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Steve Kluger (born June 24, 1952)
Jun. 24th, 2015 08:54 pm
Steve Kluger shook hands with Lucille Ball when he was 12. He's since lived a few more decades, but nothing much registered after that.Kluger is a novelist and playwright who grew up during the Sixties with only two heroes: Tom Seaver and Ethel Merman. Few were able to grasp the concept. A veteran of Casablanca and a graduate of The Graduate, he has written extensively on subjects as far-ranging as World War II, rock and roll, and the Titanic, and as close to the heart as baseball and the Boston Red Sox (which frequently have nothing to do with one another). Doubtless due to the fact that he's a card-carrying Baby Boomer whose entire existence was shaped by the lyrics to Abbey Road, Workingman's Dead, and Annie Get Your Gun (his first spoken words, in fact, were actually stolen from The Pajama Game), he's also forged a somewhat singular path as a civil rights advocate, campaigning for a "Save Fenway Park" initiative (which qualifies as a civil right if you're a Red Sox fan), counseling gay teenagers, and—on behalf of Japanese American internment redress—lobbying the Department of the Interior to restore the baseball diamond at the Manzanar National Historic Site. Meanwhile, he's donated half of his spare time to organizations such as Lambda Legal, GLSEN, and Models of Pride, and gives the rest of it to his nephews and nieces: Emily, Noah, Bridgette, Audrey, Elisa, Paloma, Logan, Evan, and Robbie—the nine kids who own his heart.
He lives in Boston, Massachusetts—the only city in the world.
Source: http://www.stevekluger.com/
That said, I love Steve Kluger’s books. “Almost Like Being In Love” is such a great, positive, tremendously fun read. So is “My Most Excellent Year”. I love both those books very, very much. --Z.A. Maxfield
Almost Like Being in Love is a laugh-out-loud, flash back, flash foreword, love story. This is a heartwarming, feel-good book about love surviving against all odds. Told in a series of narrative, checklists, journal entries, emails and letters, Kluger nonetheless brings his characters to amazing Technicolor life. This wild cross-country adventure will certainly have you believing in the power of love -and laughter. --Rob Rosen
Almost Like Falling In Love is my favorite gay romance novel ever: funny, touching, real, with characters that jump off the page. Kluger's epistolary style doesn't work as well here as in his more acclaimed “Last Days of Summer,” but it works well enough to bury you in the story of Travis, now a college professor, as he tries to recapture the love of his life, a jock named Craig with whom he'd spent a magical summer back in high school. The question is, does Craig even remember him? --Kyell GoldFurther Readings:
Almost Like Being in Love: A Novel by Steve KlugerPaperback: 368 pages
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks (May 11, 2004)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0060595833
ASIN: B0007XWN96
Amazon: Almost Like Being in Love: A Novel
Amazon Kindle: Almost Like Being in Love: A Novel
A high school jock and nerd fall in love senior year, only to part after an amazing summer of discovery to attend their respective colleges. They keep in touch at first, but then slowly drift apart.
Flash forward twenty years.
Travis and Craig both have great lives, careers, and loves. But something is missing .... Travis is the first to figure it out. He's still in love with Craig, and come what may, he's going after the boy who captured his heart, even if it means forsaking his job, making a fool of himself, and entering the great unknown. Told in narrative, letters, checklists, and more, this is the must-read novel for anyone who's wondered what ever happened to that first great love.
More Spotlights at my website: http://www.elisarolle.com/, My Lists/Gay Novels
Crowds of up to three thousand people crowded Henry Ward Beecher’s Brooklyn church in the 1840s to hear the pastor preach on sin. It was Beecher’s loveless marriage, however, that was truly hell. In 1875 a national scandal erupted when Beecher was tried for adultery. In that case, he was accused of an affair with a woman, but earlier in his life Beecher had been passionately involved with at least one young man. (P: LOC ds.03753. Cigarette card for Goodwin & Co. tobacco manufacturer shows portrait of Henry Ward Beecher, football player for Yale University (©4))
Days of Love: Celebrating LGBT History One Story at a Time by Elisa Rolle
Field Marshal Horatio Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener, KG, KP, GCB, OM, GCSI, GCMG, GCIE, ADC, PC (24 June 1850 – 5 June 1916) was a British Field Marshal and proconsul who won fame for his imperial campaigns and later played a central role in the early part of the First World War, although he died halfway through it. Some biographers have concluded that Kitchener was a latent or active homosexual. The proponents of the case point to Kitchener's friend Captain Oswald Fitzgerald of the 18th Bengal Lancers, his "constant and inseparable companion," whom he appointed his aide-de-camp. They remained close until they met a common death on their voyage to Russia. Kitchener and Oswald Fitzgerald shared living quarters together the last nine years of their lives. Rumors of Kitchener's peculiar behavior reached all the way to Buckingham Palace. Queen Victoria's remarks on Kitchener were: "They say he dislikes women, but I can only say that he was very nice to me." (P: ©Duffus Bros/NPG P403. Horatio Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener of Khartoum, 1901 (©19))
Days of Love: Celebrating LGBT History One Story at a Time by Elisa Rolle
Rosa Bonheur, born Marie-Rosalie Bonheur, (16 March 1822 – 25 May 1899) was a French animalière, realist artist, and sculptor. As a painter she became famous primarily for two chief works: Ploughing in the Nivernais (in French: Le labourage nivernais, le sombrage), which was first exhibited at the Salon of 1848, and is now in the Musée d’Orsay in Paris depicts a team of oxen ploughing a field while attended by peasants set against a vast pastoral landscape; and, The Horse Fair (in French: Le marché aux chevaux) (which was exhibited at the Salon of 1853 (finished in 1855) and is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York City. Bonheur is widely considered to have been the most famous female painter of the nineteenth century. She lived for over forty years with her childhood friend Nathalie Micas (1824-1889), whom she met in 1836. In the final year of her life she became close with Anna Klumpke, the author of her "autobiography", and figured out a way around the Napoleonic Codes in order to leave Klumpke her estate.
Micas was the homemaker of the couple, and took care of business matters as well. Referring to Micas, Princess Stirby once commented, "Rosa Bonheur could never have remained the celebrated artist she was without someone beside her." After Micas's death, Bonheur took up with painter Anna Klumpke. Bonheur, Micas and Klumpke are buried together Pere Lachaise Cemetery in France, under a tombstone that reads: Friendship is divine affection. (Picture: Portrait de Nathalie Micas by Rosa Bonheur)
Anna Elizabeth Klumpke (October 28, 1856 – February 9, 1942), was an American portrait and genre painter born in San Francisco, California, United States. She is perhaps best known for her portraits of famous women including Rosa Bonheur and Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1889).
Days of Love: Celebrating LGBT History One Story at a Time by Elisa Rolle
For the Euro Pride in Munich, July 11-12, 2015
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For the UK Meet in Bristol, September 11-13, 2015
For the GRL in San Diego, October 15-18, 2015
About the Author: Nic Starr lives in Australia where she tries to squeeze as much into her busy life as possible. Balancing the demands of a corporate career with raising a family and writing can be challenging but she wouldn't give it up for the world.
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Wrestling With Passion by D.H. Starr