Who was Xavier Mayne? Great question, even if you didn’t ask it. The original Xavier Mayne was the pseudonym of Edward I. Prime-Stevenson, who wrote two seminal works under it: Imre: A Memorandum, the first openly gay bildungsroman (coming-of-age novel) written by an American, and The Intersexes, a study of early theories of homosexuality.
I write under the pseudonym Xavier Mayne because I want to draw attention to this mostly forgotten pioneer of American gay culture. And, you know, I needed a pseudonym.