The invention of the "encyclopedia" in the early 18th century was an attempt to collect together, in one place, all practical and theoretical knowledge. As more and more knowledge was accumulated--science, politics, and arts just kept happening--the idea of the "encyclopedia" became a little antiquated. After a while, the form itself became a catch-all for interesting, quirky opinions and deposits of odd information, a development that finds its apotheosis in Completely Queer: The Gay and Lesbian Encyclopedia.
Editors Steve Hogan and Lee Hudson have pulled together more than 500 entries on everything from ACT UP to Seventh-Day Adventists, from Boston Marriages to Greg Louganis. The writing is breezy and smart, and almost all of the entries have bibliographic follow-ups. The book is beautifully designed, with a generous selection of photos. Filled with information ranging from the useful to the unique, from the facile to the fascinating, Completely Queer should be mined for conversational tidbits before attending any future cocktail parties, church socials, or two-for-one nights at the bar. --Michael Bronski
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
As the introduction states, "The main focus of Completely Queer is the multifaceted international subculture self-identified lesbians and gay men have cultivated and refined in the second half of the 20th century." This title offers more than 500 succinct, informative entries that, remarkably, do justice to this ambitious territory. In essays that are arranged alphabetically and supplemented by 200 black-and-white images (without sources), New York-based writers-researchers Hogan and Hudson largely achieve their aim of offering varying levels of coverage, including representation of people of color and a balance between lesbian and gay male interests. Unique features include a list of famous pseudonyms, gay and lesbian detectives, and literary awards. References to related entries, sources for further study, and a 75-page chronology from c.12,000 B.C.E. to November 1996 add to the usefulness of this single volume. Despite some overlap with the more prosaic, thematically organized Encyclopedia of Homosexuality (LJ 1/90), this is well recommended for all collections. (Index not seen.)?Jim Van Buskirk, San Francisco P.L.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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