John Preston Has Died
Rod J. Williams
John Preston died yesterday (4/28/94). Here's his obituary in
today's New York Times, reproduced without permission...
------------------------------------------------
JOHN PRESTON, 48, AUTHOR, EDITOR AND ADVOCATE IN AIDS CAUSES
By Wolfgang Saxon
John Preston, a writer and editor and a leader of causes
involving gay rights and treatment of AIDS, died yesterday at
his home in Portland, Me. He was 48.
He died of AIDS-related causes, said Melinda Mullin, his New
York publicist.
Mr. Preston wrote or edited more than 30 books of fiction and
non-fiction, and 29 of them appear in Bowker's current "Books
in Print" directory. In San Francisco in the 1970s he edited
The Advocate, a national newspaper published twice a month and
aimed at a gay and lesbian readership. He began writing full
time in 1976.
Mr. Preston was born in Medfield, Mass., graduated from Lake
Forest College in Illinois and was certified as a sexual-health
consultant by the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities Medical
School. He also studied at the United Theological Seminary in
Dayton, Ohio, and the Northwestern Lutheran Seminary in St.
Paul.
LED GAY COMMUNITY CENTER
In 1970 he founded Gay House in Minneapolis, a gay and lesbian
community center, which he co-directed until 1972, when he
founded Gay Community Services of Minneapolis. He was also an
editor for several national gay publications.
Mr. Preston's work appeared in almost every gay publication in
the United States and Canada and in many European countries.
He also published in Interview, Harper's, The Boston Phoenix,
Maine In Print and other periodicals.
His novel, "Franny, the Queen of Provincetown," published in
1983, was turned into a play. Among his books, some of them
written under pseudonyms, were a number of erotic novels that
became cult objects.
His books included "Personal Dispatches: Writers Confront AIDS"
(1990); "The Big Gay Book: A Man's Survival Guide for the
Nineties" (1991), and "Hometowns: Gay Men Write About Where
They Belong" (1991).
MANUSCRIPTS AT BROWN
The John Hay Library at Brown University acquired his manuscripts
and correspondence for its Katzoff Collection in 1992 as part
of a move to collect the writings of lesbians and homosexuals.
Mr. Preston was diagnosed as having HIV, the virus that causes
AIDS, some years ago. He said he had found the news particularly
depressing because he had followed the safe-sex guidelines he
had been advocating for some time.
He became active in several AIDS organizations in Maine, and
most recently served as board president of the AIDS Project of
Southern Maine.
He is survived by his parents, Nancy and Jack Preston of Medfield;
two sisters, Betsy Preston-Ackerman of North Stonington, Conn.,
and Linda Virgilio of Millville, Mass., and two brothers, Marvin,
of Concord, N.H., and Kurt, of Brookline, Mass.
--
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rod williams : pacific bell : san francisco : rjw...@pacbell.com
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panda cub
Gododbye, Mr. Preston. I wish I'd gotten around to going to one of the
Maine Memorial Day weekends and meeting you.
Leith Chu
boy brent
i was greatly saddened to hear today that John Preston has died of AIDS
complications in at his home in Portland, ME. His obituary, printed in the
New York Times, details the many accomplishments in his life, both personal and
on behalf of the lesbian and gay community, and mentions the many books he
wrote. However, it is completely silent on one of the most important aspects
of his life, his involvement in the gay men's leather/SM community. For in
in the leather community, John Preston was not simply an author, he was an
institution.
In many ways John was the last of the old guard leathermen. His book
_Mister Benson_ is a classic of gay Master/slave relationships as viewed
from that particular perspective, as are his many other collections of short
stories and novels. The old guard view of BDSM says that a Top never switches,
that His rights and privileges are paramount, that the purpose of the bottom
is to serve his Top, and that there are certain ways in which Things Are Done,
and only that way is acceptable.
In his last few years John witnessed a quiet revolution overtake the leather
tribe. A younger generation with new concepts about how Things Are Done
broke ranks with the old guard, advancing radical ideas like bottoms having
the right to set limits and actually getting to have a little fun in scene,
and that it is possible for Tops and bottoms to <<gasp>> occasionally switch
roles. We may look upon this as the most obvious of truths, but that was not
always the case. Once upon a time, one did not simply buy one's own leather,
one earned it.
As Pat Califia wrote in _Leatherfolk_, the stiff and inflexible old guard Top
mentality has been discarded by a new generation of leatherfolk who cherish the
freedom to explore BDSM in a more individual way. Leather doesn't have to be
black anymore, the latest (and some of the best quality) floggers and cat o'
nine tails come available in a rainbow of colors. Some choose to undertake a
personal spiritual journey on black leather wings without the trappings of
bondage and discipline. Even leather, the "second skin" itself, isn't strictly
necessary to be a fully accepted part of the leather community. There is
a growing recognition that clothes do not make the Top.
