Esther Newton

Interviews with female impersonators reveal the social, cultural, and economic aspects of their occupation and the subculture of the homosexual transvestite.

Female Impersonators in America

Mother Camp

CHERRY GROVE FIRE ISLA

First published in 1993, the award-winning Cherry Grove, Fire Island tells the story of the extraordinary gay and lesbian resort community near New York City. This new paperback edition includes a new preface by the author.

Sixty Years in America’s First Gay and Lesbian Town

Cherry Grove, Fire Island

Esther Newton--a pioneer figure in gay and lesbian studies--tells the compelling and disarming story of her struggle to write, teach, and find love, all while coming to terms with her lesbian identity during one of the worst periods of homophobic persecution in the twentieth century.

A Memoir

My Butch Career

A collection of essays by a pioneering queer anthropologist.

Personal Essays, Public Ideas

Margaret Mead Made Me Gay

Margaret Mead Made Me Gay is the intellectual autobiography of cultural anthropologist Esther Newton, a pioneer in gay and lesbian studies. Chronicling the development of her ideas from the excitement of early feminism in the 1960s to friendly critiques of queer theory in the 1990s, this collection covers a range of topics such as why we need more precise sexual vocabularies, why there have been fewer women doing drag than men, and how academia can make itself more hospitable to queers. It brings together such classics as “The Mythic Mannish Lesbian” and “Dick(less) Tracy and the Homecoming Queen” with entirely new work such as “Theater: Gay Anti-Church.” Newton’s provocative essays detail a queer academic career while offering a behind-the-scenes view of academic homophobia. In four sections that correspond to major periods and interests in her life—”Drag and Camp,” “Lesbian-Feminism,” “Butch,” and “Queer Anthropology”—the volume reflects her successful struggle to create a body of work that uses cultural anthropology to better understand gender oppression, early feminism, theatricality and performance, and the sexual and erotic dimensions of fieldwork. Combining personal, theoretical, and ethnographic perspectives, Margaret Mead Made Me Gay also includes photographs from Newton’s personal and professional life. With wise and revealing discussions of the complex relations between experience and philosophy, the personal and the political, and identities and practices, Margaret Mead Made Me Gay is important for anyone interested in the birth and growth of gay and lesbian studies.

Freelance writer and The Writers Bureau tutor, Esther Newton brings twelve of her award winning short stories together in a collection for the first time. Prepare to be on the edge of your seat one moment as a woman is held hostage at gunpoint, smiling the next at a tale of a Fairy Godmother with a difference, before rooting for a young girl who's cornered by a school bully and then reaching for the tissues, along with a mother whose daughter has been missing for days.'The Siege and Other Award Winning Stories' whisks you away on an exciting expedition of ups and downs. There's drama, action, humour, intrigue and plenty of emotion to take you from one story straight into the next.The collection includes prize winning short stories from Writing Magazine, Writers' News, The Global Short Story and Ouze Valley Writers competitions, amongst others.

Esther Newton

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