The Gay Metropolis [Paperback]

Charles Kaiser (Author)

Book Description

Series: Harvest Book | Publication Date: September 10, 1998

This “fascinating and fabulous oral history”(Vanity Fair), “both serious and gossipy”(New York Times), chronicles gay life in New York City-and americanca-since 1945. “Irresistible” (Out). Black-and-white photographs.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Charles Kaiser's The Gay Metropolis: 1940-1996, a history of gay life centered in New York, is packed with tales of writers and literature. Kaiser provides a kaleidoscope of details and stories that create a vision of how gay people lived, and illuminates a culture that had enormous influence on both New York and American society. Kaiser writes about such luminaries as Gore Vidal, Edward Albee, Truman Capote, and James Baldwin, but the real drive of The Gay Metropolis is how gay art and writings transformed the lives of everyday gay people. By the end of the book it is clear that gay artistic influence has transformed the American metropolis for both heterosexuals and homosexuals. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Journalist Kaiser (1968 in America, LJ 10/15/88) explores how postwar New York City "became the literal gay metropolis for hundreds of thousands of immigrants from within and without the United States" and the city's role in this panorama of American gay social history. Beginning on the eve of World War II, the book depicts each decade via a series of oral histories that present a penetrating portrait of gay life in New York and provide context to the historical events that shaped that life. Kaiser's focus omits some crucial events: the murder of Harvey Milk in San Francisco is barely mentioned; and although a few women are interviewed, lesbians get short shrift. But these are minor caveats to an otherwise superb chronicle of the forces that have molded queer lives, and American society in general, for six decades. Kaiser achieves remarkable coherence and comprehensiveness; highly recommended for all gay/lesbian studies and American history collections.
-?Richard Violette, Social Law Lib., Boston
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books (September 10, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0156006170
• ISBN-13: 978-0156006170
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,785,087 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, March 22, 1998

By 

Joyce Kaufman (Sunrise, Fl USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Gay Metropolis (Hardcover)

I was one of the several fortunate students to be present at your lecture and discussion this year at Nova Center. I found the topic most interesting, and your approach to this very controversial subject made me want to read and learn more about the "Gay Metropolis." Much of my family is from New York, but the prevalence of such a large homosexual community went relatively unnoticed during my visits there. Perhaps my family attempted to shield me from the realities of the world, but your discussion certainly opened my eyes. I personally enjoy historical accounts more than fictional novels, and your book was certainly filled with personal statements and interviews with people. From what I have read thus far, I have learned that the gay community has remained relatively stable from 1940 to 1996, but its level of exposure has altered dramatically with the times. The lifestyle was basically unacceptable by many social standards during the 1950s, and most writers considered the subject taboo, with the exception of Alan Ginsberg of course. The 1960s seemed to present new opportunities for expression and a general liberal sentiment pervaded society though the counter-cultures of this decade. I personally enjoy the matter-of-fact and humorous manner in which you present the book. You did not intend of gathering sympathy for an oppressed group but rather managed to portray the ridiculous tendencies of society for their views on a significant portion of Americans. As you can tell by the length of this note, your book has had a tremendous impact on my view of this whole issue. I always knew that our society suppressed the gay communities, but the extent of this was always a mystery to me. The history books do not begin to explain the wide-spread nature of the problem, and the laws passed did not take immediate effect to relieve these people. It has taken decades and decades to transform the views of many people, and there is still much to be done. I believe your book was courageous step in the right direction.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The rainbow prism shines in Kaiser's book., February 11, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Lewis Whittington) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Gay Metropolis (Hardcover)

(The Fabulous) Gay (Life)

Straight America may always be schizophrenic in its relationship with the gay community, but as evidenced in Charles Kaiser's THE GAY METROPOLIS 1940-1996 (Houghton Mifflin Co., $27), no matter what the level of rejection, toleration or acceptance- there was no stopping us then and there is no stopping us now.

