Hello my lovely readers! This book was fabulous. Let's get into it.
SYNOPSIS
When Brooklyn Was Queer is a groundbreaking exploration of the LGBT history of Brooklyn, from the early days of Walt Whitman in the 1850s up through the women who worked at the Brooklyn Navy Yard during World War II, and beyond. No other book, movie, or exhibition has ever told this sweeping story. Not only has Brooklyn always lived in the shadow of queer Manhattan neighborhoods like Greenwich Village and Harlem, but there has also been a systematic erasure of its queer history—a great forgetting.
Ryan is here to unearth that history for the first time, and show how the formation of Brooklyn is inextricably linked to the stories of the incredible people who created the Brooklyn we know today. Folks like Ella Wesner and Florence Hines, the most famous drag kings of the late-1800s; E. Trondle, a transgender man whose arrest in Brooklyn captured headlines for weeks in 1913; Hamilton Easter Field, whose art commune in Brooklyn Heights nurtured Hart Crane and John Dos Passos; Mabel Hampton, a black lesbian who worked as a dancer at Coney Island in the 1920s; Gustave Beekman, the Brooklyn brothel owner at the center of a WWII gay Nazi spy scandal; and Josiah Marvel, a curator at the Brooklyn Museum who helped create a first-of-its-kind treatment program for gay men arrested for public sex in the 1950s. Through their stories, WBWQ brings Brooklyn’s queer past to life.
When Brooklyn Was Queer is a groundbreaking exploration of the LGBT history of Brooklyn, from the early days of Walt Whitman in the 1850s up through the women who worked at the Brooklyn Navy Yard during World War II, and beyond. No other book, movie, or exhibition has ever told this sweeping story. Not only has Brooklyn always lived in the shadow of queer Manhattan neighborhoods like Greenwich Village and Harlem, but there has also been a systematic erasure of its queer history—a great forgetting.
Ryan is here to unearth that history for the first time, and show how the formation of Brooklyn is inextricably linked to the stories of the incredible people who created the Brooklyn we know today. Folks like Ella Wesner and Florence Hines, the most famous drag kings of the late-1800s; E. Trondle, a transgender man whose arrest in Brooklyn captured headlines for weeks in 1913; Hamilton Easter Field, whose art commune in Brooklyn Heights nurtured Hart Crane and John Dos Passos; Mabel Hampton, a black lesbian who worked as a dancer at Coney Island in the 1920s; Gustave Beekman, the Brooklyn brothel owner at the center of a WWII gay Nazi spy scandal; and Josiah Marvel, a curator at the Brooklyn Museum who helped create a first-of-its-kind treatment program for gay men arrested for public sex in the 1950s. Through their stories, WBWQ brings Brooklyn’s queer past to life.
MY THOUGHTS
I loved this book and it was such a pleasure to read. I learned so much about this neighborhood and people that I'd heard of and hadn't heard of.
I loved this book and it was such a pleasure to read. I learned so much about this neighborhood and people that I'd heard of and hadn't heard of.
An example: I'm reading the biography of Paul Laurence Dunbar and he and his wife, Alice, are mentioned in this book! Apparently, Alice had dated one or two women (I need to read her biography ASAP). I love when the books I'm reading connect to each other somehow.
This book was MILES better than Before Gender, which I read earlier this year. It was in the same vein as Gay New York and I appreciated the research and the easy readability by Ryan. He's a great writer. I have a whole section of LGBTQ history books on my shelf, but I've only read two books from it, unfortunately, but I'm working on it!
I've previously mentioned that I'm interested in LGBTQ history because that history is so far removed from my own history and what I usually read. I typically read what sounds interesting to me and to be honest, I never really paid attention to LGBT folks. It wasn't intentional, I was just in my own world. But I've been broadening my reading tastes and the type of history I read about and I'm really enjoying it. I highly recommend this book and can't wait to read Ryan's other books!
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