Young man from the provinces

a gay life before Stonewall

1st University of Minnesota Press ed.
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Last edited by ImportBot
October 8, 2020 | History

Young man from the provinces

a gay life before Stonewall

1st University of Minnesota Press ed.
  • 0 Ratings
  • 3 Want to read
  • 0 Currently reading
  • 0 Have read

Gay life in New York City in the 1950s and '60s was an entirely different world from today. Intensely secretive and desperately determined to stay that way, its action took place behind the unmarked doors of bars and in apartments where the shades were always drawn. Underlying the frenetic living and high hilarity was a sense of shame that was inevitable during a time when shock treatment and lobotomies were considered acceptable "cures" for homosexuality.

In Young Man from the Provinces, Alan Helms tells his story of those times. Escaping from a painful midwestern adolescence to the scholarly refuge of Columbia University, Alan threw himself headlong into New York's gay world.

Denied a Rhodes scholarship because of his sexual orientation, he turned his back on academia and became a successful model and stage actor, moving in glamorous circles whose members included Anthony Perkins, Stephen Sondheim, Marlene Dietrich, Noel Coward, Leonard Bernstein, and Edward Albee. Alan attended glittering parties, traveled around the world with his lover, and spent summers on Fire Island immersed in the company of young, beautiful men.

.

After starting a new life in Boston in the early 1970s, Alan realized that the gay social world was changing drastically and that he was facing middle age by himself. He subsequently battled drug abuse and severe depression, but his biggest battle was his struggle for self-acceptance and his attempt to build a better life.

His success helped him remain strong as he faced his mother's death from cancer in the 1980s and the deaths of many of his friends and former lovers from AIDS - more than eighty and still climbing.

Publish Date
Language
English

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Previews available in: English

Edition Availability
Cover of: Young man from the provinces
Young man from the provinces: a gay life before Stonewall
2003, University of Minnesota Press
in English - 1st University of Minnesota Press ed.
Cover of: Young Man from the Provinces
Young Man from the Provinces: A Gay Life Before Stonewall
February 1997, Avon Books
in English
Cover of: Young man from the provinces
Young man from the provinces: a gay life before Stonewall
1995, Faber and Faber
in English

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Book Details


Edition Notes

Originally published: Boston : Faber and Faber, c1995.

Published in
Minneapolis
Genre
Biography.

Classifications

Dewey Decimal Class
305.38/9664
Library of Congress
HQ75.8.H44 A3 2003, HQ75.8.H44A3 2003

The Physical Object

Pagination
p. cm.

ID Numbers

Open Library
OL3567190M
ISBN 10
0816642680
LCCN
2002045402
OCLC/WorldCat
51322947
Library Thing
173378
Goodreads
424368

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History

Download catalog record: RDF / JSON / OPDS | Wikipedia citation
October 8, 2020 Edited by ImportBot import existing book
August 1, 2020 Edited by ImportBot import existing book
April 30, 2011 Edited by OCLC Bot Added OCLC numbers.
August 2, 2010 Edited by IdentifierBot added LibraryThing ID
April 1, 2008 Created by an anonymous user Imported from Scriblio MARC record