Kaiser tracts a burgeoning gay community, building as a collective force, at the national upheaval of America during WWII. What emerged in US cities at the time is a formidable, if rutterless minority. One that didn't seek to mirror the dominant straight society, but rather, was forced to be refracted by it, through an arbitrary sexually fuedalism.

Kaiser's sober, respectably researched and thoughly engrossing book is a light panoramic history of the indeflagitable homosexual urban culture in the US since that defining period. Interviewing many who where there then and here now, he draws sharp parallels and contrasts that show how far we have come and how far we have to go.

The gay mines have been swept and few exploded in THE GAY METROPOLIS- The least of them turns out to be scandalous exposes of celebrities and politicals in pre-liberation days. Although, a little bombe like the fact that House on Un-American Activities Sen. Joe McCarthy didn't rout out homosexuals (an institutionalized government tactic since WWI), along with his commies because he had sex with men, is delicious.

The real mushroom cloud in this book is that lesbian and gay men through sheer normalcy of will thrived in pre-Stonewall decades no matter what forces moved to oppress them. From fascinating personal remembrances of non-celebrities to the sublime tales of the infamous, Kaiser is expert in interfacing the infinite cross-culturalism that has molded gay life, for better or worse.

It's obvious from the assessable scope of this book that Kaiser has both the authoritative power of a historian and the storytelling flair of a great novelist. For instance, writing potently of the shrouded shenanigans of McCarthy aide Roy Cohn, New York columnist Joseph Alsop, J. Edgar Hoover, among other politically powerful closet queens, Kaiser de-sensationalizes the venomous gossip and instead disects the socio-political background that produced such internalized homophobia.

Another laudable method Kaiser employs is to regard all expressions of gay life worthy of even-handed reporting, from the (necessary) clandestine trysting places of toilets and salons to the complex socio-political structures of the gay-rights movement, the whole prism is in there.

Yet he always brings the antecdotes back to the point that, all along, no matter what the gay-bashing flavor of the year is, for gays, it is always about a civil-rights struggle-

"Gay Life in New York City in the 1950s was by turn oppressive and exhilarating, a world of persecution and vast possiblilities."

Kaiser tends to fawn over the importance of the arts and celebrity as pivotal touchstones and breakthroughs within the gay community. His observations are fascinating, even asute, you get the feeling that he should have written a separate book. He goes on about gay milestones in the theater, yet gives an almost one-dimensional reportage of the New York lesbian community.

He provides a great service, though, in drawing perspective on the impact of the crucial scientific research of the 1950s of homosexuality by Alfred Kinsey and Dr. Evelyn Hooker, whose studies, along with the personal experiences of gays, provided the solid architecture for a unified gay rebellion, movement, liberation and community infra-structure.

He also heralds the almost forgotten achievements of early gay militantcy, such as that of The Mattachine Society, the first known grassroots gay organization, which was founded by Harry Hay.

Although the vibracy of Kaiser's chapters on the 40s and 50s quiets a bit by the time we get into the closer ring of the latter decades, he writes movingly and accurately about the early years of the gay community's response to the AIDS epidemic.

With this book, the author can join the list of important gay historians like John Boswell, George Chauncey, Elizabeth Kennedy and Martin Duberman in liberating the invisible and silent past. Crisp, objective and colorful, Charles Kaiser has rescued from obscurity, the private and public lost stories that have weaved the tapestry of the still unfurling gay flag.

Lewis Whittington

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A marvelous grounding in popular history, March 16, 2000

By 

John J Whyte (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Gay Metropolis (Hardcover)

This book provides the reader with a clear, basic understandingof the grounding of popular opinion regarding gay life during the last50 years. While the history is too rich and detailed to be dealt within a book with this scope, this is a remarkably readable and valuable thumbnail of the currents of the public discourse on gay life, and should provide any reader with an understanding of how crucial and new gay civil rights really are. I only hope that it will inspire others whose experience of being gay is a relatively new one to realize how important political activism and community still is. Not only that, a very engaging read!