The work of Bush has been around for many years. So many were responsible for getting his work into print. These include: Bob Mizer, at AMG, who "discovered" Bush. Neel Bate (known as the artist "Blade") was also a helpful acquaintance. John Embrey, the publisher of DRUMMER, published lots of Harry Bush. And Christopher Harrity, the editor of STROKE, supported Bush and kept him working. Bush died in 1994; his professional life was that of a career military man, finishing up his career in uniform working at the Pentagon. The introduction gives a nice gloss of Bush's personal background--hard to imagine that someone so conflicted would be a Leonardo of lasciviousness. A lot of the work included herein is cartoonish and sweet. Some of the line work on the more serious images is quite good; Bush was a practiced craftsman. This is a nicely produced presentation of Bush's work It evokes the sobriquet of the late Boyd McDonald, a catalogue from "the classic period of American homosexuality."

HARD BOYS is an oversized trade paperback from Green Candy Press, $35.00

Topics discussed include: how to find a LGBTQ-friendly school; ways to evaluate campus policies related to LGBTQ student life; how to deal with homo/bi/transphobia on campus; dealing with health and safety issues on campus, and how to integrate into the student community.

There are tips for parents, also student testimonials. This is a no-nonsense guide on how to make the most of college years.

THE GAY AND LESBIAN GT COLLEGE LIFE is a trade paperback from The Princeton Review press, $13.95

The title comes from a quote by Justin Kaplan: "The first rule of biography--shoot the widow." Who knew there were rules? But, apparently, there are. Secrest's first book was a bio of Romaine Brooks, which led her to Nice, wherein she found herself with her subject's heir who slid valuable correspondences one by one across the table to her. Her next subject was Bernard Berenson--which occasioned Francis Steegmuller, a fellow biographer, to comment that he wouldn't touch that one with a ten foot pole. Then there are her books on Kenneth Clark, Salvador Dali, Frank Lloyd Wright, Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim (her only living subject), Richard Rodgers and Duveen. Secrest had fun all along the way. Born and educated in England, Secrest lives in Washington, DC. In 2006, she was the recipient of the National Humanities Medal.

SHOOT THE WIDOW is a hardcover from Knopf, $25.95

GAY ARTISTS IN MODERN AMERICAN CULTURE is a hardcover from The University of North Carolina Press. There are a few black and white photos included (one of which is an eye-popping snap of Leontyne Price in costume as Cleopatra in the Met debut's of Sam Barber's ANTHONY & CLEOPATRA) as well as notes and an index, $29.95

Love explores the costs of the recent move to the mainstream in lesbian and gay culture. The increasing acceptance for same-sex marriage and gay-themed media has its benefits, but Love also explores some of the losses, which she identifies as losses that are hard to mourn since so many of them are associated with personal shame and the life in the closet.

FEELING BACKWARD makes an effort to value aspects of historical gay experience that may now completely disappear, branded as embarrassing evidence of the bad old days before Stonewall. Love examines early 20th Century gay and lesbian novels, literature often dismissed as "too depressing," and she asks how we might value and reclaim the dark feelings they describe. Love makes the point that we need to look backward and consider how our history continues to impact us today.

FEELING BACKWARD is a hardcover from Harvard University Press. It includes notes and an index, $39.95

Kenan's latest title is THE FIRE THIS TIME. Baldwin's THE FIRE NEXT TIME was one of the most powerful documents of its time. After Hurricane Katrina and all that came in its wake, Kenan revisits what Baldwin called out "racial nightmare" and asks: How far have we come?

This essay is a combination of memoir and commentary. Starting with DuBois and  Dr. King, Kenan takes his discussion onto contemporaries--Oprah, Clarence Thomas, Rodney King, Sean Combs, George Foreman and Senator Barack Obama. This book was publishing as homage to Baldwin's original essay (45th anniversary), but it also Kenan's  thoughtful meditation on the temper of the times and a call to transcend things as they are.

