Eminent Outlaws: The Gay Writers Who Changed America

by Christopher Bram

  “[He] began to talk to me as though I knew no more about him… Windham, 87.

  CHAPTER 10. RIOTS

  “Oh, my God, it’s Lily Law!” Mart Crowley, The Boys in the Band (New York: Alyson, 2008), 32.

  “habitués of the place were reported to embrace each other… Chas. K. Robinson, “The Raid,” ONE, July 1960; excerpted in Neil Miller, Out of the Past (New York: Vintage, 1995), 323.

  The most famous case is that of Newton Arvin… The fullest account of Arvin’s arrest is Barry Werth, The Scarlet Professor (New York: Nan Talese/Doubleday, 2001), 193–280.

  “It’s happened to many others—” Truman Capote, Too Brief a Treat: Letters of Truman Capote, ed. Gerald Clarke (New York: Random House, 2004), 293.

  “Bill of Rights for Homosexuals!” Martin Duberman, Stonewall (New York: Dutton, 1993), 113.

  “Book reviews? Who reads books these days?” ONE, July–December 1967.

  a new male magazine, DRUM… Diarist Donald Vining bought an early issue of DRUM: “I wouldn’t waste my money on it soon again but at least it has some dignity as it tells of efforts to amend the law and reviews some of the books on the subject, giving the back of the hand to trashy ones.” Gay Diary, vol. 3, 471 (entry dated March 4, 1967).

  He first came to New York in 1957… Mart Crowley, conversation with the author, November 16, 2009.

  Every Sunday, Crowley liked to buy the New York Times, go to the Swiss Cafe… Ibid.

  “The homosexual dramatist must be free… Stanley Kauffmann, “Homosexual Drama and Its Disguises,” New York Times, January 23, 1966.

  He was surprised at how quickly the writing went… Mart Crowley, conversation with the author, November 16, 2009.

  “sphinx-like and inscrutable… Mart Crowley, conversation with the author, November 30, 2009.

  “a forties-movie bomber-crew cast… Pauline Kael, Deeper into Movies (Boston: Little, Brown, 1973), 137.

  memorable one-liners… Mart Crowley, The Boys in the Band (New York: Alyson, 2008); “Connie Casserole,” and “Who do you have to fuck to get a drink around here?” (23), “You look like you been rimming a snow man” (54), “Life is a goddamn laff-riot” (53).

  “The one on the floor is vicuna.” Ibid., 56.

  “thirty-two-year-old, ugly, pockmarked Jew fairy… Ibid., 53.

  “You are a sad and pathetic man… Ibid., 108.

  “Crowley’s most original creation… Tony Kushner, introduction to Boys in the Band, xiv.

  As playwright Charles Busch later said… Charles Busch, conversation with the author, December 2009.

  “If we… if we could just… not hate ourselves… Crowley, Boys in the Band, 111.

  “Oh Michael… thanks for the laughs… Ibid., 109.

  “In the first act we screamed with laughter… Vining, Gay Diary, vol. 4, 37 (entry dated April 20, 1968). Vining goes on to say that he and his partner quoted favorite lines on the way home. “Ken rather acted as tho we had never been part of that world, which amused me since he fitted into it better than I did.”

  One friend of mine, now in his seventies… Scott Fuchs, conversation with the author, October 2009; Schuyler Bishop, conversation with the author, October 2009.

  “A bunch of gay friends hang out… Joe Keenan, conversation with the author, July 1997.

  “one of the best acted plays of the season… Clive Barnes, “ ‘The Boys in the Band’ Opens Off Broadway,” New York Times, April 15, 1968, 48.

  “the best American play for some few seasons… Clive Barnes, “ ‘The Boys in the Band’ Is Still a Sad Gay Romp,” New York Times, February 18, 1969, 36. People wrote differently back then, and Barnes could feel free to say, “Michael, a slightly aging Roman Catholic fag, is giving a birthday party for Harold, a slightly aging Jewish fag.”

  “in their amused, quick-minded, diminishing address… Walter Kerr, “To Laugh at Oneself—Or Cry,” New York Times, April 28, 1969, Arts and Leisure, D1. Twenty years later Kerr said similar obtuse things about Torch Song Trilogy. He was another smart writer whose brain shut down as soon as homosexuality was mentioned.

  “sounds too often as if it had been written by someone at the party… Vincent Canby, “The Boys in the Band,” New York Times, March 18, 1970. http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9E00E6D8173EE034BC4052DFB566838B669EDE&scp=1&sq=vincent%20canby%20%22boys%20in%20the%20band%22&st=cse.

