Books : The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 320
EAN: 9780312560850
ISBN: 0312560850
Label: St. Martin's Griffin
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Griffin
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 400
Publication Date: October 14, 2008
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Release Date: October 14, 2008
Sales Rank: 2913
Studio: St. Martin's Griffin
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Known as “The Mayor of Castro Street” even before he was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Harvey Milk’s personal life, public career, and final assassination reflect the dramatic emergence of the gay community as a political power in America. It is a story full of personal tragedies and political intrigues, assassinations at City Hall, massive riots in the streets, the miscarriage of justice, and the consolidation of gay power and gay hope.
Harvey Milk has been the subject of numerous books and movies, including the Academy Award–winning 1984 documentary, The Times of Harvey Milk. His life is also the basis of a 2008 major motion picture, Milk, starring Sean Penn.
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Author Randy Shilts was a journalist before he became a best selling author ("And The Band Played On", "Conduct Unbecoming: Gays and Lesbians in the U.S. Military"). His chronicling of the life of Harvey Milk from New York to San Francisco bears witness to the everyman struggles of gay men of that period. From the arrests and harassments in bars to the ultimate victory of being the first gay man elected to United Sates office, Shilts details every aspect of Milk's life. People famous then and now supplied detailed information on the kind of human being that Harvey Milk truly was. (Mind you, this book was written in the early eighties).
Told in a quickly paced and unrelentingly thorough style, Shilts shows how an ordinary man like Milk can make a global change (all after age forty). Milk did this before he was assassinated, making his story all the more intriguing, tragic and poetic. The recent Gus Van Sant film does a great service to the novel, but Shilts is the one that truly gets under the skin of Harvey Milk and displays a man full of integrity, conviction and humility. In his reporter's style, Shilts also describes Milk's associates, friends and coworkers, pulling together the fabric of a life cut far too short. Of course, see the film and the documentary, but read this book to truly comprehend how an ordinary man can turn into a hero for not just a minority, but also any underdog.
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Amazing performance by Sean Penn as Harvey Milk, the first openly gay elected politician in America. I bought this book after reading Dennis Schleicher's autobiography. Forbidden Love with a Married Man: E-mail Diaries I was so poignantly moved by his horrific gay bashing that occurred in 1989 at his public high school. Today when I spoke with the author of for the first time on the phone. Dennis started to get emotional as he said "Stephenie, I would have given anything to have had the opportunity to attend. Mr. Milk's school after falling prey to a gay bashing. That was caused by ignorance. The ignorance of other children, not understanding that sexuality is not a choice. It is people like Harvey Milk that give myself the courage to share my memoir a tell my story that many others would be scared to share."
I Stephenie Meyer's (Author) am now declaring it my mission to help stop Hate Crimes through educating the masses on courageous authors like Randy Skilts of "The Mayor of Castro Street," & Dennis Schleicher "Forbidden Love with a Married Man; E-Mail Diaries," both these authors are ahead of their time in telling stories that need to be heard that will have an impact in our society.
Schleicher said my next book that's a MUST read is; "Prayers for Bobby," by Leroy Aarons. Prayers for Bobby: A Mother's Coming to Terms with the Suicide of Her Gay Son It is about time I use my success as a best-selling author to give back to the community. Tomorrow I will ... Read More
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For all the GLBT people in elected office, we should never forget Harvey Milk. Thankfully, this biography of Milk has just been reissued - after far too long - and now there's no excuse to not read it.
A sobering moment comes right at the beginning of this book with the author's foreword. Randy Shilts wrote his foreword in July of 1981, the same month that the New York Times reported on a strange new disease that was found in gay men. Shilts himself eventually died of AIDS. I found myself thinking about this as I read "Castro Street," wondering how Harvey Milk would have dealt with the AIDS crisis.
Both biography and cultural history, Shilts' book is a milestone. Coming out a few years before the Oscar winning documentary on Milk's life, "The Mayor of Castro Street" is the first complete telling about the man who became the first openly gay elected official in the United States. The 1970s were a time of huge changes in the gay community and Milk's election was a sign of the progress being made. It's a tragedy that it ended so quickly.
With the film about Milk's life coming out, this book is a great companion. Shilts' journalistic style is readable and, as another reviewer has stated, the book reads like a novel. This reprint includes all the photos that were part of the previous editions and, to put it bluntly, is a must read.
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Shilts, Randy. "The Mayor of Castro Street", St. Martin's, 2008.
Remembering Harvey Milk
Amos Lassen
Harvey Milk is an icon in gay history and now with the film, Milk" with an amazing performance by Sean Penn, there is a renewed interest in the man that did so much to advance gay rights. St. Martin's has reissued Randy Shilts' biography of Milk, "The Mayor of Castro Street", which is a remarkable study of Milk as well as social history and a look at the world of politics. The book is not only a powerful character study but a fascinating history of the California gay movement and an intense look at city politics.
Before he was even elected to political office, Harvey Milk was known as the mayor of Castro Street. Shilts takes a look at Milk's personal and political life and his assassination and these reflect the mood of gay America and the real beginning of the emergence of gay rights and the road to gay political power. Here is a history of personal tragedy and political intrigue, of rioting in the streets and how justice was miscarried. However more than that, this is the story of gay power and gay hope.
Randy Shilts always gives a good reading experience and it is too bad that he is no longer with us. "The Mayor of Castro Street" was his first book and he chose a great topic to begin his literary career. He looks at how we, as gay men, were treated in the 1940's and 50's, writes about what happened at Stonewall and then shifts ... Read More
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The book contains a lot of information about Milk's life, which in itself is fascinating. My understanding is that Shilts was a friend of Milk's, which gives him insight (if biased) into the social circle of the Castro community.
The book's format is almost episodic, with each small section prefaced with an italicized tag line of sorts that leads into the story. It seems clear that this is a first effort at a book by Shilts, as some of the writing feels a little unpolished.
The big question is where the facts of the story end and the opinion begins. The book reads almost like a novel, and it's hard to tell if Shilts has added any of his own ideas about the behind-closed-doors aspects of Milk's life, whether he's repeating rumours he's heard, or whether the events are backed up by actual evidence.
Whether it's 100% true or not, it makes for a very compelling read.
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