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Showing 121 - 140 of 899 items
By Lynn Ames. 2024
"Dot Wilkinson is the greatest female catcher ever to play softball. A bold, pioneering athlete, she refused to let others…
define her and instead defined herself. Her story is an inspiration to people everywhere." —Billie Jean King, Sports Icon and Champion for Equality It's not simply that Dot Wilkinson was one of the most decorated women's softball players, bowlers, and athletes of all time and one of the original players from the three-time-world-champion PBSW Phoenix Ramblers softball team (1933–1965). Nor was it the length of her time here on Earth—over a century—although any of these things by itself would be impressive. The magic of Dot's story is in the details. It's the tale of a childhood spent in poverty, an indomitable, unbreakable spirit, a determination to be the very best to play whatever sport she undertook, the independence to live her personal life on her own terms, and her tremendous success at all of it. Over more than a decade of countless conversations and interviews, Dot shared all of it with her dear friend, author Lynn Ames. Dot held nothing back. Out at the Plate, told through the lens of Dot and Lynn's friendship, is the story of a forgotten era in women's history and sports, and one extraordinary woman's place at the center of it all.By John Lahr. 1978
This mesmerizing story of playwright and author Joe Orton&’s brief and remarkable life was named book of the year by…
Truman Capote and Nobel Prize–winning novelist Patrick White Told with precision and extensive detail, Prick Up Your Ears is the engrossing biography of playwright and novelist Joe Orton. Orton&’s public career spanned only three years (1964–1967), but his work made a lasting mark on the international stage. From Entertaining Mr. Sloane to his career-making Loot, Orton&’s plays often shocked, sometimes outraged, and always captivated audiences with their dark yet farcical cynicism. A rising star and undeniable talent, Orton left much undone when he was bludgeoned to death by his lover, Kenneth Halliwell, who had educated Orton and also dreamed of becoming a famous writer. Prick Up Your Ears was the basis for the distinguished 1987 film of the same name, directed by Stephen Frears, with a screenplay by Alan Bennett, and starring Gary Oldman and Vanessa Redgrave. A brilliant, page-turning examination of the dueling forces behind Orton&’s work, Prick Up Your Ears secured the playwright&’s reputation as a great twentieth-century artist.By Ned Rorem. 1966
In the earliest published diaries of Ned Rorem, the acclaimed American composer recalls a bygone era and its luminaries, celebrates…
the creative process, and examines the gay culture of Europe and the US during the 1950sOne of America&’s most significant contemporary composers, Ned Rorem is also widely acclaimed as a diarist of unique insight and refreshing candor. Together, his Paris Diary, first published in 1966, and The New York Diary,which followed a year later, paint a colorful landscape of Rorem&’s world and its famous inhabitants, as well as a fascinating self-portrait of a footloose young artist unabashedly drinking deeply of life. In this amalgam of forthright personal reflections and cogent social commentary, unprecedented for its time, Rorem&’s anecdotal recollections of the decade from 1951 to 1961 represent Gay Liberation in its infancy as the author freely expresses his open sexuality not as a revelation but as a simple fact of life. At once blisteringly honest and exquisitely entertaining, Rorem&’s diaries expound brilliantly on the creative process, following their peripatetic author from Paris to Morocco to Italy and back home to America as he crosses paths with Picasso, Cocteau, Gide, Boulez, and other luminaries of the era. With consummate skill and unexpurgated insight, a younger, wilder Rorem reflects on a bygone time and culture and, in doing so, holds a revealing mirror to himself.By Samuel R. Delany. 2004
This Hugo Award–winning memoir is &“a very moving, intensely fascinating literary autobiography from an extraordinary writer&” (William Gibson, Nebula and…
Hugo Award–winning author of Neuromancer). With the poet Marilyn Hacker, Delany moves into a tenement on a dead-end street that the landlord reserves for interracial couples. Between playing folk music in the evenings at the same Greenwich Village coffee shop as Bob Dylan and preparing shrimp curry for W. H. Auden and Chester Khalman, who have accepted an invitation that night for dinner, Delany takes a stab at writing science fiction. This young prodigy would complete and sell five novels before he turned twenty-two! (And then have a nervous breakdown . . .) This beautifully written memoir is a testament to a neighborhood where experimentation was a way of life. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Samuel R. Delany including rare images from his early career.By David Wojnarowicz. 2014
