Secret Historian: The Life and Times of Samuel Steward, Professor, Tattoo Artist, and Sexual Renegade (60 page)

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Authors: justin spring

Tags: #Gay & Lesbian, #Social Science, #College teachers - Illinois - Chicago, #Gay authors, #Literary, #Human Sexuality, #Novelists; American - 20th century, #General, #Sexology - Research - United States - History - 20th century, #Psychology, #Artists; Architects; Photographers, #Body Art & Tattooing, #Authors; American, #College teachers, #Gay authors - United States, #Steward; Samuel M, #Tattoo artists, #Pornography - United States - History - 20th century, #Novelists; American, #Gay Studies, #Authors; American - 20th century, #Education, #Art, #Educators, #Pornography, #20th century, #Tattoo artists - New York (State) - New York, #Sexology, #Poets; American, #Literary Criticism, #Poets; American - 20th century, #Biography & Autobiography, #Teaching Methods & Materials, #Biography

At the suggestion of
: Steward to Preston, July 27, 1983, Samuel M. Steward Papers, Boston University.

Steward’s horror at the
: Steward to Gerald McCabe, Jan. 27, 1989, Samuel M. Steward Papers, Boston University.

“It will be easy”
: Steward, letter to his doctor, Sept. 22, 1984, Samuel M. Steward Papers, Boston University.

“It’s going to be”
: Steward to Preston, Jan. 4, 1990, Samuel M. Steward Papers, Boston University.

Living on bottled oxygen
: Robert Prager, e-mail to author; Michael Williams, e-mail to author.

“There were files”
: Michael Williams, e-mail to author.

“[I’ve met] a handsome”
: Steward to Preston, Sept. 26, 1990, Samuel M. Steward Papers, Boston University.

“And that was how”
: Steward, Revised
Chapters
, pp. 328–32.

Steward had been hosted
: Steward to Preston, Nov. 5, 1990, Samuel M. Steward Papers, Boston University.

“let me know that”
: Steward, Revised
Chapters
, p. 297a.

Though disappointed, Danny
: Steward, Revised
Chapters
, p. 332.

“a precious link with”
: John Grube, “Bad Boys and Tough Tattoos” (Review),
Society of Lesbian and Gay Anthropologists Newsletter
, vol. 13, no. 1 (Feb. 1991), pp. 15–17.

“the author, the topic”
: Gerald R. Gurmet, MD, “Urban Armor” (Review),
Readings: A Journal of Reviews and Commentary in Mental Health
, vol. 7, no. 1 (March 1992), pp. 8–11.

Steward’s last years were
: John Preston,
Hustling: A Gentleman’s Guide to the Fine Art of Homosexual Prostitution
(New York: Richard Kasak/Masquerade, 1994).

“I wish there were”
: Steward to Martin, Oct. 3, 1991, Samuel M. Steward Papers.

“Sam called me”
: Michael Williams, e-mail to author.

AFTERWORD: THE STEWARD PAPERS

Jim Kane’s “slave” Ike
: Michael Williams, e-mail to author.

“the task of clearing”
: Ibid.

“I [have been] going”
: Michael Williams to Don Allen, July 14, 1994, Samuel M. Steward Papers.

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
 

The following selected bibliography focuses on published works most relevant to the researching of
Secret Historian
, for the vast majority of Steward’s unpublished writings remain the property of his executor and heir, and so are currently unavailable to researchers. So, too, are the more than three hundred newspaper clippings, magazine clippings, incoming correspondence, and ephemera that Steward collected during his lifetime relating to his life and work.

Many of Steward’s most interesting unpublished and out-of-print writings will be published in the coming year as
Notes from the Sexual Underground: Selected Writings of Samuel Steward, the Renegade Author Also Known as Phil Andros
, Justin Spring, ed. (New York: Hidden Bungalow Press, 2010). Similarly, a substantial selection of Steward’s visual work from the Steward archive will be published in the coming year as
An Obscene Diary: The Visual World of Samuel M. Steward
by Justin Spring (North Pomfret, Vt.: Elysium Press/Antinous Press, 2010).

