A Queer Reader - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1565842111 ISBN 13: 9781565842113

Publisher: The New Press, 1995

Synopsis

A Queer Reader is a rich and provocative collection of writings about male homosexuality—a gay version of Bartlett’s Quotations, with authors ranging from Plato to Andy Warhol. Arranging entries chronologically and drawing on sources from the Satyricon to Gay News, from Michelangelo&squo;s sonnets to a speech in the House of Lords, from sexually explicit graffiti found in Pompeii to a Playboy interview with David Bowie, Patrick Higgins uses novels, biographies, autobiographies, histories, and ephemera to present gay history as never before.

About this title

About the Author

Patrick Higgins lectures in history at New Hall, Cambridge.

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.

Edition details

• Publisher: The New Press
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 1565842111
• ISBN 13: 9781565842113
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 384
• Editor: Higgins Patrick