Wade Kelly (January 12)

"I live and write in conservative, small-town America. Here, it's not always easy to live free and open in one's beliefs. Nevertheless, I strive to write passionately about controversial issues and ponder contentious subjects on paper as I try to make a difference in the world by making people think. Basically, I write what I feel, I write what I know, and I write what I think others need to hear. And if you think a character sounds like someone you know, think again... All my characters are ME.

Unlike some authors, I have no huge background in writing or philosophy. I'm not good at punctuation or spelling, and my thoughts often surpass my ability as an author to express them. However, I can't NOT write. It's who I am. When not writing, I'm thinking about writing and more than likely scribbling notes on old napkins in the car while playing "taxi driver" for my three children. I like ball pythons and my turtle (although over the winter was in the bathtub,) is now in a pond on my deck. I hope you are touched by my stories."

My Roommate's a Jock won a 2013 Rainbow Award as Best LGBT Romantic Comedy.

Source: www.writerwadekelly.com/bio.html

Further Readings:

My Roommate's a Jock? Well, Crap! by Wade Kelly
Paperback: 262 pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press (December 31, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1623802547
ISBN-13: 978-1623802547
Amazon: My Roommate's a Jock? Well, Crap!
Amazon Kindle: My Roommate's a Jock? Well, Crap!

It's easy to become cynical when life never goes your way.

Cole Reid has been a social recluse since he was fifteen, when he was outed by his high school baseball team. Since then, his obsessive-compulsive behavior and sarcastic nature have driven away most of the population, and everyone else hates him because he's gay. As he sees it, he's bound to repulse any prospective friends, let alone boyfriends, so why bother?

By the time Cole enters college, he's become an anal-retentive loner-but it's not a problem until his roommate graduates and the housing department assigns Ellis Montgomery to move in with Cole. Ellis is messy, gorgeous, straight, and worst of all, a jock!

During a school year filled with frat buddies, camping expeditions, and meddling parents, Cole and Ellis develop a friendship that turns Cole's glass-half-empty outlook on its head. There must be more to Ellis than a fun-loving jock-and maybe Cole's reawakening libido has rekindled his hope for more than camaraderie.

More Rainbow Awards at my website: http://www.elisarolle.com/, Rainbow Awards/2013

Edith Emma Cooper & Katherine Harris Bradley

Michael Field was a pseudonym used for the poetry and verse drama of Katherine Harris Bradley (27 October 1846 – 26 September 1914) and her niece and ward Edith Emma Cooper (12 January 1862 – 13 December 1913). As Field they wrote around 40 works together, and a long journal Works and Days. Their intention was to keep the pen-name secret, but it became public knowledge, not long after they had confided in their friend Robert Browning.

Katherine Bradley was born on 27 October 1846 in Birmingham, England, the daughter of Charles Bradley, a tobacco manufacturer, and of Emma (née Harris). Her grandfather, also Charles Bradley (1785–1845), was a prominent follower and financial backer of prophetess Joanna Southcott and her self-styled successor John "Zion" Ward. She was educated at the Collège de France and Newnham College, Cambridge.

Bradley's elder sister, Emma, married James Robert Cooper in 1860, and went to live in Kenilworth, where their daughter, Edith Emma Cooper was born on 12 January 1862. Emma Cooper became an invalid for life after the birth of her second daughter, Amy, and Katherine Bradley, being her sister, stepped in to become the legal guardian of her niece Edith Cooper.

Bradley was for a time involved with Ruskin's utopian project. She published first under the pseudonym Arran Leigh, a nod to Elizabeth Barrett. Edith adopted the name Isla Leigh.


Michael Field was a pseudonym used for the poetry and verse drama of Katherine Harris Bradley (27 October 1846 - 26 September 1914) and her niece and ward Edith Emma Cooper (12 January 1862 - 13 December 1913). From the late 1870s, when Edith was at University College, Bristol, they agreed to live together and were, over the next 40 years, lesbian lovers, and co-authors. They had financial independence: Bradley's father Charles Bradley had been in the tobacco industry in Birmingham.

