{"id":1072,"date":"2013-03-28T17:55:34","date_gmt":"2013-03-28T22:55:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/?p=1072"},"modified":"2013-03-02T17:59:20","modified_gmt":"2013-03-02T23:59:20","slug":"gay-lives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/gay-lives\/","title":{"rendered":"Gay Lives"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Picture121.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-1073\" style=\"border: 0pt none; float: left; padding-right: 10px; padding-bottom: 0px;\" alt=\"cover of Gay Lives\" src=\"http:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Picture121-201x300.png\" width=\"201\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Picture121-201x300.png 201w, https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Picture121.png 345w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 201px) 100vw, 201px\" \/><\/a><a title=\"Find this book in a library near you!\" href=\"http:\/\/www.worldcat.org\/oclc\/767564449\">Robert Aldrich. Gay Lives.\u00a0Thames &amp; Hudson, 2012. Hardcover. 304p. $29.95. ISBN 978-0-500-25190-4. [128 illustrations; 56 in color]<\/a><\/p>\n<p>These 67 biographical sketches of deceased individuals and seven of couples oriented toward same-sex relationships stretch from 2400 B.C.E. to the recent past from all over the world.<\/p>\n<p>Aldrich, a professor of European History at the University of Sydney (Australia) writes in a clear, straight-forward style. The pairs focus on those who are eternally linked in history, such David and Jonathan; the individual sketches often describe multiple relationships.<\/p>\n<p>Lavishly illustrated with portraits, paintings, photographs and other illustrations, the book is printed on heavy paper, giving the illusion that the illustrations are plates.<\/p>\n<p>Ranging from two to four pages, the sketches each have sources listed at the back of the volume next to a comprehensive name index leading to the individuals mentioned in the sketches.\u00a0 Several other persons are included in most of the sketches, and cultural and historical background enhance the information.<\/p>\n<p>The mystery is the reason behind Aldrich\u2019s decision of people to highlight.\u00a0 Many are famous (Sappho, Michelangelo, Walt Whitman, Christopher Isherwood, Oscar Wilde, T.E. Lawrence, Del Martin, Harvey Milk), but others are not.\u00a0 Most subjects lived in Europe, but Egypt, Israel, China, the USA, Australia, Brazil, Japan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, India, and Iran are also represented.<\/p>\n<p>Although occupations are extremely varied, the subjects are primarily poets, writers, photographers, painters, and other artists.\u00a0 Several are soldiers, emperors, or kings.\u00a0 Less common are a philosopher, religious (a monk, a friar, a nun, a cardinal), sexologists, a politician, a diplomat, teachers, a sinologist, and even a criminal and a waiter.\u00a0 Most of the subjects are men; only 17 sketches of women are included.<\/p>\n<p>Arranged somewhat chronologically, the sketches begin with \u201cAncient Ancestors,\u201d followed by the Middle Ages and the Enlightenment, \u201cFounding Fathers and Mothers\u201d mostly from the 19<sup>th<\/sup> and early 20<sup>th<\/sup> centuries, \u201cThe Fin-de-si\u00e8cle and Belle \u00c9poque,\u201d and ending with the recent past.\u00a0Other sections are more topical: \u201cWomen Who Loved Women,\u201d sex and politics, male beauty, \u201cRadicals and Activists.\u201d\u00a0 Some sections are geographical: \u201cLove in the Levant,\u201d \u201cJaponisme,\u201d and \u201cInternational Lives in the Modern Era.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Every library with any interest in the lives of LGBT folk will want to add this beautiful book to their collection.<\/p>\n<p>Reviewer: <strong>James Doig Anderson<\/strong>, Professor Emeritus Library and Information Science, Rutgers University<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Robert Aldrich. Gay Lives.\u00a0Thames &amp; Hudson, 2012. Hardcover. 304p. $29.95. ISBN 978-0-500-25190-4. [128 illustrations; 56 in color] These 67 biographical sketches of deceased individuals and seven of couples oriented toward same-sex relationships stretch from 2400 B.C.E. to the recent past from all over the world. Aldrich, a professor of European History at the University of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1164,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[27,42,19],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1072"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1164"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1072\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}