Gay American Autobiography

by Bergman, David

• ISBN13: 9780299230449
• ISBN10: 0299230449
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-04-01
• Publisher: Univ of Wisconsin Pr

Summary

In the first anthology to survey the full range of gay menrs"s autobiographical writing from Walt Whitman to the present,Gay American Autobiographydraws excerpts from letters, journals, oral history, memoirs, and autobiographies to provide examples of the best life writing over the last century and a half. Volume editor David Bergman guides the reader chronologically through selected writings that give voice to every generation of gay writers since the nineteenth century, including a diverse array of American men of African, European, Jewish, Asian, and Latino heritage. Documenting a range of life experiences that encompass tattoo artists and academics, composers and drag queens, hustlers and clerks, it contains accounts of turn-of-the-century transvestites, gay rights activists, men battling AIDS, and soldiers attempting to come out in the army. Each selection provides important insight on the wide spectrum of ways gay men have defined and lived their lives, highlighting how self-awareness changes an authorrs"s experience. The volume includes an introduction by Bergman and headnotes for each of the nearly forty entries. Bringing many out-of-print and hard-to-find works to new readers, this challenging and comprehensive anthology chronicles American gay history and life struggles over the course of the past 150 years.

Author Biography

David Bergman is professor of English at Towson State University and author of numerous books including Cracking the Code, winner of the 1985 George Elliston Poetry Prize, and Men on Men 2000, winner of the 2001 Lambda Literary Award for Best Literary Anthology.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Permissions	p. xi
Introduction	p. xiii
From his journals	p. 3
From his letters to Peter Doyle	p. 15
From his letters to Hendrick Andersen	p. 27
"Chumming with a Savage: Kana-ana"	p. 40
"Love's Dungeon Flower"	p. 50
"Fleeing from Self (25 to 27)"	p. 59
From Autobiography of an Androgyne	p. 68
From Rat and the Devil	p. 78
From Jeb and Dash	p. 92
From Continual Lessons	p. 108
"Carlsen, Crane"	p. 125
"The Magic Summer"	p. 151
"Spring and Summer 1956"	p. 158
"The Priest and the Pagans"	p. 170
From The New York Diary	p. 181
"Gay in the Army"	p. 187
From Minette: Recollections of a Part-Time Lady	p. 200
"Larry"	p. 207
From A Day and a Night at the Baths	p. 217
"Voice Over: Four Factions of the Rear Guard"	p. 230
From Young Man from the Provinces	p. 236
From Under the Rainbow	p. 249
"Writing Gay"	p. 259
From The Motion of Light in Water	p. 276
"My Harvard"	p. 287
"Puck"	p. 301
"The Last Days of Reinaldo Arenas: A Sadness as Deep as the Sea"	p. 320
"Cherry"	p. 329
"The End of Being Known"	p. 337
"Memories That Smell Like Gasoline"	p. 348
"On the Drip"	p. 353
"Hejira"	p. 363
"Ceremonies"	p. 366
"The Aryan Boy"	p. 374
"Chivalry"	p. 381
"And Judas Boogied until His Slippers Wept"	p. 390
Selected Gay Autobiographies and Life Writings	p. 401
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