( Read more... )

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katherine_Harris_Bradley

Days of Love: Celebrating LGBT History One Story at a Time by Elisa Rolle
Paperback: 760 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform; 1 edition (July 1, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1500563323
ISBN-13: 978-1500563325
CreateSpace Store: https://www.createspace.com/4910282
Amazon (Paperback): http://www.amazon.com/dp/1500563323/?tag=elimyrevandra-20
Amazon (Kindle): http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MZG0VHY/?tag=elimyrevandra-20

Days of Love chronicles more than 700 LGBT couples throughout history, spanning 2000 years from Alexander the Great to the most recent winner of a Lambda Literary Award. Many of the contemporary couples share their stories on how they met and fell in love, as well as photos from when they married or of their families. Included are professional portraits by Robert Giard and Stathis Orphanos, paintings by John Singer Sargent and Giovanni Boldini, and photographs by Frances Benjamin Johnson, Arnold Genthe, and Carl Van Vechten among others. “It's wonderful. Laying it out chronologically is inspired, offering a solid GLBT history. I kept learning things. I love the decision to include couples broken by death. It makes clear how important love is, as well as showing what people have been through. The layout and photos look terrific.” Christopher Bram “I couldn’t resist clicking through every page. I never realized the scope of the book would cover centuries! I know that it will be hugely validating to young, newly-emerging LGBT kids and be reassured that they really can have a secure, respected place in the world as their futures unfold.” Howard Cruse “This international history-and-photo book, featuring 100s of detailed bios of some of the most forward-moving gay persons in history, is sure to be one of those bestsellers that gay folk will enjoy for years to come as reference and research that is filled with facts and fun.” Jack Fritscher

James Deering & John Singer Sargent

James Deering (1859 – September 1925) was an industrialist executive in the family Deering Harvester Company and subsequent International Harvester, a socialite, and an antiquities collector. He is known for his landmark Vizcaya estate, where he was an early 20th-century resident on Biscayne Bay in the present day Coconut Grove district of Miami, Florida. Begun in 1910, with architecture and gardens in a Mediterranean Revival style, Vizcaya was his passionate endeavor with artist Paul Chalfin, and his winter home from 1916 to his death in 1925.

James Deering was born in 1859 in the western Maine town of South Paris, Maine. He was the son of William Deering and his second wife, Clara Hammond Deering. His older half-brother was the arts patron Charles Deering.

His father, who had inherited the family Woolen Mill and was landowner in the Northeast, invested in a farm equipment manufacturing company, renaming it the Deering Harvester Company. In 1873 he moved the family to Chicago, Illinois. New 'Deering Harvester Company' reaper machinery enabled Midwestern United States farmers to harvest an acre of grain per hour, a substantial increase in productivity that increased the profitability of Mid-West agriculture significantly. The Deering Harvester Company grew in value, so that by the end of the nineteenth century the Deerings had become one of America's wealthiest families, although his father William was conservative in family spending. His parents did acquire a residence in St. Augustine, Florida for the winter season. James Deering's older brother, Charles Deering, joined the family business in the 1880s, after attending the United States Naval Academy and nine years in the Navy. James Deering attended one year each at Northwestern University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before also joining the company at the same time.


©Elisa. Vizcaya
James Deering (1859–1925) was an industrialist executive in the family Deering Harvester Company and subsequent International Harvester, a socialite, and an antiquities collector. He is known for his landmark Vizcaya estate, where he was an early 20th-century resident on Biscayne Bay. Begun in 1910, with architecture and gardens in a Mediterranean Revival style, Vizcaya was his passionate endeavor with artist Paul Chalfin, and his winter home from 1916 to his death in 1925.

( Read more... )

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Deering

John Singer Sargent (January 12, 1856 – April 14, 1925) was an American artist, considered the "leading portrait painter of his generation" for his evocations of Edwardian era luxury. During his career, he created roughly 900 oil paintings and more than 2,000 watercolors, as well as countless sketches and charcoal drawings. His oeuvre documents worldwide travel, from Venice to the Tyrol, Corfu, the Middle East, Montana, Maine, and Florida. (Picture: Self Portrait, 1906, oil on canvas, 70 x 53 cm, Uffizi Gallery, Florence)

An American expatriate who was trained in Paris prior to moving to London, Sargent enjoyed international acclaim as a portrait painter, though not without controversy and some critical reservation; an early submission to the Paris Salon, his Portrait of Madame X was intended to consolidate his position as a society painter, but it resulted in scandal instead. From the beginning his work was characterized by remarkable technical facility, particularly in his ability to draw with a brush, which in later years inspired admiration as well as criticism for a supposed superficiality. His commissioned works were consistent with the Grand manner of portraiture, while his informal studies and landscape paintings displayed a familiarity with Impressionism. In later life Sargent expressed ambivalence about the restrictions of formal portrait work, and devoted much of his energy to mural painting and working en plein air.

