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In honor of the 50th anniversary of the historic Stonewall uprising, a new anthology celebrating the past, present, and future of LGBTQ activism
THE STONEWALL READER
Edited by THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
Edited with an Introduction by JASON BAUMANN
Foreword by EDMUND WHITE
"Many if not most historians would argue that major events such as gay liberation are not sudden but gradual, incremental; as someone who lived through Stonewall I would claim that the uprising was decisive… Because of the Stonewall uprising, people saw homosexuals no longer as criminals or sinners or mentally ill, but as something like members of a minority group. It was an oceanic change in thinking." -Edmund White, from the foreword of THE STONEWALL READER
Praise for THE STONEWALL READER:
"This expansive collection of documents from the New York Public Library's LGBTQ history archive constructs a vital and dynamic narrative of the early days of gay liberation…This window into the daily lives of activists and ordinary people fighting passionately against injustice is illuminating and inspiring."
-Publishers Weekly
"A bold rallying cry that should help in the continuing fight for LGBTQ rights."
-Kirkus Reviews
"This significant book does welcome justice to an event that author, Edmund White, who wrote the foreword, says sparked 'an oceanic change in thinking'."
- Booklist
June 28, 1969: A seemingly routine raid on a popular gay bar in Greenwich Village ends in a riot that will fuel the gay liberation movement, and eventually be considered one of the most significant moments in queer history. The events that took place almost fifty years ago at Stonewall have become legend in gay culture: rioters are referred to as "Stonewall vets," hundreds of contrasting perspectives have been published, and even the Stonewall site has become a national monument, the first to recognize LGBTQ rights. Now, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of this historic uprising, readers can turn to THE STONEWALL READER (Penguin Classics Original; On Sale: April 30, 2019; 9780143133513; $18), a comprehensive anthology from The New York Public Library, edited with an introduction by Jason Baumann, with a foreword by author and Stonewall vet Edmund White.
Divided into three sections (Before Stonewall, During Stonewall, and After Stonewall), THE STONEWALL READER takes the reader beyond just those fateful days of the uprising. "Before Stonewall" provides insight into what it was like to be gay in the 1950s and 1960s in New York City, featuring essays from well-known figures like John Rechy and Barbara Gittings, along with lesser-known activists like Ernestine Eckstein and Joan Nestle. "During Stonewall" encompasses a wide range of first-person accounts, including news reportage, testimonies from onlookers and active rioters, and activists both big and small. This section also contains narratives from participants that have been largely erased from the public memory of Stonewall, such as the drag queens and trans activists. "After Stonewall" features essays from the years immediately following Stonewall, and the burst of activism that resulted from the riots. Inspired by the defiance shown at Stonewall, LGBTQ activists began demanding something more powerful than tolerance: equality.
Among the topics covered in THE STONEWALL READER:
- The presence of LGBTQ activism before Stonewall: Although many people think of the Stonewall uprising as the start of LGBTQ liberation movements, they were preceded by almost a decade of activism from organizations like the Mattachine Society and the Daughters of Bilitis, who organized conferences, published nationally distributed magazines, and demonstrated at the White House and the Pentagon.
- The emergence of transgender political organizing: Some might consider transgender activism to be a recent phenomenon, but there was an emerging transgender rights movement in the 1960s through pioneering magazines like Tranvestia and organizations like the Erickson Educational Foundation and the Labyrinth Foundation Counseling Service.
- The people of color on the front lines: Trailblazing figures like African American activists Ernestine Eckstein, Joel Hall, and Marsha P. Johnson, Latinx activists Sylvia Rivera and Jeanne Córdova, and Japanese American activist Kiyoshi Kuromiya were at the center of the LGBTQ movements of the time.
- Early queer revolts: Stonewall was preceded by earlier queer revolts like the Cooper Do-nuts Riot in Los Angeles in 1959, the Dewey's restaurant sit-in in Philadelphia in 1965, the Compton's Cafeteria Riot in San Francisco in 1966, and the protests against the raid of the Black Cat Tavern in Los Angeles in 1967, among others.
In advance of the 50th anniversary, the Stonewall exhibition curated by Jason Baumann at the New York Public Library, and the upcoming celebration of WorldPride in New York City, THE STONEWALL READER is an essential addition to the LGBTQ literary canon. This anthology reminds us of the importance of everyday resistance, and the wildfire that can spread from one small spark.
ABOUT THE EDITOR:
Jason Baumann is the Susan and Douglas Dillon Assistant Director for Collection Development at the New York Public Library. Baumann coordinates the Library's LGBTQ Initiative, for which he has curated two exhibitions-1969: The Year of Gay Liberation and Why We Fight: Remembering AIDS Activism. Baumann has curated Love & Resistance: Stonewall 50, a major exhibit at NYPL for 2019.
ABOUT THE FOREWORD WRITER:
Edmund White is the author of A Boy's Own Story (1982), The Beautiful Room Is Empty (1988) and The Farewell Symphony (1997). He received the National Book Critics Circle Award for Genet: A Biography. He won the 2018 PEN/Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in American Fiction.</p
