Jim Elledge

A history of gay Chicago told through the stories of queer men who left a record of their sexual activities in the Second City, this book paints a vivid picture of the neighborhoods where they congregated while revealing their complex lives. Some, such as reporter John Wing, were public figures. Others, like Henry Gerber, who created the first "homophile" organization in the United States, were practically invisible to their contemporaries. But their stories are all riveting. Female impersonators and striptease artists Quincy de Lang and George Quinn were arrested and put on trial at the behest of a leader of Chicago's anti-"indecency" movement. African American ragtime pianist Tony Jackson's most famous song, "Pretty Baby," was written about one of his male lovers. Alfred Kinsey's explorations of the city's netherworld changed the future of American sexuality while confirming his own queer proclivities. What emerges from The Boys of Fairy Town is a complex portrait and a virtually unknown history of one of the most vibrant cities in the United States.

Sodomites, Female Impersonators, Third-sexers, Pansies, Queers, and Sex Morons in Chicago's First Century

The Boys of Fairy Town

An evaluation of the life, art and psyche of the controversial recluse whose prolific creative achievements were discovered after his death analyzes his existence as a damaged man in hiding from the societal fallout of his gay orientation, in a portrait complemented by full-color art reproductions.

The Tragic Life of an Outsider Artist

Henry Darger, Throwaway Boy

A collection of articles explores the role of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered persons in shaping American popular culture from the late 1800s to the present.

Queers in American Popular Culture

This three-volume collection of essays reveals the widespread existence of queer men and women in American popular culture, and showcases their important yet little-known role in shaping our society over the last 120 years. The virtually unknown existence of gay, bisexual, and queer men and women in American popular culture from the late 1800s through the present day is a fascinating topic for many readers, regardless of their own orientation. Whether it's the father of bodybuilding, famous closeted entertainers or sports stars, or the leading characters in current television shows and films, queer men and women have changed the face of American popular culture and society for over a century. Ironically, most of the fascinating information, anecdotes, and revealing facts about well-known figures in American culture are virtually unknown to the typical U.S. citizen. Elledge's Queers in American Popular Culture covers a wide variety of historical and current topics that documents how the queer community has been—and continues to be—one of the most significant shapers of American popular culture. Currently, no other book covers queer topics in American popular culture as broadly as this text.

[3 volumes]

Gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered persons were at the center of a large body of myths in which they played important roles, from creators of earth and all life to heroes (male and female) in battle. From approximately 160 extant Native American myths, Jim Elledge has selected all those which would be most readily identifiable by contemporary readers as dealing with gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered individuals, as well as those which focus on them as prominent, if not main, characters in the myths. He has located a literature that existed long before the European colonization of North America and asserts that, not only does North American literature begin with the oral traditions of Native Americans, the beginning of North American literature includes gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender literature in the form of these and other myths.

An Anthology

Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Myths from the Arapaho to the Zuñi

Henry Gerber was the father of American gay liberation. Born in 1892 in Germany, Henry Gerber was expelled from school as a boy and lost several jobs as a young man because of his homosexual activities. He emigrated to the United States and enlisted in the army for employment. After his release, he explored Chicago's gay subculture: cruising Bughouse Square, getting arrested for "disorderly conduct," and falling in love. He was institutionalized for being gay, branded an "enemy alien" at the end of World War I, and given a choice: to rejoin the army or be imprisoned in a federal penitentiary. Gerber re-enlisted and was sent to Germany in 1920. In Berlin, he discovered a vibrant gay rights movement, which made him vow to advocate for the rights of gay men at home. He founded the Society for Human Rights, the first legally recognized US gay-rights organization, on December 10, 1924. When police caught wind of it, he and two members were arrested. He lost his job, went to court three times, and went bankrupt. Released, he moved to New York, disheartened. Later in life, he joined the DC chapter of the Mattachine Society, a gay-rights advocacy group founded by Harry Hay who had heard of Gerber's group, leading him to found Mattachine. An Angel in Sodom is the first and long overdue biography of the founder of the first US gay rights organization.

