The Queer Sixties by Patricia Juliana Smith

As the 1960s recede further into our collective memory, curiosity and nostalgia for this groovy, flower-powered decade persists. Many books have charted the social history of this tumultuous time, but none have provided queer readings of the icons and iconclasts that peopled its stage. The Queer Sixties assembles an impressive group of cultural critics to go against the grain of 1960s studies, and proposes new and different ways of looking at the queer cultural and subcultural expression of the last decade before the closet doors swung open. A magical mystery tour, this collection reveals the queer in the Beatles and Jim Morrison, unearths the cultural power of lesbian and gay pulp fiction, and reads the queer in Myra Breckinridge, In Cold Blood, and Another Country,among others. Imbued with the zeitgeist of the 60s, this playful and powerful collection rescues the persistence of the queer imaginary. Contributors: Blake Allmendinger, David Bergman, JosephBristow, Kelly Cresap, William A. Cohen, Francesca Coppa, Douglas Eisner, Yvonne C. Keller, Ricardo Ortiz, Jennifer A. Rich, William Scroogie, Ann Shillinglaw and Laura Winkiel.