Entry tags:
Bob Ashe & Mark Merlis
Mark Merlis (born March 9, 1950) is a novelist of unusual imaginative and linguistic power who examines contemporary gay concerns through the filter of historical parallels. His thought-filled, lyrical, yet wryly humorous narratives shift between the past and the present in order to illuminate the cause-and-effect relationship between homophobia and gay self-loathing, among other issues. Bob Ashe (born January 2, 1954) and Mark Merlis live in Philadelphia, where they were married on June 13, 2014. “We met in Leon’s, a dive bar in Baltimore, in 1982. Each of us was cruising someone else; each of us struck out; it was last call. We saw each other and thought, ‘This will do for one night.’ We’ve been together ever since.”Ultimately, his explorations of gay memory and the gay past offer a vision of how the cycles of violence can be broken and individuals join hands across the divides that separate them.
In American Studies (1994), Reeve, the elderly victim of a brutal beating by a hustler he brought home late one night, spends his time while recuperating in the hospital recollecting how Tom Slater, his college mentor, was driven to commit suicide when outed during the McCarthy era.
In An Arrow's Flight (1998), Merlis sets the events of the Trojan War in a late twentieth-century Mediterranean or Caribbean milieu, adapting the ancient myth of Philoctetes--who was abandoned under miserable circumstances by his fellow Greeks en route to Troy when a leg wound festered so badly that no one could bear its rank odor--to illuminate American attitudes towards the gay body in general, and towards AIDS-sufferers in particular.
Courtesy of Mark Merlis. Bob and Mark (©15)
Mark Merlis is an American writer, author of the novels American Studies and An Arrow’s Flight. Bob Ashe retired as an executive of Janssen Pharmaceuticals, part of Johnson & Johnson. They live in Philadelphia, where they were married on June 13, 2014. “We met in Leon’s, a dive bar in Baltimore, in 1982. Each of us was cruising someone else; each of us struck out; it was last call. We saw each other and thought, ‘This will do for one night.’ We’ve been together ever since.”
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Citation Information
Author: Frontain, Raymond-Jean
Entry Title: Merlis, Mark
General Editor: Claude J. Summers
Publication Name: glbtq: An Encyclopedia of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Culture
Publication Date: 2006
Date Last Updated July 13, 2006
Web Address www.glbtq.com/literature/merlis_m.html
Publisher glbtq, Inc.
1130 West Adams
Chicago, IL 60607
Today's Date March 9, 2012
Encyclopedia Copyright: © 2002-2006, glbtq, Inc.
Entry Copyright © 2006 glbtq, Inc.
My own novels are adaptations of fairy tales, so I adored An Arrow’s Flight by Mark Merlis a brilliant, tongue-in-cheek deconstruction of the story of mythic Achilles’ son Pyrrhus, who works as a naked go-go boy in ancient Greece. The inventive prose in An Arrow’s Flight is as irreverent as it is clever, and I’d wager that you’ll laugh as much as your loins will stir. I can’t recommend this book highly enough. Dazzling. --Nick Nolan
Mark Merlis‘s American Studies is the novel that demonstrated more than any other, when I found it at the age of 26, that the kind of gay sensibility with which I found myself in sympathy could, at its most sophisticated, synthesize wit (a pair of bottoms are described as ―two tunnels with no train‖), intellect (the literary critic F.O. Matthiessen is the model for a character, and the writing rings with intelligence throughout), eroticism (the interplay between the narrator and his young hospital roommate is quintessentially sexy), and emotional depth in a story that‘s riveting, memorable and fun. Merlis‘s novel, published in 1994 (his first and best so far), is for me the literary achievement par excellence. --Rick Whitaker, The Lost Library, Gay Fiction Rediscovered( Mark Merlis, 1999, by Robert Giard )
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=e
Amazon (Kindle): http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MZG0VHY/?tag=e
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
Lee Lynch (born 1945) is an American author who started writing lesbian fiction and non-fiction in the 1960s when she was a contributor to The Ladder, the only lesbian publication at the time. 
Evangeline Marrs born January 15, 1862, at Saxonville (Boston), married a very rich industrialist Michael Hodge Simpson. She was left a rich widow in 1885 and met Rose Elizabeth Cleveland (June 13, 1846 - November 22, 1918), the sister of Grover Cleveland, then president of the Unites States with whom she began an intimate friendship. Rose Cleveland was 44 at the time and had been First Lady at the White House for 2 years. Their relationship cooled off when at the age of 33, in 1896 Evangeline married the 64 year old Episcopal Bishop of Minnesota, Henry Benjamin Whipple. The bishop was famous for his dedication to the Indians. It was the age of the conflicts between the Sioux and Sitting Bull and the American federalists, a part of history that we all have heard about. With him she established herself in the city of Faribault, seat of his bishopdom, and participated actively in her husband’s work. (P: Evangeline Simpson Whipple (©1))
Rose Elizabeth Cleveland (June 13, 1846 - November 22, 1918), was the First Lady of the United States from 1885 to 1886, during the first of her brother U.S. President Grover Cleveland's two administrations.
Days of Love: Celebrating LGBT History One Story at a Time by Elisa Rolle
Dean James (aka Jimmie Ruth Evans, Honor Hartman, Miranda James) is a mystery author who has lived in Houston, Texas for over twenty-five years, has two cats and thousands of books, and plays bridge as often as possible. 
Posted to Death: A Simon Kirby-Jones Mystery (2002)
For the Euro Pride in Munich, July 11-12, 2015
For the UK Meet in Bristol, September 11-13, 2015
For the GRL in San Diego, October 15-18, 2015