A Queer Reader [Hardcover]

Patrick Higgins (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1994

A Queer Reader is a rich collection of quotes and short excerpts about the gay experience through the centuries, from Plato to Andy Warhol. Arranged chronologically and drawing on sources from Michelangelo's sonnets to a speech in the House of Lords, from graphic graffiti found in Pompeii to a Playboy interview with David Bowie, A Queer Reader presents gay history as never before.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Although the subtitle suggests that Higgins, a lecturer in history at Cambridge University, has compiled a Bartlett's for gay readers, his book is much richer than that. It focuses not on memorable one-liners (though those abound) but on sustained anecdotes from literature, biographies, lyrics, dialogue from plays and films, and so on. Ovid, Michelangelo, Whitman and others praise homosexual love, but Higgins balances the picture by also citing denouncers. Linked series of quotations create thumbnail "biographies" of such figures as Oscar Wilde, W.H. Auden and Tennessee Williams. Chapters are organized chronologically, leading the reader from antiquity to the present: essays that begin a chapter are informed and accessible, putting the quotations that follow into historical context. This absorbing book rewards both casual and sustained attention.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Boasting "contributors" that include Liberace, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Diderot, and Barbara Pym, this "compendium of quotes by and about gay men throughout the ages" attempts to tell the story of male homosexuality. Betraying a peculiarly British bent, Higgins, a lecturer in history at Cambridge, has assembled an eclectic mishmash from a wide variety of sources, from Plato's Symposium through the London Gay News. "The Power Behind the Mask," an awkward and defensively written critique of "homosexual history," is followed by short excerpts (five words to two pages) from novels, speeches, histories, biographies, and ephemera, all of which fail to coalesce. The index includes personal names but no titles, places, or subjects, and complete citations for sources are inconveniently listed in fine print in the acknowledgments, frustrating further research. This mistitled collection is not recommended.
James E. Van Buskirk, San Francisco P.L.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: New Press, The (October 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565842103
• ISBN-13: 978-1565842106
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.6 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,829,237 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars recommendable book, August 29, 2000

By 

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

This review is from: A Queer Reader (Hardcover)

This is a very interesting book not only for the gay people butalso for the bisexual/heterosexual inclined people. However , I was extremely astonished at the absences & omissions about male/love custom of traditional Japan, because after the ancient Greek, only Japanese could have enhanced the value of male-male sexual relation highly and praised it as "BIDO(the beautiful way)" or "WAKASHUDO(the way of the youth)" much superior than heterosexuality. I recommend two books "Male Colors" by Gary P. Leupp and "The Love of the Samurai" by T. Watanabe & J. Iwata. END