From life in the streets and love in the alleys to fame in the spotlight and an untimely death—raw, biting,…
and brilliant selections from the personal journals of one of the most uniquely creative artists of the late twentieth centuryWhen his life ended at age thirty-seven—a casualty of the AIDS epidemic that took so many before their time—David Wojnarowicz had long since established himself as one of America&’s most vital artists and activists. In the Shadow of the American Dream is a stunning collection of riveting and revealing chapters from Wojnarowicz&’s extensive personal diaries—thirty volumes&’ worth of memories and lucid observations, some bitter, some sweet—that the author began writing when he was seventeen and continued until his death two decades later. Here is a brilliant chronicle of an artist&’s emergence—a young man&’s still achingly fresh memories of his unhappy adolescence and his glorious discovery of self. Wojnarowicz recalls his life on Manhattan&’s Lower East Side with no shame or regret, and shares his hitchhiking journeys across the country. He talks of art and love and sex—embracing who he is fully and accepting his heartbreaking fate without pathos—while providing fascinating glimpses into the vibrant and colorful New York art scene and poignant views of life and death among the AIDS community.At once frightening and courageous, joyous and disturbing, enlightening and honest, In the Shadow of the American Dream is a treasured addition to the enduring literary legacy of David Wojnarowicz and a true testament to his unique brilliance.By Doris Grumbach. 1994
A New York Times Notable Book: To truly understand herself, Doris Grumbach embraces solitude With a busy career as a…
novelist, essayist, reviewer, and bookstore owner, Doris Grumbach has little opportunity to be alone. However, after seventy-five years on the planet, she finally has her chance: Her partner has departed for an extended book-buying trip, and Grumbach has been given fifty days to relax, think, and write about her experience. In this graceful memoir, Grumbach delicately balances the beauty of turning one&’s back on everything with the hardship of complete aloneness. Even as she attends church and collects her mail, she moves like a shadow, speaking to no one. Left only to her books and music in the midst of a Maine winter, she must look within herself for solace. The result of this reflection is a powerful meditation on the meaning of aging, writing, and one&’s own company—and reaffirmation of the power of friends and companionship.By Doris Grumbach. 1996
A look into the daily life of one of America&’s great memoirists At seventy-seven Doris Grumbach is as sharp as…
ever, and in Life in a Day she examines the experiences of her later years, from the dreaded writer&’s block to the many hours she has spent reading to the effects of an increasingly modern and interconnected world. Imbued with Grumbach&’s characteristic candor and verve, Life in a Day is a celebration of the meaning to be found in the quotidian.By May Sarton. 1980
An affecting diary of one year&’s hardships and healing, by one of the twentieth century&’s most extraordinary memoirists For decades,…
readers have celebrated May Sarton&’s journals for their candid look at relationships, success and failure, communion with nature, and the curious stages of aging. In Recovering, Sarton focuses on her sixty-sixth year—one marked by the turmoil of a mastectomy, the end of a treasured relationship, and the loneliness that visits a life of chosen solitude. Each deeply felt entry in the journal, written between 1978 and 1979, is laced with poignancy and honesty as she grapples with a cold reception for her latest novel, the sad descent of a close friend into senility, and other struggles. Despite the trials of this one painful year, Sarton writes of her progression toward a hard-won renewal, achieved through good friendships, the levity provided by her cherished dog, and peaceful days in her garden. A candid account of Sarton&’s revival from personal darkness back into light, Recovering is another stunning entry in the author&’s irrepressible oeuvre.By Paul Monette. 1992
The National Book Award–winning coming-out memoir. &“One of the most complex, moral, personal, and political books to have been written…
