Gay American Autobiography: Writings from Whitman to Sedaris (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780299230449)

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: David Bergman
ISBN-10: 0299230449
ISBN-13: 9780299230449
Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
Language: English
Published: 04/01/2009
Pages: 426
Format: Paperback
Weight: 1.46lbs
Size: 9.10h x 5.94w x 1.05d
Award: Lambda Literary Awards - Finalist

Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 05/04/2009 pg. 41
Foreword 06/12/2009