Great Fore-Queers: Gertrude Stein, and Alice B. Toklas in her own right. William Beckford. Oscar Wilde. Ronald Firbank. E.M. Forster. Florence Nightingale. Lytton Strachey. Aaron Copland. Leonardo. Isaac Newton. Christopher Marlowe. Ludwig the (Strong) Bavarian, and Frederick the Fair in his own right.

Of them all, possibly, Ronald Firbank has been most inspirational to me as a thinker and a writer, for what he did to his draft board, and most especially for the raw courage he displayed at his own local induction center--the damnfool Brits were doing World War I then. He appeared among them, sashayed into the induction center, wearing his customary foppish regalia--bell-bottomed trousers, long cigarette-holder, hat with sweeping brim--and demanded to be inducted. Which they were exceeding loath to do, so he sued them. Great shot. Who knows but what it saved lives?