about gay life&” (LA Weekly). Paul Monette grew up all-American, Catholic, overachieving . . . and closeted. As a child of the 1950s, a time when a kid suspected of being a &“homo&” would routinely be beaten up, Monette kept his secret throughout his adolescence. He wrestled with his sexuality for the first thirty years of his life, priding himself on his ability to &“pass&” for straight. The story of his journey to adulthood and to self-acceptance with grace and honesty, this intimate portrait of a young man&’s struggle with his own desires is witty, humorous, and deeply felt. Before his death of complications from AIDS in 1995, Monette was an outspoken activist crusading for gay rights. Becoming a Man shows his courageous path to stand up for his own right to love and be loved. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Paul Monette including rare images and never-before-seen documents from the Paul Monette papers of the UCLA Library Special Collections.By Doris Grumbach. 1991
A New York Times Notable Book: One woman&’s search for the value of a long life With the advent of…
her seventieth birthday, many changes have beset Doris Grumbach: the rapidly accelerating speed of the world around her, the premature deaths of her younger friends, her own increasing infirmities, and her move from cosmopolitan Washington, DC, to the calm of the Maine coast. Coming into the End Zone is an account of everything Grumbach observes over the course of a year. Astute observations and vivid memories of quotidian events pepper her story, which surprises even her with its fullness and vigor. Coming into the End Zone captures the days of a woman entering a new stage of life with humanity and abiding hope.By Christopher Bram. 2009
The first collection of nonfiction from the author Tony Kushner calls &“one of the best novelists writing in the world…
today&” Over a thirty-year period, novelist Christopher Bram witnessed, and lived through, the powerful experiences of coming out, the AIDS epidemic, gay marriage, and the social changes that have occurred in lower Manhattan. From the title piece, which maps the state of gay fiction, to &“A Body in Books,&” about the gay books that changed the author&’s life, the essays in Mapping the Territory form a coherent autobiographical account of Bram&’s life. This work wouldn&’t be complete without &“Homage to Mr. Jimmy,&” his account of how his novel Father of Frankenstein grew from his imagination and writing into the Oscar-winning movie Gods and Monsters. Mapping the Territory is a thoroughly engaging and compelling look into a great American writer.By Dorothy Allison. 1994
A collection of critical essays from award-winning author Dorothy Allison about identity, gender politics, and queer theory, now with a…
new prefaceLambda Award and American Library Association&’s Stonewall Book Award–winning author Dorothy Allison is known for her bold and insightful writing on issues of class and sexuality. In Skin, she approaches these topics through twenty-three impassioned essays that explore her identity—from her childhood in a poor family in South Carolina to her adult life as a lesbian in the suburbs of New York—and her sexuality. In &“Gun Crazy,&” Allison delves into what guns meant to the men and women around her when she was growing up. She gives insight into the importance of speaking professionally about sexuality in &“Talking to Straight People,&” and articulates the danger women feel about revealing their personal desires, even within feminist communities, in &“Public Silence, Private Terror.&” Allison is fearless in her discussion of many social and political taboos. Compelling and raw, Skin is an honest and intimate work—perfect for Dorothy Allison fans and new readers alike.By John Sadler, Silvie Fisch. 2016
This military biography reveals the secret life of a closeted Austro-Hungarian intelligence officer who became a double agent in pre-WWI…
Europe. On the night of May 24th, 1913, three high-ranking military officials waited outside a hotel in the center of Vienna. At around two am they heard a gunshot and knew that one of their own had just ended his life. Colonel Alfred Redl, the former deputy head of the Evidenzbüro, the Austro-Hungarian General Staff&’s directorate of military intelligence, and confidant of the heir to the throne. His suicide note read: &‘Levity and passion have destroyed me&’. No one knew that for almost a decade, Redl had been giving military secrets to the Italians, French, and Russians. His motives for betraying the army he revered were a mystery for over a century. But after the discovery of long-lost records, the truth has been revealed.Spy of the Century tells the tragic story of a devoted military man who was forced to hide his homosexuality, and used his wealth to please his young lover. Authors John Sadler and Silvie Fisch vividly reconstruct Redl&’s secret life and dramatic downfall.By Doris Grumbach. 2000
A literary master looks ahead to her eighties As her eightieth birthday approaches, Doris Grumbach does not feel melancholy or…