THE FIRE THIS TIME is a hardcover from Melville House Publishing, $20.00

The story starts with Gerard, Peggy and their young son Harry canoeing in New Hampshire. Harry goes off exploring while his father watches. In a freak accident, Harry is killed. In that instant, Gerard begins his saga of unbearable anguish. Moments before Harry died, Gerard picked up a crumbled piece of paper, with writing in an alphabet he does not recognize--it is Sanskrit. Gerard becomes obsessed with the origins of Indo-European alphabets--to mask his grief or replace it?

Gerard leaves Peggy and his job. He hooks up with other grief-stricken "abecedarians," all of whom believe that the alphabet as we know it had in its origins a meaning they are intent uncovering. Their quest takes them to England, Greece and, finally, to a site in the Syrian desert where they find the alphabet carved into clay tablets from thousands of years ago. Gerard's journey has a meaning only revealed to him at the end.

ABC is a hardcover from Pantheon Books, $23.00

He wrote up his French sojourn in a lovely memoir, MEMOIRS OF MONTPARNASSE. Glassco lived from 1909 to 1981. The MEMOIRS were first published in 1970. This new trade paperback edition is from the New York Review Books press and includes and introduction by LOUIS BEGLEY.

MEMOIRS OF MONTPARNASSE is $14.95

A gang of Vespa-riding vampires are killing San Franciscans so recklessly that they threaten to drain the city dry. Worse, from their point of view, they may expose the network of vampires everywhere. Gay vampire cop Valentino is called upon to stop this group--they call themselves The Very Bloody Marys--before everything gets out of hand. But it may be too late. Turns out that Valentino is still only a trainee and his mentor on the force has gone missing. The brutal gang they are up against are fast-moving, smart and bloodthirsty. To pull off his job, Valentino must move quickly--and very carefully--otherwise he just might get himself killed. What can a creature of the night do? He has to track down the gang through odd haunts and with the help of some bizarre characters--and he has to stay out of the sun.

THE VERY BLOODY MARYS is a trade paperback from Harrington Park Press, $12.95

The frame here is that the action's not at the bars or in the chat rooms, no, look to colleges, libraries and bookstores for that hot hook-up. Could it be for many guys that their first sexual encounter with another man resulted from a chance meeting at the campus library? Or in the men's room of the library? SEX BY THE BOOK includes original memoirs and stories about these two drives--reading and sex*--both powerful forces for fantasy, delusion, arousal and seduction.

SEX BY THE BOOK is a trade paperback from Green Candy Press, $15.00

*Just as a curious note: while taking a break while writing this newsletter, I read a long piece about EDMUND WILSON in the New York Times. It included this observation: "He [Wilson] was a late bloomer who experienced his first orgasm--while reading a book, appropriately--as a senior in college, and he was so puzzled by it he went to see a doctor."

I was saddened to read that the new owners of the Avalon Group and Publishers Group West are discontinuing the imprint Carroll & Graf. Under the director of C&G's last editor, Don Weise, Carroll & Graf had become a lively and interesting list. It seems a pity that just as it was hitting its stride, the house was shut down.

In other news, The Haworth Press was recently sold to Taylor & Francis. Only problem is that T&F didn't want to buy their gay and lesbian line, mostly published under the Harrington Park Press imprint (and the subsidiary imprint Southern Tier Editions). Harrington Park has been developed over the past years into a leading publisher for GLBT titles, with a current and back list of over a hundred titles. When I spoke with my contact at Haworth, I was informed that the press is looking for a separate buyer for Harrington Park Press. At last report, still looking. I'll keep my fingers crossed. The Harrington catalogue is too important to just fade away.

Now for some good news: I send my congratulations to JOE KEENAN, who recently won the 2007 Thurber Prize For American Humor for his novel MY LUCKY STAR. Congrats, Joe!}

JAMES SPADA discussed his new photo book, THE ROMANTIC MALE NUDE, September 21^st
at Calamus Bookstore.

We have autographed copies.