We Must Love One Another Or Die: The Life and Legacies of Larry Kramer (Hardcover)

~ Lawrence D. Mass (Editor) "LARRY KRAMER is a familiar figure to millions of people who watch television or read periodicals..." (more)
Key Phrases: gay theater, gay sin, gay playwrights, New York, Larry Kramer, Ned Weeks (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

In his multiple roles as pioneer AIDS activist (he was cofounder of Gay Men's Health Crisis and founder of ACT-UP), novelist (Faggots), playwright (The Normal Heart), and OscarR-nominated screenwriter (Women in Love), Kramer is one of the most important?and controversial?figures in contemporary gay America. Mass, another cofounder of GMHC, has edited a stimulating collection of essays by 22 writers who address Kramer's life, politics, and literary and theatrical careers. Contributors include fellow gay writers (Andrew Holleran, Tony Kushner, Chris Bram), academics (John D'Emilio, John Clum), fellow activists (Arnie Kantrowitz, Maxine Wolfe), acquaintances (Calvin Trillin), and even persons who have been attacked by Kramer (e.g., doctors and health officials). Mass also contributes an excellent interview and a perceptive (if somewhat self-centered) introduction. This is not a simple paean to Kramer; the texts touch on many central issues of the modern gay movement. As the first book devoted entirely to this central figure, it belongs in all collections of gay studies and contemporary political activism.?Robert W. Melton, Univ. of Kansas Libs., Lawrence
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

A diverse group of writers, academics, physicians, and social activists reflect, with varying levels of insight and eloquence, on the career of playwright and AIDS provocator Larry Kramer. Mass (Confessions of a Jewish Wagnerite: Being Gay and Jewish in America, 1994), a friend of Kramer's and a cofounder with him and several others of the Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC), edits this collection of essays by 23 contributors, including playwright Tony Kushner, book editor Michael Denneny, and former GMHC director Rodger McFarlane. Their different backgrounds illustrate the mix of themes in Kramer's own life. Patrick Merla introduces readers to Kramer's major public achievements: the film Women in Love, which Kramer produced; his novel, Faggots; his plays, The Normal Heart and The Destiny of Me; AIDS organizations GMHC and Act-Up. The scope of Kramer's life and work is not so large that this collection can escape being wearisomely repetitive. The best essays relate a focused piece of Kramer's life, politics, or art to a broader framework, such as the history of gay theater, the African-American community, heterosexual families, or W.H. Auden's poetry (in pieces by Michael Paller, Canaan Parker, Sarah Trillin, and Alfred Corn, respectively). In an elegiac essay, Andrew Holleran reflects on the gay artist's world of the past 20 years, and Kramer's successful negotiation within it of the writer's block that is AIDS. Kramer himself has the last word, in an interview that closes the book, leaving the reader with a sense of his genuine, if conflicted, humanity. Tributes to those still living run the risk of grandiosity, to which the long collection sometimes succumbs; all but fervent admirers of Kramer's should read selectively. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 420 pages
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan (December 15, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312177046
• ISBN-13: 978-0312177041
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.4 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,386,814 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Evaluating Larry Kramer, March 6, 2009

By	Amos Lassen (Little Rock, Arkansas) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

Maas, Lawrence D. "We Must Love One Another or Die: The Life and Legacies of Larry Kramer", Palgrave Macmillan, 1999.

Evaluating Larry Kramer

Amos Lassen

Those of us who lived through the AIDS epidemic know who Larry Kramer is and he is a man of many talents. He won an Academy Award for his screenplay of D.H. Lawrence's "Women in Love", he is a novelist who wrote "Faggots" and a playwright who wrote "The Normal Heart" and "The Destiny of Me" and he is a pioneer AIDS activist; he was co-founder of the Gay Men's Health Crisis and founder of ACT-UP. Above everything else Larry Kramer is controversial. Lawrence Maas who is also a founder of GMHC gives us an anthology of essays written by 23 writers who look at Kramer's life, politics and literary achievements, The essays are by some of the foremost voices in gay life--Andrew Holleran, Tony Kushner, Christopher Bram, John D'Emilio, Arnie Kantrowitz, Maxine Wolfe and Calvin Trillin to name a few. The essays concern the major issues in gay life and is an important resource for anyone studying the history of the American gay movement.
The tone of the essays vary and these reflect the themes of Kramer's own life. The best of them look at Kramer's life and work and Kramer himself gets to say something as well. By some Kramer has been regarded as a prophet and by others as a noisy antagonist but his influence cannot be denied. Larry Kramer is the embodiment of what "the personal is political" means. He is a genius and he is provocative, a pioneer and a vicious activist and he has forced many into action for our behalf. The book is a virtual who's who of the gay movement. This is such an important book that I am afraid has been overlooked which is too bad because it is so enlightening.