“A Union Like Ours can be read as exemplary of the kind of biography worth of American Renaissance — insisting that, when possible, knowing the situations and circumstances of writers’ and artists’ lives contributes vitally to both their aesthetic and historical significance.”—Carl Rollyson, New York Sun, August 18, 2023.
“A Union Like Ours is an arresting account of how a same-sex relationship endured amid societal conflicts and a solid examination of the men’s [Matthiessen’s and Cheney’s] respective works.”—Phillip Oliver, Library Journal, June 1, 2023.
“Scott Bane shows the relationship between F. O. Matthiessen and the painter Russell Cheney as an example of how two men could—precariously and passionately—live together and love each other in the America of the 1930s and 1940s. His book enriches our knowledge of the gay past.”—Colm Tóibín, international best-selling author of The Magician: A Novel
A Union Like Ours is a “smart, sensitive study of a gay couple …What [Scott] Bane’s extremely readable book is about … is the relationship between the two men and their struggle to make a home for themselves, physically and metaphorically, in a country that had not even begun to imagine gay marriage.”—Andrew Holleran, The Gay & Lesbian Review, July-August, 2022.
“A Union Like Ours succeeds as a nuanced exploration of a marriage, one characterized by great joy but also buffeted by tremendous conflict (societal, financial, and health-related). I came to know these men, their life together, and their creative output in a layered way.”—R. Tripp Evans, author of Grant Wood: A Life
“The relationship between Cheney and Matthiessen is a terrific subject. Bane is in his element when writing about intimacy and about the pathologization of homosexuality in the early twentieth century.”—Lance Richardson, author of House of Nutter: The Rebel Tailor of Savile Row