Entry tags:
Lawrence Grow & Martin Greif
Martin Joel Greif (February 4, 1938, The Bronx, New York City - November 17, 1996, Cork, Ireland) was an American editor, lecturer, publisher and writer. He is the uncle of heavy metal music personality and lawyer Eric Greif.Son of an immigrant Harlem grocery store owner, Martin Greif graduated from Stuyvesant High School and was further educated at Hunter College, NYC, graduating in 1959 (B.A. cum laude) and Princeton University, graduating in 1961 (M.A. with honours), where he was a Woodrow Wilson Fellow and groomed as an expert in Daniel Defoe. After graduation he became a professor of English and taught in NY universities from 1963-73, including lecturing in biblical literature at New York University, before entering the world of publishing as managing editor of Time-Life Books (1969-73), and then as co-founder and editorial director of Main Street Press. Main Street Press was founded in 1978 by Greif and his life partner, Lawrence Grow, in Clinton, New Jersey. Their first office was on Main Street in Clinton, hence the name. Both men had enjoyed successful publishing careers in Manhattan but wanted to move to the country for the wide, open spaces and the lower costs. Subsequently the business moved to nearby Pittstown, New Jersey. Main Street specialized in publishing books on Americana, crafts and restoration. However, their biggest publishing success was the Vogue magazine spoof Dogue (1986), featuring modeling canines and billed as "a parody of the world's most famous fashion magazine".
Martin Greif became a prolific and varied author and book editor. His more than a dozen books range from Depression Modern: The Thirties Style in America (1975), a photo study of 1930s American design, predominantly architecture, that sought to define a wider, more American definition of Art Deco; Aunt Sammy's Radio Recipes (1975); The New Industrial Landscape: The Story of the Austin Company (1978); The Morning Stars Sang: The Bible in Folk Art (1978); The Airport Book: From Landing Field to Modern Terminal (1979); The Lighting Book: A Buyer's Guide to Locating Almost Every Kind of Lighting Device (1986); and The World of Tomorrow: The 1939 New York World's Fair (1988). The book for which he is best remembered, however, is The Gay Book of Days (1982) - "An evocatively illustrated who's who of who is, was, may have been, probably was, and almost certainly seems to have been gay during the past 5,000 years."
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Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Greif
Perhaps my all-time favorite book, The Gay Book of Days showed up at a B. Dalton Bookseller in my local mall one day when I was 16 and was constantly blowing through all the money I earned as a stockboy in another town. It took tremendous courage for me to pick it up, let alone to furtively buy it, what with that huge word "GAY" on the cover and that shirtless Casey Donovan picture right below it. This "evocatively illustrated who´s who of who is, was, may have been, probably was, and almost certainly seems to have been gay during the past 5,000 years" is really a calendar, with birthdates of presumably gay figures for each and every day. Its dishy tone and assertive quality ("At the time of his death, Nick Adams was the lover of a movie actor who can only be identified as R____ C____.") require no proof-you know every word is true. As much a history textbook as a gay gossip rag, it leaves no stone unturned. It was also my first experience with blind items, listing the initials of over 60 then-living people who were closeted queers. A revelation. --Matthew Rettenmund( Further Readings )
Michael Ayrton (20 February 1921 – 17 November 1975) was an English artist and writer, known as a painter, printmaker, sculptor and designer, and also as a critic, broadcaster and novelist. He was a stage and costume designer, working with John Minton on the 1942 John Gielgud production of Macbeth from age 19; and a book designer and illustrator, for Wyndham Lewis's The Human Age trilogy and William Golding. He also collaborated with Constant Lambert. His work is in several important collections including the Tate Gallery, London, National Portrait Gallery, London, Museum of Modern Art, New York, Fry Art Gallery, Essex.
Born RuPaul Andre Charles, cover girl RuPaul began her recording career in the mid-1980s and hit it big in 1993. “Supermodel” is the first number-one pop song recorded by a drag queen (if you don’t count BOY GEORGE). RuPaul has enjoyed a successful string of television and live appearances since then. Born in San Diego and raised in Atlanta, RuPaul always knew she was different from the rest. As she often notes, “We are all born naked, all the rest is drag.” She met her longtime boyfriend George at a bar, and was immediately attracted by his spirited dancing.
RuPaul Andre Charles (born November 17, 1960), best known as simply RuPaul, is an American actor, drag queen, model, author, and recording artist, who first became widely known in the 1990s when he appeared in a wide variety of television programs, films, and musical albums. Previously, he was a fixture on the Atlanta and New York City club scenes during the 1980s and early 90s. RuPaul has on occasion performed as a man in a number of roles, usually billed as RuPaul Charles. RuPaul is noted among famous drag queens for his indifference towards the gender-specific pronouns used to address him—both "he" and "she" have been deemed acceptable. "You can call me he. You can call me she. You can call me Regis and Kathie Lee; I don't care! Just as long as you call me." She hosted a short-running talk show on VH1, and currently hosts reality television shows RuPaul's Drag Race and RuPaul's Drag U. Rupaul is also known for his hit song "Supermodel (You Better Work)".
Charles Kaiser is an American author, journalist and blogger. His blog about the media, Full Court Press, originated on the website of Radar Magazine in the fall of 2007. He continued it at the Columbia Journalism Review and the Sidney Hillman Foundation until the spring of 2011. His main interests include The New York Times, torture conducted by the Bush administration, American politics, the French Resistance, Bob Dylan, and The Beatles.
November 2013 marks the 7th anniversary since I opened my first journal (and yes, I have an itch, but I will scratch it!), on LJ, and the 5th anniversary of the Rainbow Awards. So, of course I decided for a big bash party. 188 authors, all of them in the 2013 Rainbow Awards, have donated or an ebook, or a print book, and I will use them for a Treasure Hunt. Every day, for all November, I will post 6 excerpts (a random page of the book). No reference to title, or author, or publisher. You have to match it with the book ;-) comment on the blog (do not leave anonymous comments, if you post as anonymous, leave a contact email (comments are screened)), you can comment 1 time for more matchings (you can even try for all 6 books if you like, so 6 chances to win every day). Until the end I will not say which matching is right, so you will have ALL month to try. No limit on how many books you can win, the more you try the better chance you have to win. End of November, among the right matchings, I will draw the winners. So now? let the game start!