"Boys in the Band" comes to Netflix

Four years ago this month, we discussed Mart Crowley's 1968 play, The Boys in the Band. (If you click on the March link under "Blog Archive" in the right-hand column of this blog, you'll find my tribute to Crowley, who died that month.) As many of you know, in 2018 the play was revived on Broadway with an all-star cast comprised entirely of out actors, directed by Joe Mantello and produced by Ryan Murphy. I'm pleased to report that a film of that production is available on Netflix starting today. 

In that regard, Patrick Flynn kindly alerted me to a fascinating article about the play/movie in the current issue of New York magazine. For its part, Metro Weekly's cover story is in an interview with Mantello. And here are reviews from the New York Times and Washington Post.

The 2020--2021 Bookmen reading list

I've already disseminated the winning titles from our most recent round of nominations for our next reading list to you via e-mail, but here they are for more general approbation. 

FICTION

A Place Called Winter by Patrick Gale. Grand Central, 2016, $16, 384 pages.

A Saint from Texas by Edmund White. Bloomsbury, 2020, $24, 304 pages.

Find Me by Andre Aciman. Picador, 2020, $14, 272 pages. 

Last Exit to Brooklyn by Hubert Selby Jr. Grove Press, 1964, $13, 320 pages.

P.S. Your Cat Is Dead: A Novel by James Kirkwood. (Not currently in print, but available from booksellers.) Warner Paperback Library, 1973, 223 pages.

Swimming in the Dark by Tomasz Jedrowski. William Morrow, 2020, $20, 208 pages.

The Color Purple by Alice Walker. Penguin, 1982, $14, 304 pages.

The Epic of Gilgamesh, translated by Andrew George. Penguin, 2003, $14, 304 pages.

The Lost Language of Cranes by David Leavitt. Bloomsbury, 1986, $17, 320 pages.

The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone by Tennessee Williams. New Directions, 1950, $14, 160 pages.

Tin Man by Sarah Winman. G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2017, $13, 224 pages.

NON-FICTION

I, John Kennedy Toole by Kent Carroll and Jodee Blanco. Pegasus Books, 2020, $18, 256 pages.

No House to Call My Home: Love, Family and Other Trangressions by Ryan Berg. Bold Type Books, 2016, $17, 320 pages.

BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR

Born to be Posthumous: The Eccentric Life and Mysterious Genius of Edward Gorey by Mark Dery.  Little Brown, 2018, $25, 512 pages.

CIty Poet: The Life and Times of Frank O’Hara by Brad Gooch.  Harper Perennial, 1993, $13, 576 pages.  

Paris France by Gertrude Stein. Liveright, 1940, $12, 128 pages.

Queer and Loathing: Rants and Raves of a Raging AIDS Clone by David Feinberg. Penguin, 1994, $16, 288 pages.

POETRY

Eros in Boystown: Contemporary Gay Poems about Sex, edited by Michael Lassell. (Not currently in print, but available

from booksellers.) Crown Press, 1996, 57 pages.

Live Oak, with Moss by Walt Whitman; illustrated by Brian Selznick. Harry N. Abrams, 2019, $7, 192 pages.

DRAMA

Tea and Sympathy by Robert Anderson. (Not currently in print, but available from booksellers.) Samuel French, 1955, 92 pages.

ANTHOLOGIES

Pages Passed from Hand to Hand: The Hidden Tradition of Homosexual Literature in English from 1748 to 1914,

edited by Mark Mitchell and David Leavitt. (Not currently in print, but available from booksellers.) Mariner Press, 1998, 

480 pages.

The Violet Quill Reader: The Emergence of Gay Writing after Stonewall, edited by David Bergman. St. Martin’s Press, 1994, 

$18, 410 pages.

The New York Times on Walt Whitman

A tip of the hat to Octavio Roca for calling my attention to this Jesse Green essay in the Sept. 14 issue of T Magazine (published by the New York Times): "Walt Whitman, Poet of a Contradictory America." 

Green's thesis will not come as a surprise to most Bookmen, I imagine: "During the Civil War era, the writer emerged as an emblem of the country's dissonance. Now, in the midst of another all-consuming national crisis, his work feels uncannily relevant." But the way he harkens back to Whitman's life and work to make that point is highly effective. And as a bonus, the photo illustrations (mostly featuring young black men) were inspired by passages from the 1891-1892 edition of Leaves of Grass, chosen by the author and the magazine's editors.

Christian Cooper's comic book truly Represents

Back in May, I posted an item ("Chris Cooper, Gay Pioneer") here about the gay African-American birder who stood up to racist bullying in Central Park. That experience has inspired Cooper, who worked as an editor for Marvel Comics in the 1990s and later created an online comic, Queer Nation, on his own, to return to that world.

Cooper's 10-page comic book, It's a Bird, is illustrated by Alitha E. Martinez, inked by Mark Morales and colored by Emilio Lopez. It's the first installment in "Represent!," a digital series from DC Comics that will showcase writers and artists from groups that are under-represented in the industry. The series is available free on participating digital platforms, including readdc, comiXology, Amazon Kindle, Apple Books and more.

Andrew Holleran speaks!

I was disappointed to discover few reviews of In September, the Light Changes, the Andrew Holleran short story collection we began discussing tonight. (If you missed that session, fear not; we will return to it on Nov. 4.) But I did find this fascinating audio interview that the New York Times conducted in conjunction with the book's 1999 publication.

The Other Buttigieg

As you know, next month we'll be discussing Chasten Buttigieg's memoir (hot off the press), I Have Something to Tell You. But fear not, fellow fans of Mayor Pete! The Washington Post reports that next week, the former (and future?) presidential candidate will premiere a podcast, "The Deciding Decade," on iHeart Radio.