Best of
Gay

1972

The Men with the Pink Triangle: The True Life-and-Death Story of Homosexuals in the Nazi Death Camps


Heinz Heger - 1972
    Since that time, books such as Richard Plant's The Pink Triangle (and Martin Sherman's play Bent) have illuminated this nearly lost history. Heinz Heger's first-person account, The Men with the Pink Triangle, was one of the first books on the topic and remains one of the most important. In 1939, Heger, a Viennese university student, was arrested and sentenced to prison for being a "degenerate." Within weeks he was transported to Sachsenhausen, a concentration camp in East Germany, and forced to wear a pink triangle to show that his crime was homosexuality. He remained there, under horrific conditions, until the end of the war in 1945. The power of The Men with the Pink Triangle comes from Heger's sparse prose and his ability to recall--and communicate--the smallest resonant details. The pain and squalor of everyday camp life--the constant filth, the continuous presence of death, and the unimaginable cruelty of those in command--are all here. But Heger's story would be unbearable were it not for the simple courage he and others used to survive and, having survived, that he bore witness. This book is harrowing but necessary reading for everyone concerned about gay history, human rights, or social justice. --Michael Bronski

Selected Poems


Constantinos P. Cavafy - 1972
    P. Cavafy is one of the most singular and poignant voices of twentieth-century European poetry, conjuring a magical interior world through lyrical evocations of remembered passions, imagined monologues and dramatic retellings of his native Alexandria's ancient past. Figures from antiquity speak with telling interruptions from the author in such poems as 'Anna Comnena' and 'You did not understand', while precise moments of history are seen with a sense of foreboding, as in 'Ides of March', 'The God Abandoning Antony' and 'Nero's Deadline'. And in poems that draw on his own life and surroundings, Cavafy recalls illicit trysts or glimpses of beautiful young men in 'One Night', 'I have gazed so much' and 'The Café Entrance', and creates exquisite miniatures of everyday life in 'An Old Man' and 'Of the Shop'. Winner of the prestigious Harold Morton Landon Translation Award 2009.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Screening The Sexes


Parker Tyler - 1972
    Devoted to homosexuality in films, it aims to look beyond the obvious and to observe the psychology of sex roles, at the same time recognising film as the realm of contemporary mythology. Tyler was once described as one of the most consistently interesting and provocative writers on film that America has produced, well-informed and free of cant.

The Feathers of Death


Simon Raven - 1972
    A classic tale of British army life that launched a great literary career

The Leatherman's Handbook


Larry Townsend - 1972
    Its publication was the first step in bringing leather sex into the open in the gay world. Its instant popularity proved just how interested men were in this previously taboo subject." - John Preston, 1993"What L.T. offers in the Handbook are principles learned through years of experience in the SM playing field, and he invites you to agree or disagree with his ideas and conclusions...a pioneering work in gay SM." - Victor Terry, 1997"The groundbreaking 1972 publication of Larry Townsend's Leatherman's Handbook is as remarkable a construct as Stonewall itself, because it was a declaration of independence for 'anatomically Correct' homomasculinity." - Jack Fritscher, 1996NB: The author states in 'Epilogue for a New Millenium' (p. 275) that the first printing of the Silver Jubilee Edition in 1997 was "handled very badly" by his publisher and that the books were nearly all remaindered.

Eating Artichokes


Willyce Kim - 1972
    Lesbian poetry.

The Leatherman's Handbook II: The Sequel, New Millenium Edition


Larry Townsend - 1972
    Some attitudes have changed & some of the more popular pleasures have evolved into different forms. This title addresses those changes, explains them & provides a statistical survey of the scene.

Run Softly, Go Fast


Barbara Wersba - 1972
    David's tangled thoughts lead him back to a conventional childhood in New York, to his disillusionment with this successful father, and to this sudden flight towards the East Village, drugs, and freedom. Although he is seeking answers, David can only relive the hatred he felt during those years when Leo, a self-made man, tried to transform his artist son into a member of the establishment.Run Softly, Go Fast examines in depth the relationship between parent and teenager, and the hurtful awakening that is adolescence. The truths it uncovers will startle some and displease many, but they are truths that are a part of America today, and they must be faced.