JAMES SPADA has had a long and remarkably productive career. Years back, his specialty was celebrity biographies--Bette Midler, Grace Kelly, Barbra Streisand, Ronald Reagan, even the Bush family.

Not long ago, Spada published a collection of his photos, EDWARDIAN MEN, which had the novel concept of posing fetching young men among the artifacts of the older dwellings. He has now edited an anthology of photographs published as THE ROMANTIC MALE NUDE. This is the first collection to bring together a group of distinguished photographers to celebrate, as a theme, romance in the male nude. The work of forty-two photographers are represented here. Among them are Tom Bianchi, Michael Childers, Ed Freeman, Kobi Israel, Reed Massengill, David Vance and others, including Spada himself. MICHAEL THOMAS FORD wrote the introduction.

THE ROMANTIC MALE NUDE is published in hardcover by Abrams, $40.00

JAMES SPADA will discuss his new book
at Calamus Bookstore,
Friday, September 21, at 7PM

So many Brits were in business, government or in the military on the subcontinent (a designation I have always found curious--sub to what?) that a back-and-forth between the UK and India was a given. For these gay male authors under consideration, already being an "other," an attraction to another "other" seems all too natural. Tired of the Church of England, Hinduism enticed with its charms. Others enter the story. But all, even Isherwood, living in Los Angeles all those years, remained essentially English, though his journey continued, like Byron, though probably with less cash.

Our friends in Concord, Massachusetts, back in the 1840s, took up an interest in Buddhism, finding even the steady Unitarianism, alas, de trop. In the UK, it was Hinduism. The exotic appeal of the foreign will always have its cachet, and for gay men living in an oppressive culture, the grass looked greener. In the homeland of Hinduism, how green the grass, I cannot say.  A novelty in this book is Copley's diary in search of Carpenter's and Isherwood's pursuit of Vendantism and Forster's Krishna cult on a journey to India.

A SPIRITUAL BLOOMSBURY is a trade paperback from Lexington Books, a division of Rowman & LittleField Publishers, $30.95

Lenz is a former cheerleader with an aptitude for office skills--that is, until she takes a job with Sather & Stirling in the go-go years in Bay City. She spends her working hours in the cut-throat typing pool at the agency; nights find her at the all-women's residence of Magdalena Arms. Lois starts a little slow on the update and then the bulb goes off--she's in the center of a world of working girls full of passionate desires, all with a knock-out sense of fashion.  Will Lenz be a lamb astray or Belle of the Ball?

LOIS LENZ, LESBIAN SECRETARY is a trade paperback from Kensington, $14.00

C. J. PASCOE has written DUDE YOU'RE A FAG: MASCULINITY AND SEXUALITY IN HIGH SCHOOL. On the face of it, this sounds like a big project. Pascoe spent eighteen months doing field work in a racially diverse working-class high school. Her research explores the dynamics of masculinity among high school boys, and how male identity is formed in this class and set and how it is enforced through social practices. I doubt things change very much in how the sexual and genders codes are established and enforced in the world of high school culture. I do recall one thing Gore Vidal once noted: that if the alpha male in a high school, often the football captain, is completely heterosexual, then the message goes out--no fag stuff. But, should it happen that the alpha male might be perceived--and the high schoolers check each other out and watch every move--as more inclined to be ambiente, then some of the lads can lean lavender. The sociogram is highly structured. Pascoe goes into all this.

DUDE YOU'RE A FAG is a trade paperback from University of California Press, $19.95

BUTT magazine started publication in May 2001. It's mission statement? To shake up the commodified, clean-cut presentation of homosexuality. It's format was Q & As with a variety of individuals--many well-known--and graphic photos and drawings. From pop stars and fashion designers to the gay farmer and the gay garbage man, BUTT covered it all. Very much in the tradition of FAG RAG and STRAIGHT TO HELL, BUTT magazine went to the next level. Smart, literate and smutty in just the right combo.

The BUTT BOOK collects from the copy of the first five years of BUTT magazine. The co-editors are JOP VAN BENNEKOM and GERT JONKERS in collaboration with WOLFGANG TILLMANS. The introduction is by BRUCE LaBRUCE.

