States of Desire: Travels in Gay America

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Dutton, 1980 - Fiction - 336 pages
This volume gives a city by city description of the way homosexual men lived in the late 1970s. The author weaves a vivid tapestry of people and places as he presents the pros and cons of such issues as gay radicalism, the "urban gay renaissance" and the much discussed gay penchant for hedonism and sexual extremism. Above all, he shows the remarkable possibilities for the gay lifestyle. The author tells what goes on behind the glittering surface of fashionable nightspots and glamorous resorts. But he also shows us gay engineers, gay computer experts, and gay cowboys; this is a look at a vast world never before documented. By introducing the reader to a wide variety of gay people, this book provides new insights into what it means to be gay in America.

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Contents

San Francisco
30
Portland and Seattle
70
Santa Fe Salt Lake City and Denver
93
Copyright

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About the author (1980)

Author Edmund White was born in Cincinnati, Ohio on January 13, 1940. He majored in Chinese at the University of Michigan. Before spending a year in Rome, he worked for Time-Life Books from 1962 until 1970. Upon his return, he became an editor for The Saturday Review and Horizon. He lived in France from 1983 until 1990. His works have chronicled gay life with such books as A Boy's Own Story, The Beautiful Room Is Empty, and The Farewell Symphony.

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