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John Mitzel

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John Mitzel (1948-October 4, 2013) was a Boston writer, publisher, bookseller, and gay community and cultural activist.[1]

Early activism

Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and educated at Boston University, he was one of the organizers of Boston's first gay pride parade in 1971.[2][3] Mitzel was a founding member of the Fag Rag collective in 1971 which published Fag Rag, and he helped found the Good Gay Poets collective in 1973.[4] He wrote numerous articles for Gay Community News (Boston) and had a column in Philadelphia Gay News in the 1970s and 1980s.[1][5] As a publisher, he started Manifest Destiny Press in the 1970s and Calamus Books in 2002.[6]

Boston-Boise Committee

In December 1977, Mitzel with other members of the Fag Rag collective organized the Boston-Boise committee largely in response to the police entrapment of Boston gay men.[7][8] In April 1978, through Mitzel's acquaintance with him, Gore Vidal spoke at a fund-raiser for the committee, and the controversy that followed the event led to the resignation of a Massachusetts Supreme Court judge and the founding of GLAD and NAMBLA.[9][10][11]

Glad Day and Calamus

Mitzel operated the Boston branch of Toronto's Glad Day Bookshop for some fifteen years until about 2000.[12] He then opened Calamus Books.[13][14][15]

Works and publications

  • Myra and Gore : a new view of Myra Breckinridge and a candid interview with Gore Vidal  : a book for Vidalophiles. Manifest Destiny. 1974.
  • John Horne Burns : An Appreciative Biography. Manifest Destiny. 1974. ISBN 978-0914852018.
  • A Short History of Modern Capitalism Through Its Ladies. Manifest Destiny. 1975.
  • Sports and the Macho Male. Fag Rag. 1976.
  • Mitzel's Skylines : A Memoir. Manifest Destiny. 1976.
  • Some Short Stories About Nasty People I Don't Like. Manifest Destiny. 1977. ISBN 978-0914852032.
  • The Boston Sex Scandal. Glad Day. 1980. ISBN 978-0915480159.
  • Doubly Crost. Calamus. 2009. ISBN 978-0914852193.
  • Inferno Heights. Calamus. 2009. ISBN 978-0914852186.
  • Dead Enz : A Suspense. Calamus. 2011. ISBN 978-0914852155.
  • Some Poems. Calamus. 2011. ISBN 978-0914852155.
  • Last Gleamings. Calamus. 2013. ISBN 978-0914852247.

References

  1. ^ a b Bronski, Michael (October 16, 2013). "John Mitzel: a remembrance". Gay City News.
  2. ^ Quinn, Garrett (May 20, 2014). "Governor Deval Patrick named grand marshal of Boston Gay pride parade". MassLive.
  3. ^ "Boston Pride names governor Deval Patrick and the Sister of Perpetual Indulgence as grand marshals for 2014 parade". Boston Pride. May 16, 2014.
  4. ^ "Writer and LGBT bookstore owner John Mitzel, 65, has died". Lambda Literary Review. October 5, 2013.
  5. ^ Hoffman, Amy (2007). An army of ex-lovers : my life at Gay Community News. University of Massachusetts Press. ISBN 978-1558496217.
  6. ^ Bronski, Michael (January 2014). "John Mitzel : writer, bookseller, Boston institution". The Gay and Lesbian Review. Boston.
  7. ^ Shand-Tucci, Douglass (2003). The crimson letter : Harvard, homosexuality, and the shaping of American culture. St. Martins's. ISBN 978-0312198961.
  8. ^ Cohen, Art (March 1, 2003). "The Boston/Boise affair". The Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide.
  9. ^ Kaplan, Fred (1999). Gore Vidal : a biography. Doubleday. ISBN 978-0385477031.
  10. ^ Vidal, Gore (2006). Point to point navigation : a memoir. Doubleday. ISBN 978-0385517218.
  11. ^ Grzesiak, Rich (Feb 17, 1983). "Boston's darling brat of gay liberation". The Advocate.
  12. ^ Moldenhauer, Jerald. "About".
  13. ^ Krone, Mark. "John Mitzel isn't going anywhere".
  14. ^ Gardner, Jan. "John Mitzel's Calamus bookstore newsletter a local gem".
  15. ^ "Obituary : bookseller John Mitzel". Publishers Weekly. October 7, 2013.

Further reading

  • Van Handle, Judy (2007). "The talented Mr. Mitzel" (PDF). Savoir Flair. Vol. 1, no. 1. pp. 16–19.
  • Altman, Dennis (1982). The homosexualization of America : the Americanization of homosexuality. St Martin's. ISBN 978-0312388881.
  • Altman, Dennis (2005). Gore Vidal's America. Polity. ISBN 978-0745633626.
  • Margolick, David (2013). Dreadful : the short life and gay times of John Horne Burns. Other Press. ISBN 978-1590515716.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=John_Mitzel&oldid=854516863"