Gunn - The Gay Male Sleuth in Print and Film: A History and Annotated Bibliography

Acknowledgments

When I retired in 2001, among other perks I had was the leisure to read gay mysteries. I discovered that much had occurred since I first discovered Joseph Hansen and Larry Townsend, aka J. Watson, in the early 1970s. By the time I had read roughly a hundred titles, I felt the need to put some order into what I was finding. That attempt led directly to the first edition of this book. A bibliographer accepts the happy fact that his work is never finished. As soon as one becomes recognized in a field, new information starts coming in. I discovered many cross-genre mysteries that I had missed, along with more traditional but obscure works. Plus, the number of new titles coming out each year seems to grow exponentially. Now, with double the number of titles in the first edition, it seems time for a second. I have also taken advantage of feedback to try to make the bibliography sections more user-friendly.

I marvel at the fact that, grace of the Internet, I have yet to meet face to face the majority of the extraordinarily generous people who have helped me write this book. I hope I have forgotten no one in this list of people who have helped throughout the last ten years; know that I appreciate the help of all: Alex Amador; Josh Aterovis; Victor J. Banis; Peter Berg, head of special collections at Michigan State University; Anthony Bidulka; Harvey Billmaier of Richard Anthony Films; Justin Blake; Jett Blakk of Red Devil Entertainment; Dennis Bolin; J.P. Bowie; David Boyer, Patrick Herlihy, Kym Olson, and Stephen Toushin of Bijou World (with special thanks for Steve Toushins gift of The American Adventures of Surelick Holmes ); Nowell Briscoe; Sharon H. Brondos; Michael Bronski; Chris Budel of Nostalgia Zone; Marsh Cassady; Arlene Chase; Becky Cochrane; Mike Crawmer of Pittsburghs Out ; Sukie De La Croix; Joseph DeMarco; Cathy Downs; David Doyle of Queer Horror; John Drake; Brad Alan Deamer; Durk Dehner, director of Tom of Finland Foundation; Michael Allen Dymmoch; Chris Eckhoff; Roger Edmonson; Barbara Franchi; Michael Thomas Ford; Jon Froschner; Richard Fullmer; Paul Goode; Michael Halfhill; Ron Hamm; Jo Carolyn Harper; Jonathan Harper; Rocky Heck and Mike Pincus of Bolerium Books; Greg Herren; Pamela Hill; Rose Idlet of Black Ace Books; Allison Jacobson; Dean James; Sandra Jefferson, university police chief; Steve Neil Johnson; Neil K. Jones; Barbara Karmazin; Earl Kemp of Greenleaf Classics; David Kincaid of Simons Closet; Susan Knoer, head of special collections at the University of Louisville; John E. Krammer Jr.; Frederick W. LaCava; Irwin Lachoff, librarian at Xavier University; Lori L. Lake; William J. Lambert III; Cindy Lamberts of Arnea Books; Josh Lanyon; Vincent Lardo; Rob Latham; David Lennon; Bob Lind; Roger Margason; Jeff R. Marks; Rob McDonald; Anthony McGowan; Corky McGraw; Sandra Meyer; Wesley Molstad of Comic Book College; Lisa C. Moore; Tom Norman; E.F. Norwood; Dorothy Pace; Will Parish; Eddy Pham and Ann Simpson of 2nd Look Books; Steven Piziks; Neil Plakcy; Kevin J. Porter; Jerry Rosco; Todd Russell of Dead Guys Cinema; Allen Sawyer; Ruth Simms; Sara Simms of Wayward Books; Eric J. Smith, librarian at Duke University; Caro Soles; Richard Stevenson; William Stingone, curator at New York Public Library; Lester Sullivan, librarian at Xavier University; Jacqueline Thomas; Beth Tindall; Fender Tucker; Jim Van Buskirk and the San Francisco Public Library; Renata Vickrey, librarian at Central Connecticut State University; Burton Weiss, bookseller; Sharon Wheeler; Shawn C. Wilson of the Kinsey Institute; Mike Wooliscroft; Helen Wright; Ian Young; Orlando Zapata; Lance Zarimba; and R.D. Zimmerman. Those who eased production problems include Vanessa Earp, Aggie Gonzales, Kellie Hagan, Nicole McCullough, Susan Roberson, my much appreciated editor, Stephen Ryan, Connie R. Salgado, and Michelle Strunge. They all made life not only easier but a whole lot more fun.

The Perkins Library Rare Books Collection at Duke University now houses my personal collection of mysteries as the Drewey Wayne Gunn Collection of Gay Male Mysteries and Police Stories and my collection of paperback originals as the Drewey Wayne Gunn and Jacques Murat Collection of Gay American Pulps. I thank Laura Micham for overseeing the process. The Kinsey Institute now houses the Drewey Wayne Gunn Gay Mysteries Video Collection. I equally thank Liana Zhou for setting up this archival resource.

Here then are all the books and films I found that appeared by 31 December 2011. In answer to a question that has been posed repeatedly: unless I note otherwise, I have read every work and watched every film that is included here. I quickly realized that no matter how good a summary may seem, nothing takes the place of reading or viewing it for myself. As you will note, I am not an avid television viewer, and I have no doubt that I missed some episodes that should have been included. In the first edition I tried to remain neutral in my annotations; this time I let the reader in on my personal appraisal of works. I do not anticipate a third edition, but I still welcome hearing from users.

Drewey Wayne Gunn

Kingsville, Texas

Introduction

The label gay mystery admits a number of possibilities. It may mean the presence of a gay milieu, a gay victim, a gay perpetrator, or a gay detective. The first three can have sociological importance. The last moves the genre onto a more complex level, for the cognitive processes that the gay sleuth goes through to solve a mystery function as a paradigm of the stages of self-actualization all gay men, all queer folk in general, go through in order to achieve wholeness. Reading these works means encountering on some ontological level what happens to each of us as we confront the ultimate mystery: our difference from the family and the general society into which we have been born. One of the characters in Michael Navas The Hidden Law says, You know... were the only people who get born into the enemy camp. I mean, black babies get born into black families, Jewish babies get born into Jewish families, but gay babies, we get born into straight families. How we survive it at all is a miracle.