A unique and hugely absorbing narrative history of gay life-from Oscar Wilde to the first gay marriage performed in San Francisco in 2004-by the award-winning journalist and distinguished author of Out in the World and Sex- Crime Panic. Miller accompanies his narrative with essays and excerpts from contemporary and historical writings, and the text is illustrated with photos and line drawings. Neil Miller is the author of Sex-Crime Panic and winner of the 2003 Randy Shilts Award for nonfiction and an American Library Association Stonewall Honor Book. He is also the author of In Search of Gay America, winner of the 1990 American Library Association prize for gay and lesbian literature. He teaches journalism and nonfiction writing at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts.
Neil Miller's Out of the Past: Gay and Lesbian History from 1869 to the Present (Vintage, 1995) is a narrative history that begins with the coining of the word "homosexuality" in 1869 and runs to the twenty-fifth anniversary of Stonewall. It treats lesbian history and gay men's history together, from Walt Whitman and Oscar Wilde to the film Philadelphia, with chapter-length narratives on subjects such as the Harlem Renaissance and Paris.
Publishers Weekly found its textbook style simple at times, while Green Left Weekly recommended it as a quick lesson in queer history. A revised and updated edition appeared from Alyson Books in 2005, carrying the story to the first same-sex marriages in San Francisco in 2004. Its focus is mainly Western and modern.
Comment
Neil Miller's Out of the Past: Gay and Lesbian History from 1869 to the Present (Vintage, 1995) is a narrative history that begins with the coining of the word "homosexuality" in 1869 and runs to the twenty-fifth anniversary of Stonewall. It treats lesbian history and gay men's history together, from Walt Whitman and Oscar Wilde to the film Philadelphia, with chapter-length narratives on subjects such as the Harlem Renaissance and Paris.
Publishers Weekly found its textbook style simple at times, while Green Left Weekly recommended it as a quick lesson in queer history. A revised and updated edition appeared from Alyson Books in 2005, carrying the story to the first same-sex marriages in San Francisco in 2004. Its focus is mainly Western and modern.