William S. Burroughs

b. February 5, 1914 

d. August 2, 1997

Novelist, born as William Seward Burroughs in St. Louis, Missouri. Heir to the Burroughs Adding Machine Company fortune. As a teenager, Burroughs was sent off to military school at Los Alamos, New Mexico, where he had his first same-sex encounters. He was educated at Harvard and Vienna universities.

Burroughs fell in love and became obsessed with Ginsberg, and they have remained lifelong friends. Following trouble with the law regarding his drug habits, Burroughs settled in Mexico City with his wife Joan. One night in 1951, after a few drinks, they were entertaining some friends with their "William Tell" routine. She put a whiskey glass on her head and he aimed a pistol at the glass. Although he was an expert marksman, the shot was low and Joan was killed instantly. Burroughs had to leave Mexico.

His sexual explicitness (he was an avowed and outspoken bisexual) and the frankness with which he dealt with his own experiences as a drug addict won him a following among writers of the Beat movement. With Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, he was one of the founding members of the Beat generation. He was known to be a lover of young boys and in his later years, he lived with his long-time companion James Grauerholtz.

 Books:


Junkie: Confessions of an Unreedemed Drug Addict (1953)
Letters to Allen Ginsburg 1953-1957
The Naked Lunch (1959)
Nova Express (1960)
The Soft Machine (1961)
The Ticket that Exploded (1962)
Dead Fingers Talk (1963)
The Wild Boys (1971)
The Place of Dead Roads (1983)
Queer (1986)
The Western Lands (1987)

Elizabeth Bishop (1911 - 1979), Poet

b. 8 February 1911 
d. 6 October 1979

During her lifetime, poet Elizabeth Bishop was a respected yet somewhat obscure figure in the world of American literature. Since her death in 1979, however, her reputation has grown to the point that many critics, like Larry Rohter in the New York Times, have referred to her as "one of the most important American poets" of the twentieth century. Bishop was a perfectionist who did not write prolifically, preferring instead to spend long periods of time polishing her work. She published only 101 poems during her lifetime. Her verse is marked by precise descriptions of the physical world and an air of poetic serenity, but her underlying themes include the struggle to find a sense of belonging, and the human experiences of grief and longing.

-Poetry Foundation

Paul Monette, novelist and poet

b. October 16, 1945
d. February 10, 1995

Born in Lawrence, Massuchusetts, Monette grew up in an upper-middle-class environment; educated at the Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, and at Yale University, where he gained a BA in 1967. He subsequently taught at the Milton Academy and at Pine Manor College before settling into the life of a writer.

After moving to Los Angeles in the 1970s, Monette wrote a number of gay-themed novels, including "Taking Care of Mrs. Carrol" and "The Gold Diggers." In 1985, his world was shattered by the death of his lover of ten years, Roger Horwitz, from AIDS-related illness. Monette produced a book of poetry, "Love Alone: 18 Elegies for Rog", and "Borrowed Time: An AIDS Memoir," which became a best-seller in 1988.

Initially closeted, and after futile attempts at heterosexuality, and falling in love with a man, he finally came out. When his longtime lover Roger Horwitz was diagnosed with AIDS and suffered from a variety of AIDS-related diseases, and finally died, he became an advocate of gay and lesbian rights, and an active supporter of ACT UP (Aids Coalition to Unleash Power).

Also Monette was diagnosed with AIDS in 1991, and died four yìears later of AIDS-related complications. Nonetheless, Monette's final years were filled with love (he formed long-term relationships with casting director Stepphen Kolzak, who died in 1990 also to AIDS related illness, and then with Winston Wilde), and were amazingly productive.

Paul Monette won the 1992 National Book Award for nonfiction with his autobiographical "Becoming A Man: Half A Life Story." Written after he found out he had AIDS, it is a powerful depiction of the subjects Monette knew best: the nature of the disease, the problems of being in the closet, and the potential in gay relationships.

Source:


Gabriele Griffin, Who's Who in Lesbian and Gay and Writing, Routledge, London, 2002
Aldrich R. & Wotherspoon G., Who's Who in Contemporary Gay and Lesbian History, from WWII to Present Day, Routledge, London, 2001 - et alii

Books:

• Taking Care of Mrs.Carroll (1978)
• The Gold Diggers (1979)
• The Long Shot (1981)
• Love Alone: 18 Elegies for Rog (1987)
• Borrowed Time: An Aids Memoir (1988)
• Afterlife (1990)
• Halfway Home (1991)
• Becoming a Man - Half a Lifestory (1992)
• Last Watch of the Night (1994)
• Documentary about Monette:
• Paul Monette: The Brink of Summer's End (1997)

James “John” Gruber: Co-founder, Mattachine Society

b. Aug 21, 1928.

James “John” Gruber: 1928. James Gruber was born on Des Moines, Iowa, but his father, a former vaudeville performer turned music teacher, moved the family to Los Angeles in 1936, and it was in L.A. that Gruber came of age. In 1946, Gruber turned eighteen and enlisted in the Marines. He later remarked that being in such close proximity to men, he “went bananas in the sex department.” Despite the, ah, camaraderie, he continued to have affairs with women, and throughout his life he considered himself bisexual. After he was honorable discharged in 1949, he studied English Literature at Occidental College and met Christopher Isherwood, who would become a close friend and mentor.

In April 1951, Gruber and his boyfriend, photographer Konrad Stevens, became the last new members of a group of gay men who had begun gathering under the name of “Society of Fools.” which proved to be a turning point. “All of us had known a whole lifetime of not talking, or repression. Just the freedom to open up … really, that’s what it was all about. We had found a sense of belonging, of camaraderie, of openness in an atmosphere of tension and distrust. … Such a great deal of it was a social climate. A family feeling came out of it, a nonsexual emphasis. … It was a brand-new idea.” Gruber suggested the group rename itself the Mattachine Society, referring to the medieval masque troops known as “mattachines.” 

-full report at  Box Turtle Bulletin

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