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Charles Kaiser

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Charles Kaiser is an American author and journalist best known for his nonfiction books 1968 in America (1988), The Gay Metropolis (1997), and The Cost of Courage (2015). A former reporter for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Newsweek, he is currently a nonfiction book critic for The Guardian.

Biography

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Kaiser was born in Washington, D.C., the son of Philip Mayer Kaiser, a United States diplomat, and Hannah Greeley Kaiser; he has two brothers, one of them the journalist Robert Kaiser.[1][2] He grew up in Washington, Albany, New York, Dakar, Senegal, London, England, Windsor, Connecticut, and New York City.[3][4][5] Kaiser studied at Columbia University in the late 1960s and reported on protests there against the Vietnam War,[6] he graduated in 1972,[7] and subsequently worked as a reporter for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal,[8][9] and Newsweek.[10] As a freelance journalist, he has contributed to The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Observer, New York Magazine, and Vanity Fair.[11][12] His first book, 1968 in America, was published in 1988.[13]

Kaiser's second book, The Gay Metropolis (1997), is a social history that traces the cultural accomplishments and increased social acceptance of homosexuality in America between the years 1940 and 1996.[14] Kaiser later said that he wrote the book out of "an obligation to bear witness to what we had all lived through (during the AIDS epidemic)," explaining, "I wanted to write a book that would include AIDS, but not be overwhelmed by it".[15] In 2007, an updated edition of The Gay Metropolis was published, and Kaiser appeared on The Colbert Report to promote the book.[16][17] In 2019, The Guardian described the third updated edition of The Gay Metropolis as "one of the key popular studies of American social history [and] among the first accounts that sought to provide an extended history of gay life (admittedly mostly male) before and after Stonewall".[18] Kaiser's book has also been cited for popularizing the theory that Judy Garland's funeral was one of the motivating factors behind the Stonewall riots.[19]

In 2012, Kaiser wrote the afterword for a new edition of Merle Miller's landmark 1971 work On Being Different: What it Means to Be a Homosexual.[20] Kaiser's third book, The Cost of Courage, follows the story of the Boulloches, a family who participated in the French Resistance.[21][22] The book was published in 2015 to enthusiastic reviews from The Washington Post,[23] The Wall Street Journal,[24] and The Christian Science Monitor.[25]

Kaiser has taught journalism at Columbia University and Princeton University. In 2018, he was named Acting Director of the LGBTQ Public Policy Center at Hunter College.[26] Kaiser lives on the Upper West Side of Manhattan with his husband, the artist Joe Stouter.[27][28]

Bibliography

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Title Year Publisher ISBN Ref.
1968 in America: Music, Politics, Chaos, Counterculture, and the Shaping of a Generation 1988 Grove Press ISBN 978-1-55584-242-0 [13]
The Gay Metropolis: 1940-1996 1997 Houghton Mifflin Harcourt ISBN 978-0-395-65781-2 [29][30]
On Being Different: What It Means to Be a Homosexual (Afterword) 2012 Penguin Random House ISBN 978-0-14-310696-8 [31]
The Cost of Courage 2015 Other Press ISBN 978-1-59051-614-0 [32]

Honors

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Organizations Year Category Work Result Ref.
Lambda Literary Awards 1998 Gay Men’s Studies The Gay Metropolis: 1940-1996 Won [33]
Paris Book Festival 2015 General Non-Fiction The Cost of Courage Won [34][35]
NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists LGBTQ+ Journalists Hall of Fame — Honored [36]

