Gay Lives [Hardcover]

Robert Aldrich (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2012 | ISBN-10: 0500251908 | ISBN-13: 978-0500251904 | Edition: 1

A comprehensive biographical survey from ancient Chinese courtiers to pioneers of gay liberation in the twenty-first century, from the unknowable relationships of the distant past to the frankest affirmations of modern sexual identity.

The exploits of the famous never cease to captivate our imaginations—rulers, artists, explorers, and all the great personalities of history. Yet many quieter lives also have the ability to impress, to teach us something about the remarkable qualities of human nature.

In this book, Robert Aldrich presents a fascinating portrait of gay men and women throughout history that reveals the full diversity of gay lives as lived in their times. He gives a voice to more than seventy people from around the world and all walks of life, from poets, philosophers, and artists to radicals and activists. Along with celebrated names such as Michelangelo, Frederick the Great, and Harvey Milk are lesser-known but no less inspiring individuals: two men of ancient Egypt whose lives were closely linked over four thousand years ago; a Renaissance nun who blurred the boundaries between spiritual and physical love; and “Aimée” and “Jaguar,” whose love defied the death camps of wartime Germany.

Often colorful, occasionally tragic, but all in some way extraordinary, these life stories reflect—and have sometimes helped to shape—contemporary attitudes toward same-sex intimacy.

56 color, 72 b&w

Editorial Reviews

Review

“While outlining the lives of those concerned, the articles seem to capture the essence of a person and the era, culture, or society that person embodies… This lavishly illustrated, praiseworthy book deserves to be widely read.” (Choice )

“While none of the pieces here is more than a few pages long, each of them feels like the tip of an information iceberg.” (Passport Magazine )

“Nicely illustrated with a good selection of black-and-white and full-color photographs and drawings.” (OutSmart )

“Highly recommended, for reference, or plain, enjoyable reading.” (Lavender Magazine )

“…the gay history book that needs to be read.” (Instinct )

About the Author

Robert Aldrich is Professor of European History at the University of Sydney. He is the author of The Seduction of the Mediterranean and Colonialism and Homosexuality and edited Gay Life and Culture.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Thames & Hudson; 1 edition (April 1, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0500251908
• ISBN-13: 978-0500251904
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #682,848 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars An Erudite and Immensely Entertaining Book May 17, 2012

By Grady Harp HALL OF FAMETOP 50 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

Robert Aldrich has discovered a way in which to educate the public about the history of same sex relationships and the influence of 'outsiders to society' form Egyptian times to the present. Aldrich, a professor of European History at the University of Sydney, writes not only with elegance but also with a fine tenor of wit that makes reading this exploration of history both equal to the pleasure of enjoying a fine novel as well as a solid well documented history resource. His approach is not one of simply tracing all known homosexual men and women from as far back as we have recorded history: there have been many books that provide that information. Instead Aldrich states in his introduction, 'The figures in this volume illustrate the ways in which those who felt an attraction to those of the same sex lived out their desires across time and around the world. Its purpose is not to offer a compendium of the lives of the 'greatest gays', not to provide an encyclopedic survey of the different sexual types identified by historians, anthropologists and other specialists. It represents, rather, a richly diverse congregation of figures, whose lives point up the different personal and social experiences of homosexuality through the ages. Some individuals are well known, some less well known, and none is still living. A particular effort has been made to embrace lives form outside Europe: an Arabic painter; a Sri Lankan and a Japanese photographer; a South African activist; a Jamaican novelist; a Vietnamese poet. Other figures - a nun, a priest, a military officer, a criminal - were chosen to show homosexual people in a variety of professional callings. Viewed together, their stories uncover the fashions in which sexual diversity has been expressed, and the connections between private lives and public life - between individuals and their specific historical and cultural environments.'

What follows in this very richly produced (Thames & Hudson) is a series of brief mini-biographies accompanied by portraits - photographs when available, painted portraits of those who lived before the invention of the camera - of some fascinating figures form the past and present. Beginning with the Egyptian lovers Khnumhotep and Niankhkhnum (2400 BC) and flowing through history, touching on the Biblical David and Jonathan, Socrates, Hadrian and Antinous, through Michelangelo, Michael Sweerts, Frederick the Great, Walt Whitman, EM Forster, André Gide, Christopher Isherwood, Oscar Wilde, Wilhelm von Gloeden, Diaghilev, composer Karol Szymanowski, Anne Lister, Carson McCullers, Federico García Lorca, TE Lawrence, Eugène Jansson, Bhupen Khakhar, Constatine Cavafy, Yukio Mishima, Tamotsu Yato, Cardinal Newman, Yves Saint Laurent, Rosa Bonheur, Harvey Milk, Shi Pei Pu, Reinaldo Arenas and Edmund Backhouse to mention only a few in this range of poets, philosophers, artists, radicals and activists. The accompanying illustrations of these people are in both black and white and in richly produced color.