1. MANUSCRIPT AND ARCHIVAL COLLECTIONS OF NOTE

Donald Allen Papers, Mandeville Special Collections/Archive for New Poetry, University of California at San Diego/La Jolla, California.

Kenneth Anger Papers, Kinsey Institute Library, Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction, Bloomington, Indiana.

Roger Austen Papers, Manuscripts and Archives Division, New York Public Library, New York.

Edward Field Papers, Special Collections, University of Delaware Library, Newark, Delaware.

Jim Kane Papers, Leather Archives and Museum, Chicago, Illinois.

Richard G. Katzoff Collection, John Hay Library, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island. This collection includes the Gay Pulp Fiction Collection and Database, a collection of over 30,000 titles. (This database is searchable on the Web at http://128.148.7.229:591/gaypulp/default.htm.)

The Chester H. Kirk Collection on Alcoholism and Alcoholics Anonymous, John Hay Library, Brown University.

Correspondence between George Platt Lynes and Bernard Perlin. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

Dom Orejudos Papers, Leather Archives and Museum, Chicago, Illinois.

John Preston Papers, John Hay Library, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island.

Charles Renslow papers, Leather Archives and Museum, Chicago, Illinois.

Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas Papers, Yale Collection of American Literature. Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. (These papers contain the majority of Steward’s letters to Stein and Toklas.)

Samuel M. Steward Holdings, Leather Archives and Museum, Chicago, Illinois. A small collection of artworks by Steward, including a portrait of Dom Orejudos. Films including Steward and still photographs in which Steward appears can also be found in the Renslow and Orejudos holdings at the Leather Archives and Museum.

Samuel M. Steward Papers, Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center, Boston University. This is a small collection of papers donated late in life by Steward to Boston University. It consists primarily of printed material, manuscript material, and Steward’s late-life incoming and outgoing correspondence.

Samuel M. Steward Papers, Kinsey Institute Library, Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction, Bloomington, Indiana. While there is no indication of a Steward Collection mentioned on the Kinsey Institute Library’s website, the Steward holdings of that library are extensive, and a guide to them does exist in the form of a printed finding aid. However, Kinsey Institute librarians will only share that finding aid (and other information on their Steward holdings, which includes both visual and written material) pending the approval of the institute.

Alice B. Toklas Papers, Bancroft Special Collections Library, University of California, Berkeley. This collection contains the majority of Toklas’s letters to Steward, as well as a substantial amount of memorabilia kept by Steward relating to his visits to Stein and Toklas at Paris and Bilignin.

Glenway Wescott Papers, Yale Collection of American Literature. Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut.

Thornton Wilder Papers, Yale Collection of American Literature. Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut.

H. Lynn Womack Papers, #7441, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library, Ithaca, New York.

Morton Dauwen Zabel Papers, Newberry Library, Chicago, Illinois.

2. PUBLISHED WRITINGS AND ILLUSTRATIONS BY STEWARD

The published writings and illustrations in this section, though created by Samuel M. Steward, were often signed by Steward using various assumed names. In youth, he preferred the shortened name of “Sam Steward,” while in later life, he relied heavily on anagrams and pseudonyms. In the interest of bibliographical clarity, I have given the names Steward himself used in signing each of the essays, articles, drawings, stories, poems, or reviews, with the understanding that all of these names are pseudonyms or abbreviations chosen by Steward to identify himself. The writings in this section are arranged chronologically.

Steward, Sam M. “Virginia to Harlotta” (sonnet).
Contemporary Verse
. [Atlantic City, N.J.] 25.4 (October 1929): np.

