John Preston 86675 221194921 2008-06-23T13:29:16Z Cst17 6898026 Reverted 1 edit by [[Special:Contributions/84.141.107.108|84.141.107.108]] identified as [[WP:VAND|vandalism]] to last revision by [[User:Eubot|Eubot]]. ([[WP:TW|TW]]) {{for|the fictional character in ''[[Equilibrium (2002 film)|Equilibrium]]''|John Preston (character)}} '''John Preston''' (b. [[December 11]], [[1945]], [[Medfield, Massachusetts]] - d. [[April 28]] [[1994]], [[Portland, Maine]]) was an [[author]] of [[gay]] [[erotica]] and an [[editing|editor]] of gay [[nonfiction]] [[anthologies]]. ==Life and works== He grew up in [[Medfield, Massachusetts]], later living in a number of major American cities before settling in [[Portland, Maine]] in 1979. A writer of [[fiction]] and nonfiction, dealing mostly with issues in gay life, he was a pioneer in the early [[gay rights]] movement in [[Minneapolis]]. He helped found one of the earliest gay community centers in the [[United States]], edited two newsletters devoted to sexual health, and served as editor of ''[[The Advocate]]'' in 1975. He was the author or editor of nearly fifty books, including such erotic landmarks as ''[[Mr. Benson]]'' and ''[[I Once Had a Master and Other Tales of Erotic Love]]''. Other works include ''[[Franny, the Queen of Provincetown]]'' (first a novel, then adapted for stage), ''The Big Gay Book: A Man's Survival Guide for the Nineties'', ''Personal Dispatches: Writers Confront AIDS'', and ''Hometowns: Gay Men Write About Where They Belong''. Preston's erotica (which he insisted on calling [[pornography]]) was part of a movement in the 1970s and 1980s toward higher [[literary]] quality in gay erotic fiction. Preston was an outspoken [[advocate]] of the artistic and social worth of erotic writings, delivering a [[lecture]] at [[Harvard University]] entitled ''My Life as a Pornographer''. The lecture was later published in an [[essay]] [[Anthology|collection]] with the same name. The collection includes Preston's thoughts about the gay [[leather subculture|leather]] community, to which he belonged. His writings caused controversy when he was one of several gay and lesbian authors to have his books confiscated at the border by [[Canada Customs]]. Testimony regarding the literary merit of his [[novel]] ''I Once Had a Master'' helped a [[Vancouver]] [[LGBT]] bookstore, [[Little Sister's Book and Art Emporium]], to partially win a case against Canada Customs in the [[Canadian Supreme Court]] in 2000. Preston also brought gay erotic fiction to [[mainstream]] readers by editing the ''Flesh and the Word'' anthologies for a major [[publisher|press]]. Preston served as a [[journalist]] and [[essayist]] throughout his life. He wrote [[news]] articles for ''Drummer'' and other gay [[magazines]], produced a [[print syndication|syndicated]] column on gay life in [[Maine]], and penned a column for ''Lambda Book Report'' called "Preston on Publishing." His nonfiction anthologies, which collected essays by himself and others on everyday aspects of gay and lesbian life, won him the [[Lambda Literary Award]] and the American Library Association's [[Stonewall Book Award]]. He was especially noted for his writings on [[New England]]. In addition, Preston wrote [[men's adventure]] novels under the [[pseudonyms]] of Mike McCray, Preston MacAdam, and Jack Hilt ([[pen names]] that he shared with other authors). Taking what he had learned from authoring those books, he wrote the "Alex Kane" adventure novels about gay characters. Preston was among the first writers to popularize the genre of [[safe sex]] stories, editing a safe sex anthology entitled ''Hot Living'' in 1985. He helped to found the [[AIDS]] Project of Southern Maine. In the late 1980s, he discovered that he himself was [[HIV positive people|HIV positive]]. Some of his last essays, found in his nonfiction anthologies and in his posthumous collection ''Winter's Light'', describe his struggle to come emotionally to terms with a disease that had already killed many of his friends and fellow writers. He died of AIDS [[Complication (medicine)|complications]] on [[April 28]] [[1994]], aged 48, at his home in Portland. His papers are held in the Preston Archive at [[Brown University]]. ==External links== * the John Preston project : http://www.duskpeterson.com/preston/ * http://www.queertheory.com/histories/p/preston_john.htm {{DEFAULTSORT:Preston, John}} [[Category:1945 births]] [[Category:1994 deaths]] [[Category:AIDS-related deaths]] [[Category:American book editors]] [[Category:American non-fiction writers]] [[Category:American novelists]] [[Category:Gay writers]] [[Category:LGBT rights activists from the United States]] [[Category:People from Norfolk County, Massachusetts]] [[Category:People from Portland, Maine]] [[Category:People from Maine]]