  “Realizing that the author’s attempt… Donn Teal, “How Anguished Are Homosexuals?” New York Times, June 1, 1969, Arts and Leisure, D23. Compare this turgid prose with the annoying prose of Katie Kelly, who wrote about the movie two weeks after Stonewall: “There’s Emory, the Tinker Bell of Third Avenue, flying in armed with his lisp and his lasagna recipe; Harold, the ‘Before’ of an acne medication testimonial, who spreads his spleen like a communicable disease.” Katie Kelly, “The ‘Boys’ Are Having a Bit of a Party Again,” New York Times, Arts and Leisure, D15, July 13, 1969.

  a young straight director, William Friedkin… During filming, Friedkin showed Crowley a novel he wanted to make into a movie, Cruising by Gerald Walker. Crowley disliked the story of a cop who goes undercover in the gay S&M scene to discover a gay serial killer. Crowley told Friedkin what he thought and assumed that nothing would come of the project. Ten years later, however, Friedkin made Cruising, which starred Al Pacino, and triggered a string of protests. Mart Crowley, conversation with the author, December 13, 2009.

  “The story is about self-destruction…. Katie Kelly, “The ‘Boys’ Are Having…,” New York Times.

  “What’s more boring than a queen doing a Judy Garland imitation?… Crowley, Boys in the Band, 8. There’s a rumor that the title came from a line of dialogue in A Star Is Born, but Crowley says he was thinking only of a standard line from the Big Band era: “Let’s all have a round of applause for the boys in the band.” Mart Crowley, commentary, The Boys in the Band, directed by William Friedkin (1970; Hollywood: Paramount Home Entertainment, 2008), DVD.

  “Is this supposed to be funny?” Edmund White, City Boy (New York: Bloomsbury U.S.A., 2009), 20.

  “[A] mammoth paddy wagon as big as a school bus, pulled up to the Wall…. Edmund White, “Letter to Ann and Alfred Corn, July 8, 1969,” The Violet Quill Reader, ed. David Bergman (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1994), 1–2.

  “We’re one of the largest minorities in the country… Quoted in Martin Duberman, Stonewall, 208.

  “Who knows what will happen… Edmund White, “Letter,” 3.

  More people heard about Boys than heard about Stonewall that first year. Crowley followed Boys with A Breeze from the Gulf in 1973, an autobiographical play about two alcoholic parents and their gay son. All three protagonists love each other deeply, but love only leaves them more vulnerable to one another. It’s a wonderful play and it received excellent reviews, but it never found an audience. Perhaps nobody wanted to hear a story where straight people are the wounded ones watched over by a gay son who is sane and grounded.

  Thirty years after Boys in the Band, Crowley wrote a sequel, The Men from the Boys. The old friends are still friends and they get together for a funeral. Larry has died, though not from AIDS. Three new characters, a trio of younger gay men, are present to show how gay life has and hasn’t changed. It’s a quiet, ruminative play with much talk about love and death, like Plato’s Symposium set in an East Side duplex.

  CHAPTER 11. OLD AND YOUNG

  “Does it date?” Christopher Isherwood, Christopher and His Kind (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1976), 126.

  “Maurice, bad as it is,… Marvin Mudrick, Books Are Not Life, But Then What Is? (New York: Oxford University Press, 1979), 278.

  “Elliott, the hairdresser of a lady friend of mine… Joseph Epstein, “Homo/Hetero: The Struggle for Sexual Identity,” Harper’s, September 1970, 49.

  “If I had the power to do so, I would wish homosexuality off the face of this earth… Ibid., 51.

  “Nothing they could ever do would make me sadder… Ibid.

  The
y gave the staff coffee and doughnuts… Arnie Kantrowitz, e-mail message to the author, January 15, 2010. Kantrowitz described the staff, with the exception of Decter, as “bemused but not unfriendly. They seemed to enjoy the break in the routine.” There’s also a very funny account in Dancing the Gay Lib Blues by Arthur Bell (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1971) 131–135.

  “The homosexual influence in Forster’s other novels… Joseph Epstein, New York Times Book Review, October 10, 1971, 24.

  “homosexual high jinks” Ibid., 25.

  “I slept through the Sixties… Tennessee Williams, Memoirs; quoted in Gore Vidal, Matters of Fact and Fiction, 135.

  “Who really gives a damn that Tennessee Williams has finally admitted… Lee Barton, New York Times, January 23, 1972; quoted in Paller, Gentlemen Callers, 192. (Most quotes in this section about Williams were brought to my attention by Paller.)

