The Gay 100 [Paperback]

Paul Russell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2002 | ISBN-10: 0758201001 | ISBN-13: 978-0758201003

Spanning the past 2400 years, Paul Russell selects and ranks the 100 gay individuals--writers, thinkers, artists, musicians, military leaders, politicians, and gay rights activists--who have had the greatest effect on human history. Illustrated with photographs, prints, and drawings.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

From Socrates and Sappho to Madonna and activist/journalist Michelangelo Signorile, this listing profiles those who have profoundly shaped gay and lesbian culture-and culture in general: the Amazons, 14th-century Persian poet Hafiz, Proust, Michel Foucault, professional provocateur Quentin Crisp and so on. Aside from an equivocal portrait of Rock Hudson, Russell (The Salt Point) omits figures whose undeniable influence was less benign, a strategy that misfires. Sigmund Freud, who wrote extensively about sexuality, is out, but Magnus Hirschfeld and Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, two obscure homophilic contemporaries of his, are in. Yet quibbling with the choices here-why Holly Near but not k.d. lang, the Patrons of Stonewall but not the Daughters of Bilitis?-is as pleasurable as reading Rusell's incisive essays. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 386 pages
• Publisher: Kensington Books (March 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0758201001
• ISBN-13: 978-0758201003
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 6.9 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #734,581 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars very interesting book, but....., August 22, 2001

By 

SEBASTIANVS "libra64" (TOKYO Japan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Gay 100 Use 0758201001 (Paperback)

This is a very readable and useful book, I appreciate it. However, almost of all people in the book are the westerners with few exception ;( Mishima Yukio and Hafez ). Therefore, you cannot find famous Arabian, Persian, Turkish, Indian, Chinese, Japanese gay & lesbian people. And in the book, there do not exist important figures like Platon, Epameinondas, Harmodios and Aristogeiton et al. In addition , even Jean Cocteau, Ludwig 2nd , Truman Capote, Somerset Maugham, and Luchino Visconti also are absent.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Starting Primer..., June 13, 2002

By 

A Customer - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Gay 100 (Paperback)

"There is no doubt that if it became widely known _who are_ the Uranians, the world would be astonished to find so many of its great or leading men among< them."
-- Edward Carpenter, 1908. [from book-- "Uranian" referring to one of the titles associated with Aphrodite, or "the heavenly Aphrodite," who was supposed to be the patroness and inspirer of love between males, as mentioned in Plato's _Symposium_.]
This volume is an excellent "beginners" guide to knowledge of the well known, and not so well known, gays, bisexuals, and lesbians in history. The members of this group, each, has 3 or more pages devoted to his or her life and influence on culture. As the author, Paul Russell, states: "Whether tangible or intangible, evidence that a person's legacy continues in the world, luminous and alive, is what I have sought in attempting to gauge the extent of his or her influence. By influence, then, I mean the ability to effect change, to reconfigure the parameters, to leave in one's wake
a set of challenged assumptions and transformed lives. For the purposes of this particular ranking of influence, I have asked myself a twofold question: How has the individual in question, specifically as a gay man or lesbian, contributred both to history in general and to gay/lesbian identity in particular?" Thus, there are persons included from all areas of influence: philosophers, poets, playwrights, scientists, novelists, social reformers, female liberationists and equal status advocates, generals, rulers and emperors, painters, sculptors, composers, ballet dancers and impresarios, film directors, actors, actresses, and others.
This is not a sensationalist work, nor is it meant as a scholarly study. The lives are interesting, informative, and upbeat -- but not glitzy or poorly written. The person who is very knowlegable about gay history and contributions may find some notable omissions (several composers are listed in one of the lives, but they do not have sections of their own in the volume)-- others, with less knowledge will find the work a very helpful beginner's informative guide.
There are a few inclusions which some might find questionable -- or troubling to themselves -- as well as some omissions which might cause the same response. Some of the perhaps "troubling" ones (but the author explains the reason for their inclusions within the sections) are: the inclusion of Socrates (who wrote nothing), but not Plato (who wrote the _Dialogues_ in which Socrates gives voice to his thoughts), St. Augustine, Emily Dickinson, David and Jonathan (from the Bible, though many writers through the centuries have emphasized the phrase from Samuel II, "your love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women" as speaking of a special type of male bonding beyond mere friendship), and perhaps a few others. The best words to sum up the value of the work come from the author himself in the "Introduction": "One of the ways by which gay men and lesbians have survived through the centuries is by recognizing one another in the various disguises we have worn. We have survived on the consolation of knowing there were others like ourselves. We have been given courage by the rare example of someone like ourselves who has burned brightly in the imagination. We have been fed by the creative dreams and visions of our comrades, widely scattered and persecuted and all but silenced
though they may be. The men and women whose names were secretly whispered, repeated, cherished as homosexual helped create and sustain that amorphous phenomenon we know today as gay culture. These people have signaled who we were, who we might one day be. Their example has answered the world's calumny, has put the lies and stereotypes to rout, has enhanced our sense of possiblity." -- Paul Russell.