think James is making up that the sex was awkward, but he is likely doing the most to appear attractive to Rupert “no I didn’t in the least lead him on,” seems doubtful to me and by the “most special circumstances” he likely means sex with Rupert.
As for George’s POV – he still was in love with James, and continued to write to James after the incident, so he was not put off by the awkward sex. I also wonder if George was so anxious to have sex with James because this was right before the Alps trip with Geoffrey Young. George may have wanted to lose his virginity to the man he was really in love with. While there’s no direct evidence that I’ve found so far that George and Geoffrey had a sexual relationship, Geoffrey was an older and more experienced gay man who was clearly very into George and was paying for the Alps trip. George could have been anxious to have sex with James first, or he wanted to understand how James felt about him before he went with Geoffrey.
Of course, the other major player was Lytton. We know George was hanging out with both James AND Lytton in June, and still writing to both of them in early July. He may have been trying to figure out all of these relationships before he left.
July 29, 1909 - George goes to the Alps with Geoffrey Young. Geoffrey pays for the trip.
August 7, 1909 - George writes a letter to James from the Alps trip. Nothing juicy, just about climbing mountains, but clearly he’s still thinking about James.
August 21, 1909 - Lytton writes to Leonard Woolf about George. He says George has finally put him out of love with Duncan Grant and has made him more or less content. He describes George’s beauty in over-the-top detail.
“His body – vast, pink, unbelievable – is a thing to melt into and die. I have melted, but, so far, I haven’t died. Perhaps I hardly want to – kisses seem almost to be enough. Gracious heavens! That’s something to have lived for, to have known. Need I say that I’m not in love? No more than I was in love with Swithin – it’s been all joy. He’s a child – innocent and in love with James and charming and affectionate – oh, come and see!”
The Wildest Dream book says around this time Lytton writes to Duncan saying it’s hard to make any plans because “at the back of every expectation there’s always George.”
Note: In the letter to Leonard, Lytton is remembering something that happened between him and George before George went to the Alps. I can’t find the exact dates but Wildest Dream says George left Zermatt on September 3 so George was still in the Alps when Lytton was writing about how vast, pink, and unbelievable he was lol. It sounds to me like at least kissing happened (kisses seem almost to be enough), perhaps more “I have melted, but, so far, I haven’t died”, but not a full “copulation”. Lytton also is not in love with George and sees him more as a hookup.
October 9, 1909: George writes a letter to Lytton that begins “So you too, Lytton have fallen a victim. How charming he must …” I can’t read the rest, as the full letter isn’t posted. I’m going to assume that he’s teasing Lytton about another of his crushes. It sounds like they were sort of having a flirty relationship, nothing serious, and both chasing after other men.
October 21, 1909: Lytton writes to Vanessa Bell that he is staying in George’s old rooms at Pythagoras House and that it is delightful to live among such memories. To me, this implies there are memories to ‘remember’ and things definitely went down here between them at some point!
Lytton then says that the first meeting with George was a sad shock because his beauty had vanished and he is “far too fat” but he “soon forgot all that in the contemplation of his exquisite soul”. [I’m genuinely confused how GEORGE MALLORY was ever fat, especially if he was climbing in the Alps a few months ago, but okay Lytton].
November 6, 1909: Lytton writes to James that he is miserable because George has left and “the sunshine has gone out of my life”. He says they “parted in something of a mist” that was chiefly his fault. “It’s not only the love affairs that are bound to fail! – And now I shall never see him again, or if I do it’ll be an unrecognisable middle-aged mediocrity”.
Note: I think the implication here is that Lytton was trying to have intimacy with George without “love” (hence it’s not only the love affairs that are bound to fail).
TL;DR: Okay that was actually a lot, but I think the main point here is that it seems obvious that George and Lytton had a physical relationship. No, they did not have a “full copulation” nor were they deeply in love, but things were definitely happening between them! The Wildest Dream book completely fails to recognize this. I think some Bloomsbury historians do, but they don’t dive into the situation as deeply as we did here.
And George/Lytton is not over yet. There will be a Part 3!