References

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  1. ^ Weisman, Steven R. (May 25, 2007). "P. M. Kaiser, 93, Diplomat for Democratic Presidents, Is Dead". The New York Times. Archived from the original on October 4, 2024. Retrieved October 4, 2024.
  2. ^ "Philip M. Kaiser, 93; longtime U.S. diplomat". Los Angeles Times. May 26, 2007. Archived from the original on October 4, 2024. Retrieved October 4, 2024.
  3. ^ "Grove Fellowship Program Leaders". Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College. Archived from the original on October 7, 2024. Retrieved October 7, 2024.
  4. ^ "Charles Kaiser". BookBrowse. Archived from the original on October 4, 2024. Retrieved October 4, 2024.
  5. ^ "Charles Kaiser: Author of The Gay Metropolis". GayToday.com. November 3, 1997. Archived from the original on October 4, 2024. Retrieved October 4, 2024.
  6. ^ Márquez, William (May 4, 2024). "Protestas estudiantiles en EE.UU.: qué paralelismos hay con las marchas contra la guerra de Vietnam de 1968, el dramático año que sacudió al país y al mundo". BBC Mundo (in Spanish). Archived from the original on October 7, 2024. Retrieved October 7, 2024.
  7. ^ "Our Past Engaged: Four Turning Points in Columbia's Recent History" (PDF). Columbia University. April 27, 2004. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 18, 2024. Retrieved October 4, 2024.
  8. ^ Pengelly, Martin (June 14, 2015). "US author counts the 'Cost of Courage' in new study of French resistance family". The Guardian. Archived from the original on October 4, 2024. Retrieved October 4, 2024.
  9. ^ Weathers, Pamela (February 23, 2018). "Charles Kaiser to Speak at UConn Stamford for Yom Hashoah/Holocaust Remembrance Day Lecture". University of Connecticut. Archived from the original on October 4, 2024. Retrieved October 4, 2024.
  10. ^ "Charles Kaiser". The Nation. Archived from the original on October 4, 2024. Retrieved October 4, 2024.
  11. ^ "Charles Kaiser at Green Apple Books". Time Out Group. September 15, 2015. Archived from the original on October 4, 2024. Retrieved October 4, 2024.
  12. ^ "Second Tuesday: Disorderly Men by Edward Cahill, with Charles Kaiser". Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center. September 12, 2023. Archived from the original on October 4, 2024. Retrieved October 4, 2024.
  13. ^ a b Dickstein, Morris (November 20, 1988). "One Brief, Electric Moment". The New York Times. Archived from the original on October 4, 2024. Retrieved October 4, 2024.
  14. ^ Lopate, Phillip (November 9, 1997). "Rapid Transit: How 'America's most despised minority' gained acceptance in record time". The New York Times. Archived from the original on September 20, 2024. Retrieved October 4, 2024.
  15. ^ Kranzky, Kyle (July 23, 2019). "A Landmark Book on Gay History Has Been Updated and Re-Released for a New Generation". Los Angeles Magazine. ISSN 1522-9149. Archived from the original on October 4, 2024. Retrieved October 4, 2024.
  16. ^ Patrick, Diane (July 25, 2007). "Authors on the Air: Harry Potter and the Relentless Narrator; Arctic Tale; New England White". Publishers Weekly. Archived from the original on October 4, 2024. Retrieved October 4, 2024.
  17. ^ Manley, Mackenzie (June 17, 2019). "Author Charles Kaiser on 'The Gay Metropolis'". Cincinnati CityBeat. Archived from the original on October 4, 2024. Retrieved October 4, 2024.
  18. ^ Turner, Mark (August 18, 2019). "The Gay Metropolis review: if we can survive Aids, we can survive Trump". The Guardian. Archived from the original on October 4, 2024. Retrieved October 4, 2024.
  19. ^ Waxman, Olivia B. (June 23, 2019). "Some People Think Stonewall Was Triggered by Judy Garland's Funeral. Here's Why Many Experts Disagree". Time. Archived from the original on October 4, 2024. Retrieved October 4, 2024.
  20. ^ Kaiser, Charles (September 25, 2012). "When The New York Times Came Out of the Closet". The New York Review of Books. ISSN 0028-7504. Archived from the original on October 4, 2024. Retrieved October 4, 2024.
  21. ^ Upchurch, Michael (June 29, 2015). "'The Cost of Courage:' fate plays its hand in World War II France". The Seattle Times. Archived from the original on October 4, 2024. Retrieved October 4, 2024.
  22. ^ Tuttle, Kate (June 20, 2015). "Charles Kaiser's 'Cost of Courage' a war story — and a love story". The Boston Globe. Archived from the original on October 4, 2024. Retrieved October 4, 2024.
  23. ^ Kirsch, Jonathan (June 19, 2015). "Opinion | Unraveling a long-suppressed mystery of French Nazi resistance". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on October 4, 2024. Retrieved October 4, 2024.
  24. ^ Rosbottom, Ronald C. (June 16, 2015). "Paris's Secret Garden". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on October 4, 2024. Retrieved October 4, 2024.
  25. ^ Romeo, Nick (June 17, 2015). "'The Cost of Courage' profiles a heroic family of French Resistance fighters". The Christian Science Monitor. Archived from the original on October 4, 2024. Retrieved October 4, 2024.
  26. ^ "A Conversation with Charles Kaiser at a Time for Pride". Hunter College. June 29, 2020. Archived from the original on October 4, 2024. Retrieved October 4, 2024.
  27. ^ "Q&A with Charles Kaiser". Blogger. June 16, 2015. Archived from the original on February 24, 2024. Retrieved October 4, 2024.
  28. ^ "Winter 2017-18 | Columbia College Today". Columbia College, Columbia University. p. 65. Archived from the original on October 5, 2024. Retrieved October 5, 2024. Download the PDF version
  29. ^ Buskirk, Jim Van (November 16, 1997). "The Fast Track Toward Equal Rights / History of gay life charts 50 years of progress toward the American dream". SFGate. ISSN 1932-8672. Archived from the original on November 29, 2021. Retrieved October 4, 2024.
  30. ^ Kaiser, Charles (November 17, 1997). "The Gay Metropolis: 1940-1996". Kirkus Reviews. Archived from the original on October 4, 2024. Retrieved October 4, 2024.
  31. ^ Morton, Paul (November 15, 2012). "The March of Progress Is Never Neat: Merle Miller's On Being Different". The Millions. Archived from the original on October 5, 2024. Retrieved October 5, 2024.
  32. ^ Isaacs, Anna (September 22, 2015). "Book Review // The Cost of Courage". Moment. ISSN 0099-0280. Archived from the original on October 4, 2024. Retrieved October 4, 2024.
  33. ^ Cerna, Antonio Gonzalez (July 14, 1998). "10th Annual Lambda Literary Awards". Lambda Literary Foundation. Archived from the original on October 4, 2024. Retrieved October 4, 2024.
  34. ^ "Paris Book Festival Salutes "The Cost of Courage" for Top Honors". Paris Book Festival. Archived from the original on April 7, 2021. Retrieved October 4, 2024.
  35. ^ "Spring 2018 Grove Fellowship Leaders". Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College. Archived from the original on October 4, 2024. Retrieved October 4, 2024.
  36. ^ "LGBTQ+ Journalists Hall of Fame". NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists. Archived from the original on October 4, 2024. Retrieved October 4, 2024.
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