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Burt Blechman (March 2, 1927 - December 29, 1998)
Burt Blechman passed away at age 71 on December 29, 1998 in Providence, Rhode Island of pancreatic cancer. He was survived by his companion John Marsh.His first novel, "How Much" was adapted by Lillian Hellman for Broadway, and praised by Alfred Kazan as "a book that comes off with painful power ...inimitable." Critically acclaimed by W.H. Auden, Anita Loos, and Susan Sontag, he subsequently wrote four novels, "The War Of Camp Omongo," "Maybe," "Stations," and "The Octopus Papers."
"Turn Off The Television Awhile," wrote Saul Bellow, "and for the sake of your souls, read Burt Blechman." A generous contributor to The Yivo Institute for Jewish Research and the Pearl Theatre, he was a brilliant conversationalist and wit.
The New York Review of Books wrote of "The War Of Camp Omongo": "As extra-literary social pressures have slackened, the gain in artistic range and depth has been unquestionable. The American-Jewish novelist has been emancipated; Bernard Malamud’s generation finally struck off the fetters of uncompromising naturalism, and younger men like Mr. Blechman and Mr. Simckes take their freedom for granted." To this the same Burt Blechman answered, in a letter to the Editors:
"Crucify me if I ever write another book about Jews. Frankly, I have had it. Your reviewer’s grouping me with the OY GEVALTers was the final stroke. To date, I have written two novels with a Jewish background. Reviewers who favor them invariably use the expression “About a family who just happen to be Jewish.” Well, they didn’t just happen. They weren’t born that way, they didn’t choose to be that way. I made them that way. And I promise never to do it again.
Reviewers take note. Henceforth, you will have to place Blechman in a different category. No more “a young Jewish novelist” or “among our newer and more jaded Jewish writers.” I know it will be hard, this refusal to wear the shoe that fits, to sleep in the bed my parents made. But I’m weary of that literary and oh-so-handy Star of David. I’m off to another category. If you think I can’t stick daggers into Protestants, just try me. If you think I’m afraid of the Index, wait and see. Call it a betrayal of trust, call it heresy, but I’m tired of being typed.
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Source: http://www.nytimes.com/1999/01/10/classified/paid-notice-deaths-blechman-burt.html
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More LGBT History at my website: http://www.elisarolle.com/, My Ramblings/Gay Classics
Charlie Darkey Parkhurst, often Charlie/Charlene/Charlotte or Parkurst, born Mary Parkhurst (1812–1879), was an American stagecoach driver and early California settler. Born female, Parkhurst lived as a man for most of his life and may have been the first biological female to vote in California.
Singer Marianne Faithfull bumped into Andrew Loog Oldham at a party in 1964, and the Rolling Stones’ manager took her under his wing. Her first single, "As Tears Go By," was written by Oldham, Mick JAGGER, and Keith Richards. It was a hit.
I have never been an excerpt of Yaoi, cause, as for fanfiction, my background is not that but “classical” romances; I have read Yaoi at the beginning, cause, at the time there wasn’t much choice, but then truly Yaoi romances remained an exception in the majority of new releases. So take my saying on this novel with this preamble: I think this was a quite interesting Yaoi novel, where the author tried to mix western and eastern approaches without betraying one or the other side.
This is not the first story I read in the from the Range series, and I’m quite surprised the author always manages to make them different remaining nevertheless inside the confines of the same range, same town and more or less same circle of supporting characters.