saddened by the upcoming event, despite the loss of friends such as Kay Boyle and Dorothy Day—instead she takes it as an opportunity both to look backward and to grow. In this, her summer of unexpected content, Grumbach weaves the elegiac and the practical into a delightful tapestry of experience. She looks deep into her own history, telling stories of her life in the hardscrabble New York of the 1940s, working as a copyeditor. She details her near encounter with a seventy-two-year-old Bertrand Russell, calling it the closest she has ever come to sleeping with a Nobel Laureate. Grumbach lets us into her life and introduces us to the characters that have peopled her nearly eight decades on Earth. As the fateful day of her celebration draws near, the main topic on Doris Grumbach&’s mind is not herself; it&’s her guests. The Pleasure of Their Company is a meticulously planned party that any reader would be honored to attend.By Paul Monette. 1998
&“An eloquent testimonial to the power of love and the devastation of loss&” from the National Book Award–winning author of…
Becoming a Man (Publishers Weekly). In 1974, Paul Monette met Roger Horwitz, the man with whom he would share more than a decade of his life. In 1986, Roger died of complications from AIDS. Borrowed Time traces this love story from start to tragic finish. At a time when the medical community was just beginning to understand this mysterious and virulent disease, Monette and others like him were coming to terms with unfathomable loss. This personal account of the early days of the AIDS crisis tells the story of love in the face of death. A finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, Borrowed Time was one of the first memoirs to deal candidly with AIDS and is as moving and relevant now as it was more than twenty-five years ago. Written with fierce honesty and heartwarming tenderness, this book is part love story, part testimony, and part requiem. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Paul Monette including rare images and never-before-seen documents from the Paul Monette papers of the UCLA Library Special Collections.A biography of the German Jewish judge and lawyer who survived the Holocaust, brought the Nazis to justice, and fought…
for the rights of homosexuals. German Jewish judge and prosecutor Fritz Bauer (1903–1968) played a key role in the arrest of Adolf Eichmann and the initiation of the Frankfurt Auschwitz trials. Author Ronen Steinke tells this remarkable story while sensitively exploring the many contributions Bauer made to the postwar German justice system. As it sheds light on Bauer&’s Jewish identity and the role it played in these trials and his later career, Steinke&’s deft narrative contributes to the larger story of Jewishness in postwar Germany. Examining latent antisemitism during this period as well as Jewish responses to renewed German cultural identity and politics, Steinke also explores Bauer&’s personal and family life and private struggles, including his participation in debates against the criminalization of homosexuality—a fact that only came to light after his death in 1968. This new biography reveals how one individual&’s determination, religion, and dedication to the rule of law formed an important foundation for German post war society.&“What is clear—and what this book makes clear—is that without people like Fritz Bauer there would have been none of this prosecution of Nazi atrocities, no trials for Auschwitz camp guards or Adolf Eichmann, no rehabilitation of the German resistance against Hitler. Ronen Steinke deserves thanks for bringing this message of Fritz Bauer back to light in such an accessible form, balancing professional distance and sympathy.&” —Kai Ambos, Criminal Law Forum&“Illuminates the biography of a central actor in Germany&’s coming to terms with its Nazi past.&” —Jacob S. Eder, author of Holocaust AngstBy Porpora Marcasciano. 2024
In this stirring memoir by a member of the first generation of LGBTQ+ activists in Italy, Porpora Marcasciano tells her…
story and shares the struggles and accomplishments of her fellow activists who achieved so much in the 1970s yet suffered devastating losses during the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s. AntoloGaia offers an insider’s look at the beginnings of the gay liberation movement in Italy and reveals how it was intimately intertwined with other forms of left-wing activism. At the same time, it powerfully conveys the queer joy of a young person from a small village first encountering the vibrant sexual minority communities of Naples, Bologna, and Rome. As Marcasciano starts to embrace her trans identity, she meets the famous anthropologist Pino Simonelli, who introduces her to Naples’s unique femminielli subculture and gives her the name Porporino, which she later shortens to Porpora. In keeping with this story of gender, sexual, and political discovery, AntoloGaia is the first piece of Italian life-writing to use gender-neutral and mixed-gender language.By Sarah Viren. 2023