  “I feel sorry for the author… Arthur Bell, Village Voice, February 24, 1972; quoted in Paller, 192.

  “You helped me free myself but I can see that you are not free.” Michael Silverstein, “An Open Letter to Tennessee Williams,” Gay Sunshine, October 1971; reprinted in Out of the Closets: Voices of Gay Liberation, ed. Karla Jay and Allen Young (New York: New York University Press, 1992), 69.

  “a ridiculous weakness… like bedwetting.” “Christopher Isherwood Interview” by Winston Leyland from Gay Sunshine Interviews, reprinted in Conversations with Christopher Isherwood, ed. James Berg and Chris Freeman (Jackson: University of Mississippi Press, 2001), 103.

  “I never do see much point in fag-mags—” Quoted in Kaplan, Gore Vidal, 667.

  “Fortunately our people have always preferred legend to reality… Gore Vidal, Burr (New York: Modern Library, 1998), 158.

  “Gore has written a hilarious review of Memoirs…” Five O’Clock Angel, 338.

  “a chunky, paunchy, booze-puffed runt… Truman Capote, Answered Prayers: The Unfinished Novel (New York: Random House, 1986), 58.

  Donald Windham was housesitting in Capote’s UN Plaza apartment in 1970… Windham, Lost Friendships, 96.

  “just picked Gore up and carried him to the door…” Playgirl, September 1975, quoted in Kaplan, Gore Vidal, 71. The story is false but not completely absurd. Arthur Schlesinger wrote about the night in his journals at the time of the lawsuit. He remembered how he and George Plimpton escorted a very drunk Vidal from the party before he got into a fistfight over politics with lawyer Lem Billings, also drunk. They hailed a cab and rode with Vidal back to his hotel, said good-bye to him in the lobby, and returned to the White House. Schlesinger thought it wrong for Vidal to sue Capote when Capote’s career was in such a bad place. Arthur Schlesinger, Journals 1952–2000 (New York: Penguin Press, 2007), 407–408.

  ranted at length about the Jewish critics… Victor Bumbalo, conversation with the author, February 2010.

  its annual circulation had risen to 60,000… This and all circulation figures come from Rodger Streitmatter, Unspeakable: The Rise of the Gay and Lesbian Press in America (Boston: Faber & Faber, 1995), 185.

  Patricia Nell Warren, an editor at Reader’s Digest who had divorced her husband and come out as a lesbian… Jay Parini, ed., American Writers, Supplement XX (Detroit: Charles Scribner’s Son, 2010), 259–260.

  Giovanni’s Room… named after the Baldwin novel… Ed Hermance, conversation with the author, October 2009.

  “For Christopher, Berlin meant Boys.” Christopher Isherwood, Christopher and His Kind, 2.

  “At first I didn’t think about Heinz at all… Ibid., 282.

  “He is already living in the city where you will settle… Ibid., 339.

  “There is no excess in an Isherwood sentence… Gore Vidal, “Christopher Isherwood’s Kind,” The Second American Revolution, 47. Earlier on the same page, Vidal talks about Isherwood’s beliefs: “Lately he has become a militant spokesman of Gay Liberation. If his defense of Christopher’s kind is sometimes shrill… well, there is a good deal to be shrill about in a society so deeply and so mindlessly homophobic.”

  “Suppose, Christopher now said to himself,… Isherwood, Christopher and His Kind, 335. Isherwood wrote an earlier version of this argument with himself in Down There on a Visit, with the fictional Waldemar standing in for Heinz. The argument is more personal, and poignant, when we know it’s a lover and not just a friend.

  “What had actually begun to surface in his muddled mind… Ibid., 336.

  “My tits are on fire” Quoted in Parker, Isherwood, 798.

  “They’re beginning to believe that Christopher Street is named after you.” Ibid., 797.

  CHAPTER 12. LOVE SONGS

  “Perhaps it is not possible to fit into American Life… Harold Rosenberg, “Death in the Wilderness, in The Tradition of the New (New York: Horizon Press, 1960), 258. The quote continues: “In America everything is a possibility or it is a sham. You cannot fit into American life except as a ‘camp.’ If American intellectuals accepted [Daniel] Bell’s endism and agreed that possibility is an illusion and reality ‘the routines of living,’ their choice would be either the “camp” unto death or their traditional solution: expatriation.” It’s a slippery set of ideas, but the interesting point here is that “camp” was already being discussed in 1961, three years before Susan Sontag publicized it.

  “his roommate of the past thirteen years.” Jane Kramer, Allen Ginsberg in America (New York: Random House, 1969), 22.