George Mallory and the Stracheys Part 1: My Sweet James
In my introduction post, I wrote about how Everest mountaineer George Mallory has an entire queer backstory a lot of people don’t really know about, and the full cast of characters. In this post, we will go over the introduction between George and James Strachey. James was the man George was madly IN LOVE with. All of this starts off at Cambridge in 1909, where George was attending school.
February 7, 1909: James and George first meet. Maynard Keynes arranges a lunch and invites George and James Strachey. He writes to Duncan Grant that “James and George Mallory fell into an intimate conversation and almost one another’s arms!”
George is immediately smitten and asks James out. The next day, George writes to James “Will you come here on Thursday either to tea or sometime in the evening? I feel that we broke off in the middle of a discussion – which oughtn’t to be: if you are willing I should like to resume it. I can’t guarantee another batch of optimism for you. Yours sincerely, George H. L. Mallory”.
February 11, 1909: James and George are dating, but James is unsure. Maynard updates Duncan on what he is now calling “l’Affaire George”. He summarizes the letter George wrote to James, which James showed him. James also said that Rupert Brooke told him that “George was unsure whether he liked James or loved him,” and that George called James “a beautiful languishing flower, and so forth”.
George and James meet again. James was, according to Maynard, “agog for a proposal” but George did not oblige. Even so the two talked of “nothing but love”. James invites George to tea the next Monday but James is still in love with Rupert Brooke and isn’t sure.
February 12, 1909: George meets Geoffrey Winthrop Young. George attends a dinner hosted by another gay man, Charles Sayle. George meets mountaineer Geoffrey Winthrop Young for the first time. Maynard also attends the dinner, and knowing James is still vacillating, tries to get up an affair between George and Geoffrey. George asks Geoffrey to breakfast the next morning, and Maynard considers his efforts “the greatest possible success”.
Later, Geoffrey invites George to a Pen y Pass climbing party for Easter and George accepts. Geoffrey is clearly into George, but George is still in love with James.
February 28, 1909: Maynard reports to Duncan that “James and George now stroke one another’s faces in public”.
March 3, 1909: Lytton is interested. Lytton Strachey has heard about George. He tells James “Please tell George Mallory that he’s making a great mistake. It’s James’s brother who’s the really fascinating person.”
March 8, 1909: James writes to Lytton “I’ve not even copulated with George. I don’t much want to. In fact nowadays I see him so much that he bores me incredibly.”
March 17, 1909: Lytton writes to Maynard about James telling him that the “Paris scheme” is off. He is glad as it’s for the best but the “thought of George arm in arm with me on the Boulevards makes me weep and gibber. Now I shall never never get to know the divine creature. Oh! Oh!”
Note: This seems odd, as I don’t think Lytton has even SEEN George yet so why is he so obsessed already? Maybe he saw a picture of him?
April/Easter, 1909: George goes to Pen y Pass with Geoffrey Young. Geoffrey hosts a huge climbing party at Pen y Pass, but George and Geoffrey go together earlier than the main party to get to know each other and stay a shanty together ;) and do some climbs.
April 25, 1909: But George is still in love with James. George writes an awkward and contorted letter to James hoping to see him again.
April 29, 1909: Lytton makes a move and must have written to George, because George writes to Lytton. "Dear Strachey, I was greatly honoured by your invitation, but unfortunately I am engaged for dinner tonight. I will try to join you later, as you suggest; I have an odd prejudice against climbing in dress clothes, which will make the issue uncertain."
May 9, 1909: George confesses to James and is rejected. George invites James to supper, but is “sick with fear at the thought of our next meeting – what a gamble it is.” James agrees to the supper and puts on a "spurious show of affection”. Maynard reports that “George offered to copulate” however this offer did not “melt James’s stoniness” and James turned George down.
George was devastated. He was really in love with James. He would later write:
“I believed so thoroughly that I should be in love with him for ever, and I should have thought it so wicked and dreadful not to be: and it was so nice to be melancholy and to have a real tragedy all to myself, especially as I was so advanced and thought that it couldn't be very wicked to kiss. “
But this is only the beginning of the story…
My next post in the series will be about George’s relationship with Lytton Strachey.
