Gay American Autobiography: Writings from Whitman to Sedaris
edited by David Bergman
University of Wisconsin Press, 2009 Paper: 978-0-299-23044-9 Library of Congress Classification PS508.G39G39 2009 Dewey Decimal Classification 920.008664
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
ABOUT THIS BOOK
In the first anthology to survey the full range of gay men’s autobiographical writing from Walt Whitman to the present, Gay American Autobiography draws excerpts from letters, journals, oral histories, 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 author’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.
Finalist, Lambda Book Award for LGBT Anthology, Lambda Literary Foundation
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.
REVIEWS
“Intimacy as history! I adored these glimpses into gay men’s lives, and thank David Bergman for having uncovered them. I only wish I’d had this book decades sooner.”—Michael Lowenthal, author of Charity Girl
“Bergman has brought together an impressive, diverse cache of source materials in a field which has been written on, but has always lacked a generic anthology. There have been subject- and period-based anthologies, but nothing spanning the 150 years or so of available material in this way.”—Richard Canning, University of Sheffield
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Permissions
Introduction
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862), from his journals
Walt Whitman (1819–1892), from his letters to Peter Doyle
Henry James (1843–1916), from his letters to Hendrick Andersen
Charles Warren Stoddard (1843–1909), "Chumming with a Savage: Kána-aná"
Alexander Berkman (1870–1936), from Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist
Claude Hartland (1871–?), from The Story of a Life
Earl Lind (1874–?), from Autobiography of an Androgyne
Russell Cheney (1881–1945) and F. O. Matthiessen (1902–1950), from Rat and the Devil
"Jeb Alexander" (1899–1965), from Jeb and Dash
Glenway Wescott (1901–1987), from Continual Lessons
Lincoln Kirstein (1906–1996), "Carlsen, Crane"
Samuel M. Steward (Phil Andros) (1909–1993), "The Magic Summer"
Paul Goodman (1911–1972), from Five Years
Tobias Schneebaum (1922–2005), "The Priest and the Pagans"
Ned Rorem (b. 1923), from The New York Diary
Edward Field (b. 1924), "Gay in the Army"
Minette (1928–2001), from Recollections of a Part-Time Lady
Martin Duberman (b. 1930), from Cures
Michael Rumaker (b. 1932), from A Day and a Night at the Baths
John Rechy (b. 1934), from The Sexual Outlaw
Alan Helms (b. 1937), from Young Man from the Provinces
Arnie Kantrowitz (b. 1940), from Under the Rainbow
Edmund White (b. 1940), "Writing Gay"
Samuel R. Delany (b. 1942), from The Motion of Light in Water
Andrew Holleran (b. 1943), "My Harvard"
Paul Monette (1945–1995), "Puck"
Jaime Manrique (b. 1949), "The Last Days of Reinaldo Arenas"
Kevin Killian (b. 1952), "Cherry"
Michael Klein (b. 1954), "The End of Being Known"
David Wojnarowicz (1954–1992), "Memories That Smell Like Gasoline"
David B. Feinberg (1956–1994), "On the Drip"
David Sedaris (b. 1956), "Hejira"
Essex Hemphill (1957–1995), "Ceremonies"
Wayne Koestenbaum (b. 1960), "The Aryan Boy"
Gil Cuadros (1962–1996), "Chivalry"
Justin Chin (b. 1969), from Attack of the Man-Eating Lotus Blossoms
REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
If you are a student who cannot use this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you
with an electronic file for alternative access.
Please have the accessibility coordinator at your school fill out this form.
Gay American Autobiography: Writings from Whitman to Sedaris
edited by David Bergman
University of Wisconsin Press, 2009 Paper: 978-0-299-23044-9
In the first anthology to survey the full range of gay men’s autobiographical writing from Walt Whitman to the present, Gay American Autobiography draws excerpts from letters, journals, oral histories, 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 author’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.
Finalist, Lambda Book Award for LGBT Anthology, Lambda Literary Foundation
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.
REVIEWS
“Intimacy as history! I adored these glimpses into gay men’s lives, and thank David Bergman for having uncovered them. I only wish I’d had this book decades sooner.”—Michael Lowenthal, author of Charity Girl
“Bergman has brought together an impressive, diverse cache of source materials in a field which has been written on, but has always lacked a generic anthology. There have been subject- and period-based anthologies, but nothing spanning the 150 years or so of available material in this way.”—Richard Canning, University of Sheffield
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Permissions
Introduction
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862), from his journals
Walt Whitman (1819–1892), from his letters to Peter Doyle
Henry James (1843–1916), from his letters to Hendrick Andersen
Charles Warren Stoddard (1843–1909), "Chumming with a Savage: Kána-aná"
Alexander Berkman (1870–1936), from Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist
Claude Hartland (1871–?), from The Story of a Life
Earl Lind (1874–?), from Autobiography of an Androgyne
Russell Cheney (1881–1945) and F. O. Matthiessen (1902–1950), from Rat and the Devil
"Jeb Alexander" (1899–1965), from Jeb and Dash
Glenway Wescott (1901–1987), from Continual Lessons
Lincoln Kirstein (1906–1996), "Carlsen, Crane"
Samuel M. Steward (Phil Andros) (1909–1993), "The Magic Summer"
Paul Goodman (1911–1972), from Five Years
Tobias Schneebaum (1922–2005), "The Priest and the Pagans"
Ned Rorem (b. 1923), from The New York Diary
Edward Field (b. 1924), "Gay in the Army"
Minette (1928–2001), from Recollections of a Part-Time Lady
Martin Duberman (b. 1930), from Cures
Michael Rumaker (b. 1932), from A Day and a Night at the Baths
John Rechy (b. 1934), from The Sexual Outlaw
Alan Helms (b. 1937), from Young Man from the Provinces
Arnie Kantrowitz (b. 1940), from Under the Rainbow
Edmund White (b. 1940), "Writing Gay"
Samuel R. Delany (b. 1942), from The Motion of Light in Water
Andrew Holleran (b. 1943), "My Harvard"
Paul Monette (1945–1995), "Puck"
Jaime Manrique (b. 1949), "The Last Days of Reinaldo Arenas"
Kevin Killian (b. 1952), "Cherry"
Michael Klein (b. 1954), "The End of Being Known"
David Wojnarowicz (1954–1992), "Memories That Smell Like Gasoline"
David B. Feinberg (1956–1994), "On the Drip"
David Sedaris (b. 1956), "Hejira"
Essex Hemphill (1957–1995), "Ceremonies"
Wayne Koestenbaum (b. 1960), "The Aryan Boy"
Gil Cuadros (1962–1996), "Chivalry"
Justin Chin (b. 1969), from Attack of the Man-Eating Lotus Blossoms
REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
If you are a student who cannot use this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you
with an electronic file for alternative access.
Please have the accessibility coordinator at your school fill out this form.
It can take 2-3 weeks for requests to be filled.
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE