Synopses & Reviews
Vivacious, unconventional, candid, and straight, Helen Branson operated a gay bar in Los Angeles in the 1950s—America’s most anti-gay decade. After years of fending off drunken passes as an entertainer in cocktail bars, this divorced grandmother preferred the wit, variety, and fun she found among homosexual men. Enjoying their companionship and deploring their plight, she gave her gay friends a place to socialize. Though at the time California statutes prohibited homosexuals from gathering in bars, Helen’s place was relaxed, suave, and remarkably safe from police raids and other anti-homosexual hazards. In 1957 she published her extraordinary memoir Gay Bar, the first book by a heterosexual to depict the lives of homosexuals with admiration, respect, and love.
In this new edition of Gay Bar, Will Fellows interweaves Branson’s chapters with historical perspective provided through his own insightful commentary and excerpts gleaned from letters and essays appearing in gay publications of the period. Also included is the original introduction to the book by maverick 1950s psychiatrist Blanche Baker. The eclectic selection of voices gives the flavor of American life in that extraordinary age of anxiety, revealing how gay men saw themselves and their circumstances, and how others perceived them.
Outstanding Book, selected by the Public Library Association
Best Books for High Schools, selected by the American Association of School Libraries
Review
“A concept at once original and yet so obvious it is surprising that no one has attempted it before.”—Library Journal
Review
"Clearly Will Fellows has hit a nerve with many gay men, and many of them write about their collecting and preserving, from childhood on, often sacrificing friends, livelihoods, careers, and lovers to do so. As with his previous book, Farm Boys, Fellows presents the material in people's own voices as much as possible and the best of these essays (and there are many) are wonderfully readable capsule biographies and histories."—Darden A. Pyron, author of Liberace: An American Boy
Review
“A rich and detailed examination of an important and heretofore neglected aspect of our urban heritage.”—Richard Florida, author of The Rise of the Creative Class
Review
“Will Fellows uncovers a remarkable time capsule of how gay folks lived and gathered a half-century ago in a small bar on Melrose in Los Angeles, interweaving the remarkable charm of bar owner Helen Branson’s 1957 memoir with his own deft cultural analysis.”—Tim Miller, performer and author of Body Blows and 1001 Beds
Review
“By pairing this new edition of Branson’s insightful memoir with a study of 1950s America, Fellows clarifies how ahead of her time Branson was: she believed, for example, that being gay was more than sex and that gay men living together could consider themselves married. This is a stimulating account of support for gay rights pre-Stonewall is an eye-opener.”—Publishers Weekly
Review
"Few books are unique, but this one comes close. It’s the firsthand, contemporary account by a straight woman, Branson, who owned a gay bar in 1950s Los Angeles. Originally published in 1957, the book shows Branson to be a compassionate and astute observer of gay mores, now providing a rare primary source of gay life in an era from which such information is hard to obtain. Researchers will find material on the relationships between gay men and women, what gay parties were like, and the distinct house rules that Branson set up for patronage of her bar, among other topics. Fellows (Farm Boys: Lives of Gay Men from the Rural Midwest) intersperses her narrative with contextualizing historical and political information that greatly aids readers’ understanding. Verdict: Donald Vining’s multivolume A Gay Diary and Ricardo J. Brown’s compelling The Evening Crowd at Kirmser’s: A Gay Life in the 1940s are related titles, but these were first published long after the fact. General readers of memoir or LGBT lit, as well as historians, will find Gay Bar to be a charming, informative read."—Library Journal
Review
“Fascinating, poignant, hilarious, and eye-opening. Fellows adds depth, detail, and insight to Branson’s groundbreaking original work.”—Philip Gambone, author of Travels in a Gay Nation.
Review
“We typically prefer our pop culture shiny and new with the tags still on, but author Will Fellows’ latest makes a strong case for vintage shopping.”—Modern Tonic
Review
“Fascinating and vigorously lucid, this book is a precious time capsule jetting readers back over a half-century ago to a time when the gay community was threatened, defiled, beaten, and stigmatized without restraint, thankful to have folks like Helen Branson on their side, but fully aware that the fight for equality was only just the beginning.”—Bay Area Reporter
Review
“This incredible inside look of a gay bar in 1950s Los Angeles, owned and operated by a straight woman, Helen P. Branson, reflects our gay history as well as Los Angeles culture. Writer Will Fellows adds commentary and historical perspective in this fascinating memoir that was written in 1957.”—Frontiers
Review
“Compelling . . . stories and first-person accounts from gay men across the country . . . provide a colorful picture of a landscape that has not really been painted until now.”—The Advocate
Review
"Anyone who shares a love of the past will undoubtedly find this book inspirational and moving. Will Fellows has done an excellent job of...recounting the exploits of past 'bachelor uncles' and 'temperamental men' who saved buildings from the wrecking ball of progress and urban renewal."—Bay Window
Synopsis
From large cities to rural communities, gay men have long been impassioned pioneers as keepers of culture: rescuing and restoring decrepit buildings, revitalizing blighted neighborhoods, saving artifacts and documents of historical significance. A Passion to Preserve explores this authentic and complex dimension of gay men’s lives by profiling early and contemporary preservationists from throughout the United States, highlighting contributions to the larger culture that gays are exceptionally inclined to make.
Synopsis
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In the midst of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy debate, a gay former soldier offers a firsthand account of his experiences in the Iraq war, capturing the real experience of gay servicemen and servicewomen. \\n
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Synopsis
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Bronson Lemer served in the North Dakota Army National Guard for six years, including deployments to Kosovo and Iraq. His writing has appeared in Blue Earth Review, The Rekjavik Grapevine, and Twentysomething Essays by Twentysomething Writers. He teaches English and humanities courses at Turtle Mountain Community College near Belcourt, North Dakota. \\n
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Synopsis
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In 2003, after serving five and a half years as a carpenter in a North Dakota National Guard engineer unit, Bronson Lemer was ready to leave the military behind. But six months short of completing his commitment to the army, Lemer was deployed on a yearlong tour of duty to Iraq. Leaving college life behind in the Midwest, he yearns for a lost love and quietly dreams of a future as an openly gay man outside the military. He discovers that his father’s lifelong example of silent strength has taught him much about being a man, and these lessons help him survive in a war zone and to conceal his sexuality, as he is required to do by the U.S. military. The Last Deployment is a moving, provocative chronicle of one soldier’s struggle to reconcile military brotherhood with self-acceptance. Lemer captures the absurd nuances of a soldier’s daily life: growing a mustache to disguise his fear, wearing pantyhose to battle sand fleas, and exchanging barbs with Iraqis while driving through Baghdad. But most strikingly, he describes the poignant reality faced by gay servicemen and servicewomen, who must mask their identities while serving a country that disowns them. Often funny, sometimes anguished, The Last Deployment paints a deeply personal portrait of war in the twenty-first century. '
About the Author
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“Lemer writes with clarity, temperance, and an eye for detail. . . . Without ever becoming polemical, the book shows graphically how ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ cruelly affects gay soldiers who play by the rules.”—David Bergman, editor of Gay American Autobiography: Writings from Whitman to Sedaris
“An important contribution to this national debate. . . . A book we should have on the president’s desk as soon as possible.”—Tim Miller, author of Body Blows and 1001 Beds \''
Table of Contents
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Prologue
1. Olympic Hopefuls
2. Last Supper
3. Snowbullets
4. Even Pawns Have Great Legs
5. Click, Click, Click
6. The Mustache Race
7. All Sand and Stars
8. Wolves
9. This is Our Comfortable Hell
10. Icarus In Iraq
11. Baghdad in My Boots
12. Don\\\'t Tell
13. If Charles Bronson Were Here
14. How to Build Your Own Coffin
15. Two Toonies and a Loonie
16. Vets
17. Out Came a Spider
18. Dump Gulls
Epilogue: The Lost Year
Acknowledgments \\n
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