This is the book that should be included in social studies in classrooms in high schools and colleges, and the timing of this release of the book could not be more auspicious. Highly recommended on every level. Grady Harp, May 12

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars An Enlightening Browse through Gay History June 27, 2012

By Prospero

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I'm a gay man who only recently decided to come out of the closet in his late forties. I'm ashamed to admit how long it took me to break through all of my own prejudices against the gay community.
The closet is a place where most of us languish out of fear. Yes, that fear is mostly about the reactions we will receive from our family and friends when we finally do find the courage to come out. But for me, and I think for some other closeted gay people, we hesitate to come out because we have allowed the straight world's prejudices to color our own view of gay people.
My life began to change when I came to know wonderful, supportive people in the gay community who loved and accepted me. I came to see the simple value and dignity of their lives and realized that, after years of confusion and concealment, I could finally find a place in their world and proudly claim my true identity.
"Gay Lives" is a wonderful, introduction to a wide palate of Gay men and women from throughout human history. For those who are contemplating coming out, or for those who have been out for years, these stories are a source of enlightenment and inspiration. I felt a sense of recognition as I read many of these brief biographies.
In addition, the book gives Gay people a good reason to feel proud. The achievements of these men and women, from every field of human endeavor, prove that the self-discovery involved in coming to terms with our sexual identities can also release and engender a well-spring of powerful creativity. The world in which we live is a better, brighter, and livelier place because of the Gay Lives described here!
The book is also great for browsing. Open to any page and you will encounter a memorable personality.

2.0 out of 5 stars Tainted by bisexual erasure February 6, 2013

By Marauder The Slash Nymph

Format:Hardcover

Imagine a zoologist who wants to write a book about herbivores. He picks several animals who only eat plants, but also several who eat plants and meat, despite the fact that these animals are correctly termed omnivores. Who cares if they also eat meat? The book is called "Herbivores," damn it, and they're going to be herbivores. Now imagine a history professor who wants to write a book about famous gay people. He picks several who were gay, but also several who were attracted to both men and women, despite the fact that these people are correctly termed bisexual. The book is called "Gay Lives," damn it, and they're going to be gay. That's this book.

"Gay Lives" covers figures from a wide variety of time periods and places and has nice illustrations, but Aldrich's determination to classify figures who were attracted to both men and women as universally gay or lesbian is so narrow as to be almost insulting. Consider his section about Carson McCullers, who, according to the book, was married twice to the same man and had "liasons with other men." "Yet many in New York," Aldrich tells us, "considered McCullers lesbian in her temperament and her desires; she sometimes dressed in men's clothes and, indeed, told one friend that, metaphorically, she had been born a man." Maybe she thought she had been metaphorically born a man, but it doesn't sound as though that metaphorical man was a straight man. If Carson McCullers had relationships with both men and women and seems to have been attracted to both, why not just be accurate and term her bisexual? Or, if Aldrich wanted his book to be about people who were definitely homosexual and not bisexual, why not leave McCullers out? Aldrich's treatment of McCullers is the most egregious example of apparently bisexual figures deemed gay, but not the only one; he also does his best to ignore the opposite-sex connections of Katherine Philips, Suzy Solidor and others. He does briefly refer to Maximilian von Schwartzkoppen as bisexual, but only after referring to him as homosexual several times first.

I've read a number of books that contain brief summaries of the lives of famous GLBT people, and in general, "Gay Lives" doesn't rise above the pack. Indeed, Aldrich sometimes puts so much focus on the romantic/sexual lives of his subjects that he doesn't give enough detail as to why they became famous in the first place. I'm a fan of E. M. Forster, but if I'd never heard of him before reading "Gay Lives," I'd come away knowing a lot about his boyfriends and only two titles of books he wrote. The main worth of the book lies in its sheer expanse and range of historical figures, not an insignificant virtue. Still, Aldrich's bisexual erasure is so blatant and offensive that I can't recommend this book. "Acknowledge us, oh God, before the whole world. Give us also the right to our existence!" Radclyffe Hall wrote in "The Well of Loneliness." In Aldrich's world, it seems, bisexual people should be hardly acknowledged and have little right to existence.