Henry Gerber and the Birth of the Gay Rights Movement

An Angel in Sodom

An overview of homosexual themed poetry in America, from early pre-colonial times to the end of World War II features works by Hart Crane, Christopher Isherwood, Walt Whitman, Mercedes De Acosta, Emily Dickinson, Djuna Barnes, Sara Teasdale, John Erskine, Marsden Hartley, and many others. Simultaneous.

Queer Poetry in America to the End of World War II

Masquerade

David Groff

Who’s Yer Daddy? offers readers of gay male literature a keen and engaging journey. In this anthology, thirty-nine gay authors discuss individuals who have influenced them—their inspirational “daddies.” The essayists include fiction writers, poets, and performance artists, both honored masters of contemporary literature and those just beginning to blaze their own trails. They find their artistic ancestry among not only literary icons—Walt Whitman, Oscar Wilde, André Gide, Frank O’Hara, James Baldwin, Edmund White—but also a roster of figures whose creative territories are startlingly wide and vital, from Botticelli to Bette Midler to Captain Kirk. Some writers chronicle an entire tribal council of mentors; others describe a transformative encounter with a particular individual, including teachers and friends whose guidance or example cracked open their artistic selves. Perhaps most moving are the handful of writers who answered the question literally, writing intimately of their own fathers and their literary inheritance. This rich volume presents intriguing insights into the contemporary gay literary aesthetic. Winner, LGBT Nonfiction Anthology, Lambda Literary Awards

Gay Writers Celebrate Their Mentors and Forerunners

Who’s Yer Daddy?

A wonderful and essential collection of reviews and essays (many from now-defunct small magazines) on the poetry, as well as the prose and plays, of the great poet of the New York school, who died in 1966 at the age of 40. No index. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

To be True to a City

Frank O'Hara

The author gives us a series of Anthologies anchored by the novel, A Season of Dishonor. This is the final punctuation mark to the trilogy formed by Elledge’s narratives, To Go Forth in the Midst of Wolves and To Go With Rage. Dishonor is a biographical rendition of the life and times of Margo Winters as she faces the wrath of Senator Joseph McCarthy’s anti-communist tirades during the early ‘50s and follows the path toward her eventual attainment of religious sanctity. This title is followed by three novellas: The Color of Evil, a portrayal detailing the plight of two abused women struggling to break away from overpowering and tormenting men who have plagued their lives. Together they devise a plan to free themselves from this hostile environment and begin life again on their own terms. Of Bread and Wine and Other Things, centers on the plight of a Hispanic man who, after having a heart attack, attends Mass for the first time in years and mentally reviews his life’s journey. The Final Rape of Deirdre Sullivan, a story taking place during the “Troubles” in Northern Ireland in the ‘60s and a young girl’s effort to bring conciliation to this bloody conflict. The rape of the girl is analogous to the rape of Ireland by those troubles. These centerpieces are followed by Muses Lost and Found, a collection of short stories following various genres ranging from the farcical, as described in A Wake for Willie Horse, to a personal journey in California Dreaming, and then the sublime as depicted in Hitching a Ride with Lazarus. You cannot read A Patchwork of Prose and not be affected by the stories and their characters. An engrossing series of scenarios giving a rich, multilayered reading experience.

A Patchwork of Prose And Other Loose Ends

Susan Swartwout

"What a great premise for an anthology! And it succeeds, both in its celebration of our crazy culture and its fascinating analysis, through the poems, of popular myths that have stood the test of time." —Kliatt In the past few decades, poetry about and around popular culture has become a very hip contemporary art form. ÂReal Things is a collection of over 150 poems by more than 130 poets who themselves represent the cultural diversity of the United States. With subjects ranging from the influence of Mickey Mouse on child-raising to the relationship of Barbie to sex in America, from the societal effects of the movie Psycho to our fascination with dirty politics and Ralph Kramden, the poems in this anthology question and celebrate the attitudes that our society shares.

An Anthology of Popular Culture in American Poetry

Real Things

A collection of poetry about rock music includes such pieces as "Jungle Music," "Meet the Supremes," "Sound Systems," "American Bandstand," and "Elegy for Elvis"

Jim Elledge

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