  “Why do you eat… Allen Ginsberg, Selected Poems 1947–1995 (New York: HarperCollins, 1996), 305.

  “I stare into my head… Ibid., 190.

  “I want to be there in your garden party… Ibid.

  “To live in fear of matriarchal disapproval, all you have to be is gay and not necessarily young… Joe LeSueur, Digressions on Some Poems by Frank O’Hara, 226.

  “Having a Coke with You… Frank O’Hara, “Having a Coke with You,” Selected Poems, 194.

  “It was founded by me after lunch with LeRoi Jones… Frank O’Hara, “Personism: A Manifesto,” Yugen, 1961; reprinted in Selected Poems, 248.

  “I never doubted that almost any poem I wrote… James Merrill, A Different Person (New York: Knopf, 1993), 141.

  “Oh, God, I left out the human feeling!” Quoted in White, City Boy, 130.

  “The Book of a Thousand and One Evenings Spent… James Merrill, Divine Comedies (New York: Atheneum, 1976), 48.

  “(Any reflecting surface worked for him… Ibid., 50.

  “LONG B4 THE FORTUNATE CONJUNCTION,” Ibid., 59.

  “There’s a phrase… Ibid., 74.

  She reports how Merrill set his left hand on the teacup… Alison Lurie, Familiar Spirits (New York: Viking, 2001), 90–92.

  “It is the lesbian in every woman who is compelled… Adrienne Rich, “It Is the Lesbian in Us,” On Lies, Secrets, and Silence: Selected Prose 1966–1978 (New York: Norton, 1979), 200–201.

  “The more I live the more I think… Adrienne Rich, “Twenty-one Love Poems,” The Dream of a Common Language (New York: Norton, 1978), 34.

  poem by poem, reader by reader. A special Poetry and Art issue of Christopher Street in October 1977 celebrated the gay presence in poetry, with several major poets publishing in a gay magazine for the first time: James Merrill, Richard Howard, Thom Gunn, James Schuyler, and a new writer, Paul Monette.

  CHAPTER 13. ANNUS MIRABILIS

  both are fond of hustlers. Years later, when White won the first Bill Whitehead Award for Lifetime Achievement, the rumor went out that he spent the prize money the night of the award by hiring hustlers for himself and his friends. “That’s a complete lie,” an acquaintance said. “Ed White has never shared a hustler in his life.”

  “generous helping of foolish jokes about homosexuality… Howard Taubman, New York Times, May 1, 1963.

  “He made you think that having sex with him… Victor Bumbalo, conversation with the author, February 2010.

  “such a representative life… Richard Canning, Gay Fiction Speaks: Conversations with Gay
Novelists (New York: Columbia University Press, 2001), 369.

  “I am probably his only typist who never had sex with Ed.” Patrick Merla, conversation with the author, January 2010.

  “I wonder what sort of an impression I might make… Edmund White, Forgetting Elena (New York: Penguin Books, 1981), 4.

  “a cultivated heterosexual woman in her sixties… Quoted in Stacy Schiff, Véra: Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov (New York: Random House, 1999), 316.

  “Should one of your friends drop by… Charles Silverstein and Edmund White, The Joy of Gay Sex (New York: Crown Publishers, 1977), 170.

  “At this point neither of you should succumb to sleep… Ibid., 102.

  “It is a word that makes little sense in gay life… Ibid., 178.

  “No need to tell you that in the midst of my own… Edmund White, Nocturnes for the King of Naples (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1978), 39.

  “ ‘But I have no pity to offer… Ibid., 147.

  “I didn’t care who knew I was gay… Philip Gambone, Something Inside: Conversations with Gay Writers (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1999), 187. Holleran remained in the closet of his double identity. When he was interviewed by Publishers Weekly for Nights in Aruba in 1983, he admitted “Holleran” was a pseudonym but did not give his real name. Meanwhile his mother found out he was a published writer when a neighbor read Aruba and recognized the parents. (So what did Holleran tell her?) He later said he loved “the little envelope of anonymity and a little envelope of distance… There’s something very embarrassing about writing” (187).

  “Before you fuck yourself to death… Larry Kramer, Faggots (New York: Random House, 1978), 316.

  “It got very hot that summer… Andrew Holleran, Dancer from the Dance (New York: William Morrow, 1978), 194–195.

  “Looking for love… Ibid., 142–143.

  Faggots sold very well: 40,000 in hardcover and 300,000 in paper. Stephen Holden, “Larry Kramer’s Update on the War at Home,” New York Times, October 9, 1988. http://query.nytimes.com/search/alternate/query?query=stephen+holden+%22faggots%22&st=fromcse.