The BUTT BOOK is published in a trade paperback edition, on pink paper, by Taschen Books, $29.99

After WWII, southern writers had a vogue, from the late 1940s through the end of the 1950s. For some, later (I'm thinking Walker Percy, not in the mix in this discourse, not indexed, though his uncle, William Armstrong Percy, is).

Richards works with contemporary theories of sexuality in interpreting the literature of six southern authors: Truman Capote, William Goyen, Harper Lee, Carson McCullers, Lillian Smith and Richard Wright. Richards juxtaposes forgotten texts by these writers with their better known works in order to identify the complex narratives of same-sex desire. He argues that these authors reimagine gender roles, make homoeroticism central to their stories and probe the relationship of the homoerotic to class, race, biologic sex and, of course, southern identity.

LOVERS & BELOVED is a trade paperback from Louisiana State University Press. It includes extensive notes, a bibliography and an index. $19.95

Research into male homosexual activity in Spain is still in its young years. The last ten to fifteen years has seen the blossoming on studies of gender in Spain but the preponderance of this work has concentrated on women's history, literature and literary figures.

'LOS INVISIBLES' focuses on changes in the representation of male same-sex activity through a close examination of medical and psychological texts, social and political anxieties about childhood, the 'race' and national identity and the existence of male homosexual subcultures from the second half of the 19th Century up to and through the Spanish Civil War.

Dr. Richard Cleminson is Senior Lecturer in Spanish at the University of Leeds. Francisco Vazquez Garcia is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Cadiz. 'LOS INVISIBLES' is a hardcover from the University of Wales Press, $85.00

Estes charts how the policy in the military towards the same-sexers has evolved since the days just before the US went into WWII. He reveals how the silence about sexuality and military service has affected the identities of gay and lesbian vets. The statements of those who have served in the military are harrowing, heroic and on the record. Estes, in his research, counters those who claim that openly gay service members undermine national security, unit cohesion and troop morale. The vets he interviewed give testimony to providing strength to their service, whether in peace or war. Estes recounts the numerous challenges to the official ban, with an emphasis on how these challenges are a part of the wider movement for gay rights.

ASK & TELL is a hardcover from The University of North Carolina Press. Included are some black and white photos of the men and women interviewed for this book. $29.95

Hadleigh moves into new territory in his latest, BROADWAY BABYLON: GLAMOUR, GLITZ, AND GOSSIP ON THE GREAT WHITE WAY. Hadleigh weighs in on the big moments in B-Way lore: Ethel Merman--big talent or tart tongue? Tommy Tune--why didn't he segue from Broadway to a big film career? And yes, all the favorites make their appearances: Tallulah Bankhead, Kathleen Cornell, Mary Martin, Yul Brynner, Chita Rivera, Bernadette Peters, Jonathan Larson, Tony Kushner and Terence McNally.

Broadway is a different culture than Hollywood. New York is a continent away from LA, though there are lots of flights, on many carriers, between those two cities. But, of course, the Tony Awards are more fun than the Oscars, the show people of Broadway being, well, showier! This is Hadleigh's turf. It's a rich mine to dig through.

BROADWAY BABYLON is a hardcover from Back Stage Books, $24.95

This is the story of Arnold Hawley, and African-American poet. He's lived on the Lower East Side of New York City for most of his adult life. He feels crowded in by loneliness and the creeping fear of getting old. He had a nervous breakdown after his aunt dies.

Hawley goes on to marry a deeply disturbed young woman, though his sexual obsession is with a black delivery man, Slake Bowman, who is the lover of a white photographer. This complicated triangle leads to revelations.

DARK REFLECTIONS is an elegantly crafted novel and a deep meditation on deformed social attitudes, loneliness and the surprising potency of life's small triumphs. This is a trade paperback original from Carroll & Graf, $15.95

FOUR MYSTERY WRITERS

MARK RICHARD ZUBRO
ANTHONY BIDULKA
CHUCK ZITO
NEIL PLAKCY

Reading from their new works

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 7th, 7 PM

JAMES SPADA
Discussing his new book,
THE ROMANTIC MALE NUDE

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 21st, 7 PM