Before Sargent's birth, his father FitzWilliam (b. 1820 Gloucester, Massachusetts) was an eye surgeon at the Wills Eye Hospital in Philadelphia 1844-1854. After John's older sister died at the age of two, his mother Mary (née Singer) suffered a breakdown, and the couple decided to go abroad to recover. They remained nomadic expatriates for the rest of their lives. Though based in Paris, Sargent's parents moved regularly with the seasons to the sea and the mountain resorts in France, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland. While Mary was pregnant, they stopped in Florence, Italy because of a cholera epidemic. Sargent was born there in 1856. A year later, his sister Mary was born. After her birth, FitzWilliam reluctantly resigned his post in Philadelphia and accepted his wife's entreaties to remain abroad. They lived modestly on a small inheritance and savings, living a quiet life with their children. They generally avoided society and other Americans except for friends in the art world. Four more children were born abroad, of whom only two lived past childhood.


Thomas E. McKeller
John Singer Sargent was an American artist, considered the "leading portrait painter of his generation" for his evocations of Edwardian era luxury.His male nudes reveal complex and well-considered artistic sensibilities about the male physique and male sensuality; this can be particularly observed in his portrait of Thomas E. McKeller (an African American elevator operator he befriended), but also in Tommies Bathing, nude sketches for Hell and Judgement, and his portraits of young men. Sargent scholars accept an affair with Louise Burkhardt, the model for Lady with the Rose.

( more pictures )

( Read more... )

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Singer_Sargent

Renowned society painter John Singer Sargent was exploring the male nude in his public art and private albums. His use of Thomas E. McKeller, an African American elevator operator he befriended, as the model for many of his black-and-white nudes speaks to Sargent's impulse to retink racial paradigms, even as he is caught in them. Day, von Gloeden, and Sargent are part of a tradition of negotiating sexuality and race through art, one that stretches back to Thoreau, Melville, and Stoddard. Art historian Trevor Fairbrother points out that Sargent's male nudes have a sensuous quality, often reclining in positions associated with the female nude. This pose is in direct contrast to patriotic statuary.
Technology and consumer capitalism helped bring some of these artists' images to a broader public. Inexpensive and easily available photographic prints - called studio cards - were now available through mass reproduction, and copies of artworks could be easily obtained by middle-class and even working-class people. This meant that art, once owned only by the wealthy, was becoming democratized and democratizing in a new way.
Most art historians agree that von Gloeden had sexual relationship with men and that Day, Eakins, and Sargent had romantic, if not physical, relationships with men. Women and men who desired their own sex had not found a significant level of freedom in America. But these female and male artists were able to live with a certain amount of visibility, with privileges the ordinary person did not have. --A Queer History of the United States by Michael Bronski

( more paintings )

Paul Chalfin was an artist and interior designer with an interest in architecture, most known for his work on Villa Vizcaya.

Paul Chalfin was born on November 2, 1874 in New York to Colonel Samuel Fletcher Chalfin and Jane Voorhees (Connolly) Chalfin.

In 1894 Chalfin began studying at Harvard University and left after two years to become an artist, enrolling at the Art Students League of New York to study painting. After graduation in 1898 he was accepted at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, France where he studied painting with Jean-Léon Gérôme, a historic genre painter who had previously taught Thomas Eakins. Although Chalfin possessed excellent taste in building design, utilized his extensive observation of European buildings and monuments, and liked being mistaken for an architect, he never studied or obtained a degree in architecture, nor was he an architect.

While studying in Paris, Chalfin also traveled to Italy in 1899. In 1902 he received honorable mention for the Lazarus Scholarship for his mural painting on the subject of spring. Chalfin returned to Massachusetts in 1903 to succeed Walter T. Cabot as Curator of Chinese and Japanese art at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. While Curator he published a 27-paged catalogue entitled 'Japanese wood carvings, architectural and decorative fragments from temples and palaces.'


