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Secret Historian: The Life and Times of Samuel Steward, Professor, Tattoo Artist, and Sexual Renegade Paperback – July 19, 2011

4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 270 ratings

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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Somewhere in the United States, there may be an attic containing the written remnants of a previously unchronicled 20th-century life that was even more astonishing than the one the writer Justin Spring discovered in San Francisco a few years ago. But even the most skeptical reader of his new book, Secret Historian, will have to admit that the bar is now set high. Samuel Steward, the subject of this absorbing act of biographical excavation, had many identities, including several that the subtitle of the book omits . . . Be assured that it's all for real, and that Spring, even when neck-deep in sensational material, is not a sensationalist.” ―Mark Harris, The New York Times Book Review

“Can a secret sex diary furnish an artistic legacy as meaningful as Emily Dickinson's sewn-up bundles of poems, or the piles of paintings Theo van Gogh inherited after his brother's premature demise? Samuel Steward may never have imagined it, but his erotic history raises the question. A talented writer who early attracted the attention of Gertrude Stein and Thornton Wilder, he found his career blocked by a determination (so different from hers and his) to write candidly about his homosexuality.” ―
Benjamin Moser, Harper's

“Justin Spring's jaw-dropping
Secret Historian reads like a novel probing a lifelong rebel's courage, creativity and ultimate sadness . . . Spring has reconstituted Steward, as Phil Andros might say, in flesh and blood and all sorts of bodily fluids.” ―David D'Arcy, San Francisco Chronicle

“This is a rich and exuberant biography of a man who deserves to be better known” ―
The Economist

“A fascinating biography . . . [Steward] tackled life with awe-inspiring abandon” ―
Details

“Life in the closet proves boisterous indeed in this biography of an iconic figure of the pre-Stonewall gay demimonde . . . Spring's sympathetic and entertaining story of a life registers the limitations imposed on homosexuals by a repressive society, but also celebrates the creativity and daring with which Steward tested them.” ―
Publishers Weekly

“[A] provocative biography . . . Generous excerpts from Steward's journals and unpublished memoirs fortify an already comprehensive examination of a life lived with unabashed independence and homoerotic expression during the sexual rebellion of the pre-Stonewall era . . . A vivid, candid portrait.” ―
Kirkus Reviews

“Justin Spring documents the extraordinary life of one of Kinsey's crucial gay witnesses, and reading
Secret Historian is like reading Kinsey dramatized. A cultivated, rather shy professor of English literature, Sam Steward dropped out in midlife to become an eminent tattooist and writer of S&M porn. As the story of a sex-obsessed recovering alcoholic later addicted to barbiturates and to masochistic thrills, this could easily have become a portrait of a failure. Instead, through Steward's copious records, we have a brave, fly-on-the-wall account of American homosexual subculture and persecution.” ―Martin Stannard, author of Evelyn Waugh and Muriel Spark: The Biography

“A true page-turner--and a memorable act of historical reclamation. Sammy Steward is all but unknown except by a handful of historians, but Justin Spring's lively biography--which is full of important new information about pre-Stonewall gay life--should put Sammy on the map, which is where he decidedly belongs.” ―
Martin Duberman, author of Cures: A Gay Man's Odyssey

Secret Historian is a startlingly, unforgettably vivid glimpse into a life--and a world--that few of us can imagine.” ―Terry Teachout, author of Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong

“Samuel Steward, secret sexual historian, is a secret no longer. From an evangelical Ohio boardinghouse to the gardens of the Villa Borghese, from the lobby of the City Opera to the South Side YMCA, Steward led--and recorded--an improbably revealing, representative life. Bedding Oscar Wilde's Bosie, taking tea with Stein and Toklas, and confessing to (and performing for!) Dr. Kinsey, he seemed determined to leave no corner of twentieth-century American queer culture unexplored and undocumented. Justin Spring has rescued his story from a San Francisco attic and set it before twenty-first-century readers with unflagging patience, authority, and humanity--
Secret Historian is a major achievement.” ―Langdon Hammer, author of Hart Crane and Allen Tate

“Justin Spring has painstakingly and compassionately unearthed the labyrinthine world of a brilliant, multifaceted, and troubled creator. A classically educated and highly talented renegade intellectual, Steward's trajectory was impacted at every turn by his sexual compulsions. This bittersweet story, with its hair-raising and obsessively recorded details, is astonishing. Steward's humor, empathy, and refusal to bow to the repressive status quo are a moving testimonial to honesty, courage, and integrity. His story should resonate with anyone engaged in the ongoing struggle for personal freedom of identity.” ―
Ed Hardy

“This is a rare and important book.
Secret Historian is a genuinely captivating combination of clear writing, a clean conscience, and more dirty stories than I ever imagined one life could hold.” ―Debby Applegate, author of The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher

About the Author

Justin Spring is a writer specializing in twentieth-century American art and culture, and the author of many monographs, catalogs, museum publications, and books, including Secret Historian: The Life and Times of Samuel Steward, Professor, Tattoo Artist, and Sexual Renegade and Fairfield Porter: A Life in Art and Paul Cadmus: The Male Nude.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Farrar, Straus and Giroux; First Edition (July 19, 2011)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 512 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0374533024
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0374533021
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.01 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 1.35 x 8.2 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 270 ratings

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For a fine review of THE GOURMANDS' WAY: SIX AMERICANS IN PARIS AND THE BIRTH OF A NEW GASTRONOMY, see: https://www.csmonitor.com/Books/Book-Reviews/2017/1013/The-Gourmands-Way-examines-France-s-powerful-ongoing-influence-on-American-diners

SECRET HISTORIAN was 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, 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 SECRET HISTORIAN in the New York Times Book Review:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/29/books/review/Harris-t.html?_r=1&ref=bookreviews

On the discovery of the Steward Archive, in the New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/26/books/26secret.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Justin%20Spring&st=cse

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
270 global ratings
MUST READING
5 Stars
MUST READING
a moving story and a must read for anyone interested in our sexuakl past..
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Top reviews from the United States

Reviewed in the United States on January 22, 2011
8 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on February 17, 2011
5 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

jochi Schuhberger
5.0 out of 5 stars Good gay historical biography
Reviewed in Canada on November 24, 2022
JOSEPH OLIVER
5.0 out of 5 stars Not to be missed if you like secret history.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 30, 2013
3 people found this helpful
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Rodger Whitlock
5.0 out of 5 stars The book could do without so much who-had-sex-with-who material
Reviewed in Canada on March 7, 2011
2 people found this helpful
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E. Granter
4.0 out of 5 stars A life's work
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 2, 2012
One person found this helpful
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Olivia Helling
5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing insight into American gay culture through the 20th century
Reviewed in Canada on September 25, 2017
2 people found this helpful
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