Richard Amory

Richard Amory (October 18, 1927, Halfway, OR – August 1, 1981, San Jose, CA), born Richard Wallace Love, was an American writer. He obtained a bachelor's degree in sociology from Ohio State University, a M.A. in Spanish from San Francisco State University, and began an uncompleted Ph.D. in Spanish at University of California, Berkeley.[1] A high school teacher by profession, he achieved success as a novelist in the late 1960s while still a graduate student and before coming out.[2]

Amory is best known for his 1966 novel Song of the Loon: A Gay Pastoral in Five Books and an Interlude and its two sequels, Song of Aaron and Listen, the Loon Sings....[3] Variously described as "a gay American version of famous sixteenth-century Spanish pastoral novels"[4] and "a gay version of The Last of the Mohicans,"[5] Song of the Loon is now considered "one of the most important gay books of the 20th century."[6] An estimated one third of American gay men have read the novel.[7] It was adapted as an erotic film in 1970 without Amory's involvement and much to his disgust.[8]

Amory briefly partnered with fellow authors Dirk Vanden, Phil Andros, Peter Tuesday Hughes, Larry Townsend, and Douglas Dean in an attempt to found the first all-gay publishing company, which was to be called The Renaissance Group. The group was unable to secure funding for the attempt and several of its members ceased publishing shortly thereafter.[9]

Bibliography
  • Song of the Loon (1966)
  • Song of Aaron (1967)
  • Listen, the Loon Sings (1968)
  • A Handsome Young Man with Class (1969)
  • Longhorn Drive (1969)
  • Naked on Main Street (1969)
  • Frost (1972)
  • Willow Song (1974)

See also

References
  1. Cesar Love, "Biography of Richard Love," Song of the Loon (Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2005), 215-17.
  2. Jordan, Mark (2011). Recruiting Young Love: How Christians Talk about Homosexuality. University of Chicago Press. p. 109. ISBN 9780226410449. Retrieved 2014-10-01.
  3. See Drewey Wayne Gunn, Gay American Novels, 1870-1970: A Reader's Guide (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2016), 152-54.
  4. Beth M. Bouloukos, "Shepherds Redressed: Richard Amory's Song of the Loon and the Reinvigoration of the Spanish Pastoral Novel," 1960s Gay Pulp Fiction: The Misplaced Heritage, ed. Drewey Wayne Gunn and Jaime Harker (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2013), 212-28.
  5. Angelo d'Arcangelo, The Homosexual Handbook, 2nd ed. (Ophelia Press, 1969), 235. See also Susan Stryker, Queer Pulp: Perverted Passions from the Golden Age of the Paperback (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2001), 117; Neil DeWitte, "The Gay Western: Trailblazing Heroes Stake Their Claim," The Golden Age of Gay Fiction, ed. Drewey Wayne Gunn (Albion, NY: MLR Press, 2009), 224-27.
  6. Monteagudo, Jesse (January 24, 2010). "Jesse's Journal: Gay Pulp Fiction". The Bilerico Project. Retrieved 2014-10-01.
  7. Tom Norman, American Gay Erotic Paperbacks: A Bibliography (Burbank, CA, 1994), 3.
  8. Vanden, Dirk (2012). It Was Too Soon Before…: The Unlikely Life, Untimely Death, and Unexpected Rebirth of Gay Pioneer, Dirk Vanden. Lethe Press. p. 154. ISBN 9781590213544. Retrieved 2014-09-24.
  9. Gunn, Drewey Wayne (August 10, 2011). "Dirk Vanden: Pioneer Of Gay Literature". Lambda Literary Review. Retrieved 2014-09-24.
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