Part coming-of-age story, part psychological thriller, part philosophical investigation, this unforgettable memoir traces the ramifications of a series of lies…
that threaten to derail the author&’s life—exploring the line between truth and deception, fact and fiction, and reality and conspiracy.Sarah&’s story begins as she&’s researching what she believes will be a book about her high school philosophy teacher, a charismatic instructor who taught her and her classmates to question everything—in the end, even the reality of historical atrocities. As she digs into the effects of his teachings, her life takes a turn into the fantastical when her wife, Marta, is notified that she&’s been investigated for sexual misconduct at the university where they both teach. Based in part on a viral New York Times essay, To Name the Bigger Lie follows the investigation as it upends Sarah&’s understanding of truth. She knows the claims made against Marta must be lies, and as she uncovers the identity of the person behind them and then tries, with increasing desperation, to prove their innocence, she&’s drawn back into the questions that her teacher inspired all those years ago: about the nature of truth, the value of skepticism, and the stakes we all have in getting the story right. A compelling, incisive journey into honesty and betrayal, this memoir explores the powerful pull of dangerous conspiracy theories and the pliability of personal narratives in a world dominated by hoaxes and fakes. To Name the Bigger Lie reads like the best of psychological thrillers—made all the more riveting because it&’s true.By Anthony Uzarowski. 2023
The ultimate celebration of LGBTQIA+ icons profiling 40 artists, entertainers, writers, and activists who inspired the queer community with their style,…
openness, and diversity.This giftable collection of Instagram-worthy illustrated biographies takes you on a tour through LGBTQIA+ history from the 20th century through today—featuring Judy Garland, RuPaul, and Lady Gaga.What makes a gay icon? Free, uninhibited expression; an open mind; creativity; and bravery. Friends of Dorothy celebrates a wide range of people with the strength, vulnerability, charisma, and style that set them apart and gave them status with the queer community. Queer icons include supporters of LGBTQIA+ rights such as Marsha P. Johnson, and others like Divine and RuPaul who shattered social barriers to become important cultural ambassadors of queerness, changing the world in the process. Other icons are timeless entertainers with unique appeal, from Judy Garland and Bette Midler to Grace Jones and Lady Gaga.This collection welcomes readers into a flamboyant world populated by larger-than-life figures who inspired LGBTQIA+ people—over the decades—creating controversy, challenging conventions, and sometimes putting their own lives on the line in order for new generations to live in a more equal and accepting world. With spectacular color portraits by artist Alejandro Mogollo Díez, the dramatic visual style perfectly captures the flair and panache of these figures.By Mary Gabriel. 2023
In this exceptional biography, Pulitzer Prize finalist Mary Gabriel chronicles the meteoric rise and enduring influence of the greatest female…
pop icon of the modern era: Madonna.'Daring to write a biography of a woman with whom the entire world is on a first-name basis, Mary Gabriel has created (astonishingly) a book neither gossip-driven nor highly snarky... she reveals instead a Madonna both more true and more unbelievably believable; a rock-and-roll suffragette... Norman Mailer once said to Madonna, 'I've come to the conclusion that you are a great artist.' Exquisitely detailed in her storytelling, Gabriel is clearly in that camp, convincing us that we all still vogue in the House of Madonna.'Brad Gooch, author of City Poet With her arrival on the music scene in the early 1980s, Madonna generated nothing short of an explosion - as great as that of Elvis or the Beatles - taking the nation by storm with her liberated politics and breathtaking talent. But Madonna was more than just a pop star. Everywhere, fans gravitated to her as an emblem of a new age, one in which feminism could shed the buttoned-down demeanour of the 1970s and feel relevant to a new generation. Amid the scourge of AIDS, she brought queer identities into the mainstream, fiercely defending a person's right to love whomever - and be whoever - they wanted. Despite fierce criticism, she never separated her music from her political activism. And as an artist, she never stopped experimenting. Madonna existed to push past boundaries by creating provocative, visionary music, videos, films and live performances that changed culture globally. Deftly tracing Madonna's story from her Michigan roots to her rise to super-stardom, master biographer Mary Gabriel captures the dramatic life and achievements of one of the greatest artists of our time.