Paul Chalfin by Albert Sterner, 1916

( Read more... )

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Chalfin

Days of Love: Celebrating LGBT History One Story at a Time by Elisa Rolle
Paperback: 760 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform; 1 edition (July 1, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1500563323
-13: 978-1500563325
CreateSpace Store: https://www.createspace.com/4910282
Amazon (Paperback): http://www.amazon.com/dp/1500563323/?tag=elimyrevandra-20
Amazon (Kindle): http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MZG0VHY/?tag=elimyrevandra-20

Days of Love chronicles more than 700 LGBT couples throughout history, spanning 2000 years from Alexander the Great to the most recent winner of a Lambda Literary Award. Many of the contemporary couples share their stories on how they met and fell in love, as well as photos from when they married or of their families. Included are professional portraits by Robert Giard and Stathis Orphanos, paintings by John Singer Sargent and Giovanni Boldini, and photographs by Frances Benjamin Johnson, Arnold Genthe, and Carl Van Vechten among others. “It's wonderful. Laying it out chronologically is inspired, offering a solid GLBT history. I kept learning things. I love the decision to include couples broken by death. It makes clear how important love is, as well as showing what people have been through. The layout and photos look terrific.” Christopher Bram “I couldn’t resist clicking through every page. I never realized the scope of the book would cover centuries! I know that it will be hugely validating to young, newly-emerging LGBT kids and be reassured that they really can have a secure, respected place in the world as their futures unfold.” Howard Cruse “This international history-and-photo book, featuring 100s of detailed bios of some of the most forward-moving gay persons in history, is sure to be one of those bestsellers that gay folk will enjoy for years to come as reference and research that is filled with facts and fun.” Jack Fritscher

Long John Baldry & Oz Rexach

John William "Long John" Baldry (12 January 1941 – 21 July 2005) was an English and Canadian blues singer and a voice actor. It Ain't Easy was one of Baldry's biggest successes and his introduction to the US and Canadian markets. The opener, "Don't Try to Lay No Boogie Woogie on the King of Rock 'n' Roll" was inspired by his arrest for busking all those years ago and became a big hit.

Shortly after in 1978, needing a fresh start (some of the British never forgave him for Heartaches), Baldry moved to New York. It seemed to free him. Dressed in leather, out on the town, he met the man he would spend the rest of his life with: Felix "Oz" Rexach, a charming, chatty, flamboyant Puerto Rican immigrant who frequented Studio 54 in spandex from the clothing shop where he worked, taking orders from the well-heeled partiers.

From New York, the couple moved to a farmhouse in Milton, outside of Toronto. During this time, he recorded another of his best records, Baldry's Out! Whether the title referred to his release from a psychiatric hospital (years earlier, despondent over a breakup, he'd taken an overdose of Valium and alcohol) or to his sexuality, the album included one of the most significant and satisfying songs of his career.

He sang with many British musicians, with Rod Stewart and Elton John appearing in bands led by Baldry in the 1960s. He enjoyed pop success in the UK where Let the Heartaches Begin reached No. 1 in 1967 and in Australia where his duet with Kathi McDonald You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' reached number two in 1980. Baldry lived in Canada from the late 1970s until his death; there he continued to make records and do voiceover work. One of his best known roles in voice acting was as Dr Robotnik in Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog.


Rod Stewart & Long John Baldry
Long John Baldry was an English and Canadian blues singer and a voice actor. It Ain't Easy was one of Baldry's biggest successes. The opener, "Don't Try to Lay No Boogie Woogie on the King of Rock 'n' Roll" was inspired by his arrest for busking. In 1978 Baldry moved to New York: dressed in leather, out on the town, he met the man he would spend the rest of his life with: Felix "Oz" Rexach, a charming, chatty, flamboyant Puerto Rican immigrant who frequented Studio 54. Baldry died in 2005.