_______.
Pan and the fire-bird
. Introduction by Benjamin Musser. New York: Henry Harrison, 1930. pp. 1–59.

_______. “Desires” (short story).
Ohio Stater
[Columbus] 1.1 (November 1932): 1–3, 15.

_______. “Mutability in Spenser.” Unpublished master’s thesis, Ohio State University, 1932.

_______. “The Passion and the Soul of Petrarch.”
The Sewanee Review
41 (1933): 419–429.

Steward, S. M. “J.-K. Huysmans and George Moore.”
The Romantic Review
25.3 (July–September 1934): 197–206.

Steward, Samuel Morris. “Provocatives of the Oxford Movement and Its Nexus with English Literary Romanticism.” Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Ohio State University, 1934.

Stames, Ward. “The Lay Faculty.”
The Commonweal
21.24 (April 12, 1935): 667–668. See also Jeremiah K. Durick, “The Lay Faculty: A Reply,”
The Commonweal
21.25 (April 19, 1935): 699–701.

Steward, S. M.
Angels on the Bough
. Caldwell, Idaho: Caxton, 1936.

De Mereille, Guy.
Bell Bottom Trousers
(N.D. approximately 1943, self-published.) The cover of the publication reads, “Of this story twenty five copies have been hectographed, five of which have been preserved for the author. It is particularly intended for the enjoyment of members of the Armed Services, and permission to reprint it is freely given. This is copy number ONE.” (N.B.: The only known extant copy of this booklet is in the library of the Kinsey Institute for Sex, Gender, and Reproduction.)

Sparrow, Philip. “The Victim’s Viewpoint: On Sublimated Sadism; or, the Dentist as Iago.”
Illinois Dental Journal
13 (February 1944): 78.

_______. “The Victim’s Viewpoint: On Getting an Appointment in Wartime.”
Illinois Dental Journal
13 (February 1944): 78.

_______. “The Victim’s Viewpoint: On the Prospect of Confinement by Porcelain Arms.”
Illinois Dental Journal
13 (March 1944): 120.

_______. “The Victim’s Viewpoint: On the Survival of the Medieval.”
Illinois Dental Journal
13 (April 1944): 173.

_______. “The Victim’s Viewpoint: On Logorrhea.”
Illinois Dental Journal
13 (May 1944): 214–15.

_______. “The Victim’s Viewpoint: On Psychic Somersaulting.”
Illinois Dental Journal
13 (June 1944): 248–49.

_______. “The Victim’s Viewpoint: On Bread and Butter.”
Illinois Dental Journal
13 (July 1944): 312–13. See also William P. Schoen, Jr., “Philip Sparrow Quits” [editorial]: 308.

_______. “One Man’s Viewpoint: On the Songs of War.”
Illinois Dental Journal
13 (September 1944): 419.

_______. “On Cryptography.”
Illinois Dental Journal
13 (October 1944): 452–53.

_______. “On Alchoholics Anonymous.”
Illinois Dental Journal
13 (November 1944): 498–99.

_______. “On Christmas.”
Illinois Dental Journal
13 (December 1944): 540–41.

_______. “On Fifteen Years of Lent.”
Illinois Dental Journal
14 (January 1945): 34–35.

_______. “On Soldiers and Civilians.”
Illinois Dental Journal
14 (February 1945): 74–75.

_______. “On How to Cook a Wolf.”
Illinois Dental Journal
14 (March 1945): 128–29.

_______. “On How to Be a Spy.”
Illinois Dental Journal
14 (April 1945): 156–57.

_______. “On Psychiatry.”
Illinois Dental Journal
14 (May 1945): 214–15.

_______. “On Balletomania.”
Illinois Dental Journal
14 (June 1945): 248–49.

_______. “On the Dilettanti.”
Illinois Dental Journal
14 (July 1945): 302–303.

_______. “On Books from Prison.”
Illinois Dental Journal
14 (September 1945): 398–99.

_______. Letter to Doctor Schoen [“Philip Sparrow Writes Letter”].
Illinois Dental Journal
14 (October–November 1945): 435.

