In his 16th book, eyewitness gay activist Jack Fritscher, the lover
and biographer of Robert Mapplethorpe, breaks the trance of
received gay history in this fact-rich memoir of how "The Boys in
the Band Played On" from the Titanic 1970s to 1999. Built on all
new information recently unearthed, this stylishly written and
illustrated "timeline archive" of art, sex, obscenity, gender,
culture wars, homophobia, pop culture, and the gay mafia, will get
21st-century readers and researchers up to speed fast on the
serious fun of who did what to whom when and why. Fritscher was a
founding member of the American Pop Culture Association in 1968,
and in 1969, as academia met popular culture, he immediately knew
what to do to preserve and chronicle Stonewall and the gay culture
that ensued. Back in the heyday of the First Decade of Gay
Liberation, university professor and longtime "Drummer" editor
Fritscher added erotic realism to the magical thinking of "Drummer"
readers wanting a magazine that made newly self-inventing sex seem
possible and accessible. Attention must be paid: With an average
press run of 42,000 copies for each of the 208 issues over
twenty-four years, millions more people read international
'Drummer' than have read, perhaps, any GLBT book. Fact-based on
internal evidence in "Drummer," and in journals, diaries, letters,
photos, interviews of dozens of eyewitnesses, recordings, and
newspapers, Fritscher's ultimate insider's guide to the "Rise and
Fall of Castro and Folsom Streets" is a brisk ride that brings back
what an physical and intellectual thrill it was to pick up one's
first issue of "Drummer." Professor Fritscher's "frisson" anchors
San Francisco's otherwise wild Gay Lib history on the clear
chronology of the issues of the legendary monthly "Drummer." This
is the most complete document of the "GLBT Magazine Publishing
Movement." Fritscher is the Ken Burns of "Drummer" magazine. Justin
Spring, author, "Sam Steward: A Biography" "Fritscher has done all
the research work most academics won't do-thus ensuring that
historians, critics, and anthropologists will cut and paste with
delight in years to come." Author & Book Credentials "San
Francisco Chronicle" "Fritscher reads gloriously " Marilyn Jaye
Lewis, EAA Authors Association, ..".an essential document of the
20th-century 'Gay Enlightenment' culled from the pages of
'Drummer.' Fritscher empowers the Truth of those revolutionary
times by enabling history to tell itself." Mark Thompson, "The
Advocate," editor emeritus: "Utterly unique, an invaluable
testament...historically useful for decades to come." The Kinsey
Institute, Catherine Johnson-Roehr, Curator: "Fritscher has a
remarkable memory for the people, places, and pivotal events that
he has witnessed over his lifetime. His long association with
'Drummer' in San Francisco placed him at the center of the
revolution, and 'Gay San Francisco' is filled with significant
details from those years." Brown University, Samuel Streit,
Director Special Collections: "'Gay San Francisco' is remarkable
history of a remarkable time in a remarkable place, proving its
points by combining contemporary documents, photographs, drawings,
and reportage with a first-hand and first-rate memoir that brings
an unforgettable era back to life." Chicago Public Library, Jim
Stewart, Department Head emeritus, Social Sciences & History
Department: "Jack Fritscher as 'eyewitness' in 'Gay San Francisco'
is kin to Christopher Isherwood as 'camera' in his 'Berlin
Stories.' This written 'oral history' should be in every library's
GLBT collection." University of Sussex, Niall Richardson,
Film-Media Studies: ..".chronicles an exciting and formative era
from a new and original perspective no one has ever done before."
University of California, David Van Leer, professor, GLBT Studies:
"Fritscher is a key player in the gender of masculinity in
homosexuality."
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