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 A good job of an impossible task, looking beyond the borders of
North America, Australia and northern Europe to include people who have
made important contributions from outside the gay and lesbian
mainstream.
Aldrich and Wotherspoon (history, Univ. of Sydney) are brave editors,
as a "who's who" for gay studies might be seen as concretizing in an
area in which the constructionist/essentialist debate is still a
minefield. Nevertheless, they provide an articulate rationale for this
book in their introduction. In addition to justifying the "who's who"
approach in general at a time when social history moves the focus to
"unknown" people, they seek to include anyone of significance in the
history of sexual minorities without any limits based on what the
subjects did in bed. Well over 100 contributors have written the 500
entries, which range from Sappho to Andr? Gide; most entries are
accompanied by a bibliography. This is a scholarly alternative to more
celebratory or localized works such as Paul Elliott Russell's The Gay
100 (Citadel, 1996). Along with the companion volume, Who's Who in
Contemporary Gay and Lesbian History, also edited by Aldrich and
Wotherspoon, it belongs in every library concerned with world history.
Related Articles:
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Venice, Paris and other cities where Giacomo Casanova (1725–1798)
restlessly traveled are brought to vivid life by food and travel writer
Kelly (Cooking for Kings). Remembered today primarily for his
sex life, Casanova was a polymath who trained to be a priest, worked as
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to an actress in Venice who thought the sickly boy was an imbecile and
sent him away, aged nine, to be educated in Padua, where he flourished.
The 17-year-old had his first sexual affair with two sisters, a
scenario repeated throughout his life with other sisters, mothers and
daughters, and even nuns. This life of sexual adventures produced eight
illegitimate children and included falling in love with an apparent
castrato who turned out to be a woman en travestie; he also
enjoyed a life of wealth and social status in Venice after saving the
life of a senator. Imprisoned there by the Inquisition, he escaped to
Paris, becoming a fixture on the city's social scene. Kelly presents a
colorful, sprightly biography of a singular man.
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for being "too close" while erotica is defended as "leaving room for
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argues that these distinctions are based on an age-old antithesis
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- History of German Porn: Gretchen Kraut Collection...
Germans are not really famous for their great passions or pleasures.
Abroad, people like to watch them falling under the tables at carnival
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Rome. He found them a hard and wild tribe that loved to roam the
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- A Mind of Its Own: A Cultural History of the Penis...
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Prioleau's captivating debut is a fervid self-help tract well-disguised
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hyperintellectual hands on. Modern women have lost their
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Hard on the heels of the film Moulin Rouge comes this idiosyncratic
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sexuality and talent into a position of luxury and celebrity as the
mistress of one or several men of means. Readers looking for a sober
social history of the world portrayed in the film will not find it
here, for Griffin's approach is almost as kaleidoscopic as the movie's.
In a series of brief chapters, each devoted to a particular "virtue,"
that is, a talent central to the courtesan's success (such as "Gaiety,"
"Charm," "Cheek"), feminist critic, playwright and poet Griffin (What
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subjects for stories illustrating their ability to vault beyond the
constraints of their age and gender.
- America Swings...
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This edition is limited to 1,000 numbered copies, signed by both Naomi
Harris and Richard Prince. The cover features a four-color, silk
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