( Read more... )

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_John_Baldry

Days of Love: Celebrating LGBT History One Story at a Time by Elisa Rolle
Paperback: 760 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform; 1 edition (July 1, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1500563323
-13: 978-1500563325
CreateSpace Store: https://www.createspace.com/4910282
Amazon (Paperback): http://www.amazon.com/dp/1500563323/?tag=elimyrevandra-20
Amazon (Kindle): http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MZG0VHY/?tag=elimyrevandra-20

Days of Love chronicles more than 700 LGBT couples throughout history, spanning 2000 years from Alexander the Great to the most recent winner of a Lambda Literary Award. Many of the contemporary couples share their stories on how they met and fell in love, as well as photos from when they married or of their families. Included are professional portraits by Robert Giard and Stathis Orphanos, paintings by John Singer Sargent and Giovanni Boldini, and photographs by Frances Benjamin Johnson, Arnold Genthe, and Carl Van Vechten among others. “It's wonderful. Laying it out chronologically is inspired, offering a solid GLBT history. I kept learning things. I love the decision to include couples broken by death. It makes clear how important love is, as well as showing what people have been through. The layout and photos look terrific.” Christopher Bram “I couldn’t resist clicking through every page. I never realized the scope of the book would cover centuries! I know that it will be hugely validating to young, newly-emerging LGBT kids and be reassured that they really can have a secure, respected place in the world as their futures unfold.” Howard Cruse “This international history-and-photo book, featuring 100s of detailed bios of some of the most forward-moving gay persons in history, is sure to be one of those bestsellers that gay folk will enjoy for years to come as reference and research that is filled with facts and fun.” Jack Fritscher

Monma Chiyo & Nobuko Yoshiya

Nobuko Yoshiya (12 January 1896 - 11 July 1973) was a Japanese novelist active in Taishō and Showa period of Japan. She was one of modern Japan's most commercially successful and prolific writers, specializing in serialized romance novels and adolescent girls’ fiction, as well as a pioneer in Japanese lesbian literature, including the Class S genre. Several of her stories have been made into films. On January 1923, Yoshiya met Monma Chiyo, a mathematics teacher at girls' school in Tokyo. They would go on to have a same-sex relationship for over 50 years. Unlike many Japanese public persona, she was not reticent about revealing details of her personal life through photographs, personal essays and magazine interviews. In 1926, they established a collaborative working relationship of author and secretary. In 1957, Yoshiya adopted Monma as her daughter, the only legal way for lesbians to share property and make medical decisions for each other. They both traveled together to Manchuria, the Soviet Union, stayed for a year in Paris and then returned via the United States to Japan from 1927-1928. In the late 1930s, they also visited the Netherlands East Indies and French Indochina.

Yoshiya was born in Niigata prefecture, but grew up in Mooka and Tochigi cities in Tochigi prefecture. Her father was first a police officer and then became a local county government official, so her family relocated often to accommodate his tranfers. She was the only daughter and youngest of five children in her family. Both her mother and her father came from samurai families. Her middle-class, culturally conservative parents trained her for the "good wife, wise mother" role expected of women in Meiji Japan. Her literary career began when she was in her teens, although prior to this she had developed a love for writing which sapped her time for learning domestic skills from her mother.


Nobuko Yoshiya was a Japanese novelist active in Taishō and Showa period of Japan. On January 1923, Yoshiya met Monma Chiyo, a mathematics teacher at girls' school in Tokyo. They would go on to have a same-sex relationship for over 52 years. Unlike many Japanese public persona, she was not reticent about revealing details of her personal life through photographs, personal essays and magazine interviews. In 1926, they established a collaborative working relationship of author and secretary.

( Read more... )

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobuko_Yoshiya

Days of Love: Celebrating LGBT History One Story at a Time by Elisa Rolle
Paperback: 760 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform; 1 edition (July 1, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1500563323
ISBN-13: 978-1500563325
CreateSpace Store: https://www.createspace.com/4910282
Amazon (Paperback): http://www.amazon.com/dp/1500563323/?tag=elimyrevandra-20
Amazon (Kindle): http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MZG0VHY/?tag=elimyrevandra-20

