On August 21, 1978, a year before his seventieth birthday, Samuel
Steward (1909-93) sat down at his typewriter in Berkeley,
California, and began to compose a remarkable autobiography. No one
but his closest friends knew the many different identities he had
performed during his life: as Samuel Steward, he had been a popular
university professor of English; as Phil Sparrow, an accomplished
tattoo artist; as Ward Stames, John McAndrews, and Donald Bishop, a
prolific essayist in the first European gay magazines; as Phil
Andros, the author of a series of popular pornographic gay novels
during the 1960s and 1970s. Steward had also moved in the circles
of Gertrude Stein, Thornton Wilder, and Alfred Kinsey, among many
other notable figures of the twentieth century. And, as a
compulsive record keeper, he had maintained a meticulous card-file
index throughout his life that documented his 4,500 sexual
encounters with more than 800 men. The story of this life would
undoubtedly have been a sensation if it had reached publication.
But after finishing a 110,000-word draft in 1979, Steward lost
interest in the project and subsequently published only a slim
volume of selections from his manuscript. In The Lost Autobiography
of Samuel Steward, Jeremy Mulderig has integrated Steward's
truncated published text with the text of the original manuscript
to create the first extended version of Steward's autobiography to
appear in print--the first sensational, fascinating, and ultimately
enlightening story of his many lives told in his own words. The
product of a rigorous line-by-line comparison of these two sources
and a thoughtful editing of their contents, Mulderig's thoroughly
annotated text is more complete and coherent than either source
alone while also remaining faithful to Steward's style and voice,
to his engaging self-deprecation and his droll sense of humor.
Compellingly readable and often unexpectedly funny, this newly
discovered story of a gay life full of wildly improbable--but
nonetheless true--events is destined to become a landmark queer
autobiography from the twentieth century.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
(11)