_______. “On Cemeteries.”
Illinois Dental Journal
14 (October–November 1945): 438–39.

_______. “On Basic English.”
Illinois Dental Journal
14 (December 1945): 472–73.

_______. “On the Laws of War.”
Illinois Dental Journal
15 (February 1946): 68–69.

_______. “On a Call to Paris.”
Illinois Dental Journal
15 (March 1946): 124–25.

_______. “On the Importance of Dying Young.”
Illinois Dental Journal
15 (April 1946): 152–53.

_______. “On Witch-Doctoring.”
Illinois Dental Journal
15 (May 1946): 196–97.

Steward, Samuel M. “The Literature of Prophecy.”
Illinois Dental Journal
15 (June 1946): 222–224.

Sparrow, Philip. “On Reading Experiences.”
Illinois Dental Journal
15 (July 1946): 290–91.

_______. “On Chicago.”
Illinois Dental Journal
15 (August 1946): 338–39.

_______. “On How to Write an Encyclopedia.”
Illinois Dental Journal
15 (October 1946): 436–37.

_______. “On Aviating.”
Illinois Dental Journal
15 (November 1946): 478–79.

_______. “On Operas and Operating.”
Illinois Dental Journal
15 (December 1946): 520–21.

Fine arts and education editor for
World Book Encyclopedia
1946–47. “Paris” entry [1947].

Sparrow, Philip. “On Men and Their Feathers.”
Illinois Dental Journal
16 (January 1947): 18–19.

_______. “On Gertrude Stein.”
Illinois Dental Journal
16 (February 1947): 64–65.

_______. “On Little White Ribbons.”
Illinois Dental Journal
16 (March 1947): 108–109.

_______. “On Being Musclebound.”
Illinois Dental Journal
16 (April 1947): 152–53.

_______. “On Life Insurance Agents.”
Illinois Dental Journal
16 (May 1947): 188–89.

_______. “On My Poor Old Radio.”
Illinois Dental Journal
16 (August 1947): 342–43. [See “About Philip Sparrow,”
Illinois Dental Journal
16 (June 1947): 247–48. This note by the editors explains that Philip Sparrow will be on vacation “for this month only.”]———. “On the Beach and Me.”
Illinois Dental Journal
16 (September 1947): 388–89.

_______. “An Open Letter to My Landlord.”
Illinois Dental Journal
16 (October 1947): 426–27.

_______. “On Teaching.”
Illinois Dental Journal
16 (November 1947): 476–77.

_______. “To a Chance Acquaintance.”
Illinois Dental Journal
16 (December 1947): 512–13.

_______. “On Fabulous, Fabulous Field’s.”
Illinois Dental Journal
17 (January 1948): 22–23.

_______. “On Rooshia.”
Illinois Dental Journal
17 (February 1948): 76–77.

_______. “On Fair, Fantastic Paris.”
Illinois Dental Journal
17 (April 1948): 164–65.

_______. “On Ulysses, Grown Old.”
Illinois Dental Journal
17 (May 1948): 202–203.

_______. “On the Comic Spirit.”
Illinois Dental Journal
17 (June 1948): 240–41.

_______. “On Those Precious Two Weeks.”
Illinois Dental Journal
17 (July 1948): 294–95.

_______. “On Keepsakes, Gew-Gaws, and Baubles.”
Illinois Dental Journal
17 (September 1948): 392–93.

_______. “[Mohammed Zenouhin].”
Illinois Dental Journal
17 (October 1948): 438–39.

_______. “On Tipping.”
Illinois Dental Journal
17 (November 1948): 480–81.

_______. “On the Dream, the Illusion.”
Illinois Dental Journal
17 (December 1948): 516–17.

_______. “On Misplaced Eyebrows.”
Illinois Dental Journal
18 (January 1949): 32–33.

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