At the same time, the traditional insignia and rites of passage of the leather
community -- chains, collars, leashes, motorcycle jackets, cock rings, tattoos,
body piercings -- have moved into the mainstream of gay fashion, and from there
they have been adopted by the world at large. Wider popularity always comes
at a price, of course, and when badges such as these are popularized they
inevitably lose much of their special symbolic meaning. This dilution of
of the power of traditional BDSM symbols was what John objected to the most,
and here i think he was right.
But for better or worse, those days are now gone forever.
Mister Benson doesn't live here anymore.
A tip of the slave collar to you, John Preston.
--
boy brent |
bca...@teleport.com (gay stuff) |
bca...@atlas.com |
David Stevenson
>
>i was greatly saddened to hear today that John Preston has died of AIDS
>complications in at his home in Portland, ME. His obituary, printed in the
>New York Times, details the many accomplishments in his life, both personal and
>on behalf of the lesbian and gay community, and mentions the many books he
>wrote. However, it is completely silent on one of the most important aspects
>of his life, his involvement in the gay men's leather/SM community. For in
>in the leather community, John Preston was not simply an author, he was an
>institution.
>
His work is being archived by an Ivy League school (Brown, I think), and he'd
recently packed up all his papers and shipped them to the librarians there.
He wasn't sure how they would react to being the archivists of all the
pornography he'd written, and was a bit anxious about his first meeting with
them. So he's dressed in a business suit, sitting at a large, polished wood
table with these Brahmins in a book lined conference room at the library, and
the head librarian says, "Mr Preston, we were not aware that you wrote
pornography when we sought to be your archivist, and certainly not that you
wrote so much of it, over such a long period! Imagine our delight at discovering
this unexpected treasure of insight into gay history! As our first project
we have hired an architect to try to reconstruct the floor plan of the
Mindshaft from your writings."
He told this story with obvious relish.
Anyway, news of his death prompted me to pull out "My Life as a Pornographer"
which I'd bought months ago and put in my stack of to-read books. I thought
the following was particularly soc.motss (p. 240):
"Whenever I meet a young man whose submissive fantasies I want to encourage,
someone whom I hope to get into bed, I send him a pair of silk boxer shorts
at the first opportunity, as soon as there's a moment--Christmas, a birthday--
when it won't seem too intimate, or Valentine's Day when it can be passed
off as a joke. It's cost me a fortune, but it's been a great help in getting
youths into the proper frame of mind when they have surrendered to my
approaches. I recommend gifts of silk boxer shorts, which appear so simple,
so easy, perhaps even a bit foolish, to anyone who wants to mine another's
submission."
John Whiteside
: damndamndamndamndamndamndamn
: Gododbye, Mr. Preston. I wish I'd gotten around to going to one of the
: Maine Memorial Day weekends and meeting you.
: Leith Chu
... and I wish that when I saw him in a bookstore in Boston (being a
private citizen and buying books) I'd told him how much his work had
affected me...
but now I'm just really sick of my cultural reference points dying.
--
John Whiteside
jo...@world.std.com
George Dalton Madison
for my friend Tim Barela's first book collection of _Leonard &
Larry_ strips, which is entitled "Domesticity Isn't Pretty."
Tim was rather surprised to discover that Mr. Preston was aware of
the strip even before he was asked to write the Foreword, and was
highly complimented by its content -- which also displayed Mr.
Preston's considerable talents as a writer.
My copy is currently lent to a friend, or I'd post said Foreword.
*Sigh*. Rest in Peace, Mr. Preston.
-----
[> George D. Madison | NBCS: B8f+t+we+s+k+cva! | Just say NO to razors! <]
[> It's a BEAR thing -- you wouldn't understand. <> fu...@cup.portal.com <]
[> Copyright 1994 -- not that anyone else *wants* to claim this. [GRIN] <]
John Dorrance
of posting to motss to find out his address so I could send him a letter
thanking him for putting together _Hometowns_ and _A Member of the Family_
and _Personal Dispatches_, three books that have been extremely important
for my developing a sense of community with other gay men. And now I can't
thank him. How utterly rotten.
John, really sad
--
tha...@spdcc.com: John Dorrance, Floozy Smurf, Disco Diva y Flamenco Chico
I was walking 'round, looking at the ground 'Thank you Every Day'
You're the flower between the cracks that I found... DeeeLite
Nelson Minar
David Stevenson <stev...@netcom.com> wrote:
>one of the main reason an author like John Preston writes is _for_
>his audience. It is always nice when someone has the good manners to
>say, "Thank you."
I agree it is always nice when someone says "thank you", but is it
really the case that "an author like John Preston" writes for his
audience? I'm suprised. Is the case being made because among other
things he is an author of pornography?
