An international bestseller and winner of the Stonewall Book Award, which inspired an award-winning film 'A heroic work of journalism on what must rank as one of the foremost catastrophes of modern history.' The New York Times 'Stunning ... An impressively researched and richly detailed narrative.' TIME Randy Shilts was the first openly gay journalist dealing with gay issues for the San Francisco Chronicle. In 1981, the year when AIDS came to international attention, he quickly devoted himself to reporting on the developing epidemic, one which devastated his community and eventually took his life as well. Shilts interviewed over 1,000 people, weaving together extensive research in the form of personal stories and political reportage. He was perfectly placed to understand the cultural, medical and political impact of the disease on the gay community and United States society as a whole. And the Band Played On exposes why AIDS was allowed to spread while the medical and political authorities ignored and even denied the threat. This book remains one of the great works of contemporary journalism and provides the foundation for continuing debates over governmental failure in handling lethal epidemics.

Upon it's first publication twenty years ago, "And The Band Played" on was quickly recognized as a masterpiece of investigatve reporting. An international bestseller, a nominee for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and made into a critically acclaimed movie, Shilts' expose revealed why AIDS was allowed to spread unchecked during the early 80's while the most trusted institutions ignored or denied the threat. One of the few true modern classics, it changed and framed how AIDS was discussed in the following years. Now republished in a special 20th Anniversary edition, "And the Band Played On" remains one of the essential books of our time.

Known as "The Mayor of Castro Street" even before he was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Harvey Milk's personal life, public career, and final assassination reflect the dramatic emergence of the gay community as a political power in America. It is a story full of personal tragedies and political intrigues, assassinations at City Hall, massive riots in the streets, the miscarriage of justice, and the consolidation of gay power and gay hope.
Harvey Milk has been the subject of numerous books and movies, including the Academy Award-winning 1984 documentary, "The Times of Harvey Milk. " His life is also the basis of a 2008 major motion picture, "Milk, "starring Sean Penn. " " Randy Shilts was born in 1951, in Davenport, Iowa. One of the first openly gay journalists hired at a major newspaper, he worked for the "San Francisco Chronicle" for thirteen years. He died of AIDS in 1994 at his home in the Sonoma County redwoods in California. He was the author of "The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk "(1982), "And the Band Played On: Politics, People and the AIDS Epidemic "(1987), and "Conduct Unbecoming: Lesbians and Gays in the U.S. Military "(1993). He also wrote extensively for many major newspapers and magazines, including "The New York Times, Newsweek, Esquire, The Los Angeles Times, "and "The Advocate."
"The Mayor of Castro Street "is Shilts's acclaimed story of Harvey Milk, the man whose personal life, public career, and tragic assassination mirrored the dramatic and unprecedented emergence of the gay community in America during the 1970s. His is a story of personal tragedies and political intrigues, assassination in City Hall and massive riots in the streets, the miscarriage of justice and the consolidation of gay power and gay hope.