Days of Love chronicles more than 700 LGBT couples throughout history, spanning 2000 years from Alexander the Great to the most recent winner of a Lambda Literary Award. Many of the contemporary couples share their stories on how they met and fell in love, as well as photos from when they married or of their families. Included are professional portraits by Robert Giard and Stathis Orphanos, paintings by John Singer Sargent and Giovanni Boldini, and photographs by Frances Benjamin Johnson, Arnold Genthe, and Carl Van Vechten among others. “It's wonderful. Laying it out chronologically is inspired, offering a solid GLBT history. I kept learning things. I love the decision to include couples broken by death. It makes clear how important love is, as well as showing what people have been through. The layout and photos look terrific.” Christopher Bram “I couldn’t resist clicking through every page. I never realized the scope of the book would cover centuries! I know that it will be hugely validating to young, newly-emerging LGBT kids and be reassured that they really can have a secure, respected place in the world as their futures unfold.” Howard Cruse “This international history-and-photo book, featuring 100s of detailed bios of some of the most forward-moving gay persons in history, is sure to be one of those bestsellers that gay folk will enjoy for years to come as reference and research that is filled with facts and fun.” Jack Fritscher

Dylan Rosser (born January 12)

Dylan Rosser has been photographing the male nude for more than a decade. He has been based in London for the last decade and just recently has moved to Ibiza, but has often shoot in NYC and Los Angeles.

Some of his male nude photo-books are:

Full Frontal: The Best of Dylan Rosser by Dylan Rosser
Hardcover: 160 pages
Publisher: Bruno Gmunder Verlag Gmbh (July 1, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 3867875987
ISBN-13: 978-3867875981
Amazon: Full Frontal: The Best of Dylan Rosser

Dylan Rosser is one of the most renowned photographers of erotic male images. His works touch us because of the sensibility of his view and the clearness of his compositions. In Full Frontal, Bruno Gmunder showcases Rosser's best work in recent years. - Other bestselling books by Dylan Rosser include X-Posed and Naked - Dylan Rosser sets the standard for modern male photography. - A compilation of his best work from previous bestsellers.

Naked by Dylan Rosser
Hardcover: 112 pages
Publisher: Bruno Gmunder Verlag Gmbh (November 1, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 3867872260
ISBN-13: 978-3867872263
Amazon: Naked

Whenever a photographer wants to show his models completely nude he needs a lot of empathy to create an atmosphere that's free of any restraints. Dylan Rosser is perfectly capable of this as he has already proven with his photo books. Naked is all about intimacy and encounters with men at their most vulnerable but also at her most beautiful. His style is more down-to-earth and accessible than in his last book Red, the pictures are striking and go under your skin.

Red by Dylan Rosser
Hardcover: 120 pages
Publisher: Bruno Gmunder Verlag Gmbh (October 1, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 386787042X
ISBN-13: 978-3867870429
Amazon: Red

Flawless male bodies perfectly lighted and masterfully retouched, that is Dylan Rossers trademark. The color red is the red thread of Red.

X-Posed by Dylan Rosser
Hardcover: 144 pages
Publisher: Bruno Gmunder Verlag Gmbh (October 1, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 386787008X
ISBN-13: 978-3867870085
Amazon: X-Posed

Dylan Rosser focuses on the purity and sensuality of the male form.

Dylan's work can be found at: www.TheMaleForm.net and since last year together with other awesome photographers of male nude.

More Photographers at my website: http://www.elisarolle.com/, My Ramblings/Art

Paul Mariah (1938 - January 12, 1996)

Paul Mariah was a pioneer of the gay literary scene in San Francisco during the 1960s and 1970s.

Paul Mariah was born in Whittington, Ill. but long resided in the Bay Area. He had served time in prison before coming to San Francisco. In a 1977 newspaper article, his prison experiences were cited as crucial to his personal and literary development.

He started Manroot Books and a literary magazine with the same title in 1969. A dozen issues of the magazine appeared, along with 30 monographs. His enterprise published many leading writers of the time, including notable editions of such major poets as Jack Spicer, James Broughton, Robert Peters, and Thom Gunn.

Mr. Mariah also issued bilingual editions of Jean Cocteau and Jean Genet, and revived interest in the work of Robert Ingersoll, the 19th century prison reformer and social critic.

His own poetry appeared in two collections, "Personae Non Gratae" in 1971 and "This Light Will Spread" in 1978.

Mr. Mariah was also prominent in the movement for prisoners' rights.

Mr. Mariah died of pneumonia January 12, 1996. He was 58.

Source: http://articles.sfgate.com/1996-01-25/news/17766247_1_thom-gunn-literary-magazine-prisoners-rights

( Paul Mariah at Small Press Traffic, 1988, by Robert Giard )

( Further Readings )

More Particular Voices at my website: http://www.elisarolle.com/, My Ramblings/Particular Voices