This lavishly illustrated volume chronicles the extraordinary visual world of a talented and largely unknown writer, artist, photographer and sexual outlaw. The edition, limited to 1,000 copies presents a diverse and powerful collection of drawings, paintings, sculptures, decorative objects, illustrations and photographs that are remarkably varied in style, and quite contradictory in mood and tone.
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About the Author
Justin Spring is a New York based writer specializing in twentieth-century American art and culture. He is the author of many monographs, catalogs, museum publications, and books, including the biography Fairfield Porter: A Life in Art (Yale University Press, 2000) and Paul Cadmus: The Male Nude (Universe, 2002). He has been the recipient of a number of grants, fellowships, and awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and the AICA/International Association of Art Critics United States Section Best Show Award. He has also held research fellowships from Yale University, Brown University, Radcliffe University and Amherst College. His monograph on Paul Cadmus was a finalist for the Lamda Literary Award in Art History.
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Justin Spring is a New York based writer specializing in twentieth-century American art and culture. His biography SECRET HISTORIAN is a 2010 New York Times Notable Book of the Year, a 2010 National Book Award Finalist, an Amazon Top 10 Biography of the Year, an American Library Association Stonewall Honor Book for 2011,winner of the 2011 Lamda Literary Award in Biography; the winner of the 2011 Randy Shilts Prize in Non-Fiction from the Publishing Triangle; and winner of the 2011 Geoff Mains Non-Fiction Prize of the National Leather Association. It is also an ARTFORUM Top 10 of 2010 pick and a Top 10 Book of the Year for 2010 in the San Francisco Chronicle.
For a full review of SECRET HISTORIAN by Mark Harris in the New York Times Book Review:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/29/books/review/Harris-t.html?_r=1&ref=bookreviews
For a feature on Justin Spring's discovery of the Steward Archive, by Patti Cohen in the New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/26/books/26secret.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Justin%20Spring&st=cse
For a slide show in the New York Times about the Steward Archive:
www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2010/.../20100726-secret.html
For a full review of SECRET HISTORIAN by Mark Harris in the New York Times Book Review:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/29/books/review/Harris-t.html?_r=1&ref=bookreviews
For a feature on Justin Spring's discovery of the Steward Archive, by Patti Cohen in the New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/26/books/26secret.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Justin%20Spring&st=cse
For a slide show in the New York Times about the Steward Archive:
www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2010/.../20100726-secret.html
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
39 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Spectacular volume,
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This review is from: An Obscene Diary: The Visual World of Sam Steward (Hardcover)
This deluxe compilation of the artwork and photography of Sam Steward is a companion volume to the very fine biography of Steward by Justin Spring, SECRET HISTORIAN. It's an amazing collection of Steward's tattoo flash art, graphic sex photos (we see why the pioneering sex researcher Alfred Kinsey was so fascinated by Steward's activities and his obsessive recording of them), cards from his "Stud Files" detailing his partners in vivid detail, and memorabilia like his icon containing a clipping of Valentino's pubic hair. Beautifully printed and produced, this book will truly grace your coffee table...if you dare to put this sort of book out for company. An amazing historical document, a challenging work of art for the discerning collector, and much more.
23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The private collection of the secret historian,
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Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: An Obscene Diary: The Visual World of Sam Steward (Hardcover)
Justin Spring's biography of Samuel Steward,Secret Historian: The Life and Times of Samuel Steward, Professor, Tattoo Artist, and Sexual Renegade was deservedly nominated for the National Book Award. While Spring never claims that Steward was by any stretch of the imagination a genius, he does manage to paint a portrait of a quirkily interesting creative soul who wrote "serious" (i.e., literary) and pornographic literature, translated Genet, hobnobbed with Gertrude and Alice (and Thorton), traced Cocteau's erotic line drawings, adorned his home with erotic murals, taught English Literature at Catholic Universities, and helped edit the revision of the World Book Encyclopedia. He also managed to teach himself tatooing, perhaps the one art he truly excelled at.Although SECRET HISTORIAN is adequately illustrated, readers who enjoyed that book will be fascinated by the many images gathered in AN OBSCENE DIARY. About two thirds of the book consists of poloroid photographs taken of (mostly)sailors engaging in sex acts in Steward's apartment or 3 x 5 index cards from Steward's "Stud Box" that document (with code) his many sexual liaisons. The photographs are surprisingly (or perhaps not so surprisingly) not very erotic; in fact, they seem to carry the same documentary freight as the index cards with their abbreviated descriptions of sexual acts. By contrast, Steward's efforts to emulate artists like Beardsly, Cocteau, Demuth, and Calder, as well as those that anticipate underground artists like Jim French, are playful and imaginative. Although the book includes some of Steward's tatoo designs, there are no photos of his completed work. Given Steward's penchant for documentation, it's surprising that he didn't insist his customers allow him to photograph them once the tatoos has healed. Spring's essay offers no expansion on SECRET HISTORIAN, but serves as an introduction to people who haven't read the biography and as a focusing statement for those who have. Spring offers no analysis of the art work collected and makes no claims for Steward's artistic talent, but he does put in perspective one man's will to live his creative and erotic life on his own terms. As a portrait of the pre-Stonewall gay subculture, it's about as honest and comprehensive a presentation as we're ever going to see.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good But Not Perfect,
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Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: An Obscene Diary: The Visual World of Sam Steward (Hardcover)
I purchased this after reading the biography of Sam Steward that the author wrote. It is INTENSELY interesting. My only complaint is that it lacks a certain narrative. Maybe it is just that I got it while the biography was fresh in my mind, but I believe that the photos could be more arranged to tell Sam's story (or even what might have been an idealized version of it), or issue some sort of commentary, and that maybe some additional text putting some more of the items into context would be welcomed.That being said, I really do like the book.
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