I've not read many of the things John Preston himself has written (I'm
still looking for a copy of Mr. Benson), but I've greatly enjoyed many
of the books he is editing. IMHO the two Flesh and the Word volumes
are some of the best gay writing around, pornography or no.
Homecomings was given to me at a particularly appropriate time. His
skills as an editor are (were, dammit) tremendous.
__ http://www.reed.edu/~nelson/
nel...@reed.edu \/ How much farther Poppa Smurf? Not far now!
David Stevenson
>
>... and I wish that when I saw him in a bookstore in Boston (being a
>private citizen and buying books) I'd told him how much his work had
>affected me...
>
David Stevenson
>Shit. This is really terrible. Just a couple of weeks ago I was thinking
>of posting to motss to find out his address so I could send him a letter
For future reference, in case you feel so inclined about another author,
you can always send your letter c/o the publisher. While this may not
always work, depending on the publisher, it is supposed to, and you will
at least have done your best.
David Stevenson
>
>I agree it is always nice when someone says "thank you", but is it
>really the case that "an author like John Preston" writes for his
>audience? I'm suprised. Is the case being made because among other
>things he is an author of pornography?
>
of his pornography, but because (even or especially while he wrote
pornography [except perhaps Mr. Benson]) he was serious and honest in
what he was doing.
The following is just conjecture on my part, but I think informed conjecture,
that even the hack work he did for money (the Mike McCray stuff), he would
have appreciated a reader who told him "I like your stuff. You write good.
It helps me get through working the nite shift, where I read it when things
are quiet."
And in general, I think that any writer who writes to communicate, writes
for his audience. And I think this is especially true for a writer who
writes for a specialized audience, which a lot of John Preston's writing
was.
Arnold Zwicky
of themselves as writing for everyone (well, everyone who reads the
language they're writing in), but even they target some audience -
adults, say, rather than elementary-school children.
almost everyone who writes is pleased to hear from readers that they
liked the books, or poems, or stories, or articles. most of us are
absurdly pleased; otherwise, you get this feeling that you're just
tossing this stuff into some bottomless pit. (my stepmother once
wrote to an author - of a best-selling book - who was immensely touched
by her response, one of a very few she got, and the two of them started
a correspondence that ended up with their becoming friends. the
amazing part of this story is how starved the author was for some
evidence that she had reached an audience, even while enormous royalty
checks kept appearing.)
i am myself sorry i never wrote john preston to thank him for his
chapter in Hometowns, which i found particularly moving.
arnold, who treasures the nice things people say about *his* writing
Max Meredith Vasilatos
>almost everyone who writes is pleased to hear from readers that they
>liked the books, or poems, or stories, or articles. most of us are
>absurdly pleased; otherwise, you get this feeling that you're just
>tossing this stuff into some bottomless pit.
How true.
>(my stepmother once
>wrote to an author - of a best-selling book - who was immensely touched
>by her response, one of a very few she got, and the two of them started
>a correspondence that ended up with their becoming friends. the
>amazing part of this story is how starved the author was for some
>evidence that she had reached an audience, even while enormous royalty
>checks kept appearing.)
This surprises me, the part about getting so few responses.
The two best selling authors I know (one writes adolescent
novels for children, the other horror) are *swamped* with
fan mail. They both have secretaries to help them answer it.
And they do answer it, all of it.
Maybe because my friends are very prolific, there's a difference.
>arnold, who treasures the nice things people say about *his* writing
As do I, my friend, as do I.
Tim Wilson
(Max Meredith Vasilatos) writes:
>>arnold, who treasures the nice things people say about *his* writing
>
>As do I, my friend, as do I.
>
That was a nice sentence.
tim :)
Arnold Zwicky
tim wilson <t-wi...@memphis.edu> comments appreciatively:
the ambiguity in max's sentence is known in the ling biz
as the difference between "sloppy identity" (max meant she
treasures the nice things people say about her work) and
"strict identity" (max meant she treasures the nice things
people say about *my* work). great terminology...
b.a.
Tim Wilson
zwi...@Csli.Stanford.EDU (Arnold Zwicky) writes:
Should I tell? Okay, I meant it to be a piece of e-mail. I rarely --
in fact, only accidentally these days -- use smileys in posts (and I
thank b.a. for deleting it in the quotation above).
Should I tell? I thought the repetition was pretty; I thought the use
of "my friend" was charming.
Should I tell? I didn't notice the ambiguity until after I'd posted
(what, again, was s'posed to be mail).
Writing is fun, even if the mapping from sounds to glyphs is inprecise
and misleading. I've had new thoughts about our thinking in sounds
thanks to the dreaded Lyon thread.
--
Tim Wilson <t-wi...@memphis.edu>
Arnold Zwicky
then, yesterday no news at all came through to this machine for
over 12 hours (including all of the west coast daytime).
today my own postings took 9 hours to appear on the machine they
were posted from.
eclipse pixies?
w.m.