Walter Breen

Walter H. Breen (September 5, 1928 – April 28, 1993) was an American author. He is best known among coin collectors for writing Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins. "Breen numbers", from his encyclopedia, are widely used to attribute varieties of coins. He is also well known for his writings in defense of pederasty.

Biography

A foundling child discovered in San Antonio, Texas, Breen strove to distinguish himself academically from a young age and continued excelling academically throughout his post-secondary education. He endured a brief stint in the United States Army, and claimed that a 1947 plane crash while on duty contributed to his photographic memory.

He received his Bachelor of Arts in mathematics from Johns Hopkins University in 1952, having finished four years of coursework in approximately ten months, graduating Phi Beta Kappa and later earned his Master's degree from University of California, Berkeley in 1966. He typically wore his Phi Beta Kappa key as a zipper pull on the fly of his pants. He joined the high IQ society Mensa in 1958 or 1959, possibly the first American to do so.

As Breen completed his undergraduate college coursework, he immersed himself in the study of coinage. 1951 saw the journal Numismatist publish his earliest writings on the subject. Two years later he completed his first book on American coins, Proof Coins Struck by the United States Mint, 1817–1901.

Walter Breen also spent considerable time compiling information on the history of homosexuality, particularly pederasty, sexual relationships between adult men and adolescent males. His research, unprecedented in its extensive treatment of the history of homosexuality, formed the basis for his 1964 book Greek Love, which he published under the pseudonym J.Z. Eglinton.

Other interests included dirty limericks and fortune cookies; Breen self-published monographs on both subjects.

Despite his alternative sexual interests, Breen was married to science fiction writer Marion Zimmer Bradley in 1964. They had two children and separated in 1979, yet he continued to live down the street from Bradley, and she remained his primary employer until his final arrest. They officially divorced on May 9, 1990.

In 1980, one year after "separating", both Breen and Bradley were ordained in the Holy Apostolic-Catholic Church of the East (Chaldean-Syrian) priesthood by Metropolitan-Archbishop Mikhail Itkin, a well-known gay clergyman.

Breen's pederasty was an open secret in both science fiction and numismatic circles; he was banned from the 1964 Worldcon sci-fi convention due to his behavior with children, a controversy which became known as the "Breendoggle" and resonates in that community to this day.

Breen was first arrested in the 1950s for "lewd behavior", exposing himself to young boys under a boardwalk in Atlantic City; in 1991 he was charged with eight felony counts of child molestation involving a thirteen-year-old boy, the step-son of science-fiction writer Stephen Goldin (who has since gone public): Stephen Goldin's denunciation [1]

Breen was diagnosed with liver cancer in 1992, and died in prison in Chino, California the next year. His ex-wife was sued by the Goldin family, who accused her of knowing about and facilitating his criminal behavior. The suit was settled for an undisclosed sum after her death. The transcripts of Bradley's deposition have been made available on the internet.

Publications

Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins New York: Doubleday, 1988.
Walter Breen's Encyclopedia of United States Half Cents 1793–1857
California Pioneer Fractional Gold: Historic gold rush small change 1852–1856 and suppressed jewelers' issues 1859–1882; co-authored by Ronald Gillio, this is the standard reference for this series of coinage
Penny Whimsy; assisted William Sheldon to produce this 1958 update to Sheldon's Early American Cents.
Greek Love; assisted by Warren Johansson and published by Oliver Layton Press in 1964.

Biography

Publications

Further reading