Christopher Street (magazine)

Last updated
Christopher Street
ChristopherStreetMagIssue1.jpg
Christopher Street #1, cover dated July 1, 1976
Editor-in-chief Charles Ortleb
Categories Men's magazine
Frequencymonthly
First issueJuly 1, 1976
Final issue
Number
December 1, 1995
Vol 19 No 4
Company That New Magazine Inc
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Christopher Street was an American gay-oriented magazine published in New York City, New York, by Charles Ortleb. It was founded in 1976 by Ortleb and Michael Denneny, an openly gay editor in book publishing. [1] Two years later, the magazine had a circulation of 20,000 and annual revenues of $250,000. [2] Known both for its serious discussion of issues within the gay community and its satire of anti-gay criticism, it was one of the two most widely read gay-issues publications in the United States. [3] [4] Christopher Street covered politics and culture and its aim was to become a gay equivalent of The New Yorker . [5]

The magazine featured original fiction and non-fiction work from such notable authors as Andrew Holleran, Felice Picano, Gore Vidal, Edmund White, and John Preston, as well as emerging gay writers such as Christopher Bram, Allen Barnett, John Fox, Scott Heim, John Alan Lee, Patrick Merla, Randy Shilts and Matthew Stadler. The cartoons signed (Rick) Fiala, Lublin, (Henryk) Baum, Bertram Dusk, Dean, and March were all drawn by Rick Fiala, the founding art director of Christopher Street. [6] [7]

First published in July 1976, Christopher Street printed 231 issues before closing its doors in December 1995.

Collections of Christopher Street material

Related Research Articles

<i>The New Yorker</i> American weekly magazine since 1925

The New Yorker is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues covering two-week spans. Although its reviews and events listings often focus on the cultural life of New York City, The New Yorker also produces long-form journalism and shorter articles and commentary on a variety of topics, has a wide audience outside New York, and is read internationally.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gay bathhouse</span> Commercial space for male-male sex

A gay bathhouse, also known as a gay sauna or a gay steambath, is a public bath targeted towards gay and bisexual men. In gay slang, a bathhouse may be called just "the baths", "the sauna", or "the tubs". Historically, they have been used for sexual activity.

Ruth Shick Montgomery was a journalist with a long and distinguished career as a reporter, correspondent, and syndicated columnist in Washington, DC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christopher Street</span> Street in Manhattan, New York

Christopher Street is a street in the West Village neighborhood of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is the continuation of 9th Street west of Sixth Avenue.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gay literature</span> Literary genre

Gay literature is a collective term for literature produced by or for the gay community which involves characters, plot lines, and/or themes portraying male homosexual behavior.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wanda Gág</span> American artist and childrens writer (1893–1946)

Wanda Hazel Gág was an American artist, author, translator, and illustrator. She is best known for writing and illustrating the children's book Millions of Cats, the oldest American picture book still in print. Gág was also a noted print-maker, receiving international recognition and awards. Growing Pains, a book of excerpts from the diaries of her teen and young adult years, received widespread critical acclaim. Two of her books were awarded Newbery Honors and two received Caldecott Honors. The New York Public Library included Millions of Cats on its 2013 list of 100 Great Children's Books.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">G. P. Putnam's Sons</span> US book publisher

G. P. Putnam's Sons is an American book publisher based in New York City, New York. Since 1996, it has been an imprint of the Penguin Group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrew Holleran</span> American novelist, essayist, and short story writer

Andrew Holleran is the pseudonym of Eric Garber, an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer, born on the island of Aruba. Most of his adult life has been spent in New York City, Washington, D.C., and a small town in Florida. He was a member of The Violet Quill, a gay writer's group that met in 1980 and 1981 and also included Robert Ferro, Edmund White and Felice Picano. Following the critical and financial success of his first novel Dancer from the Dance in 1978, he became a prominent author of post-Stonewall gay literature. Historically protective of his privacy, the author continues to use the pseudonym Andrew Holleran as a writer and public speaker.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LGBT themes in horror fiction</span>

LGBT themes in horror fiction refers to sexuality in horror fiction that can often focus on LGBTQ+ characters and themes within various forms of media. It may deal with characters who are coded as or who are openly LGBTQ+, or it may deal with themes or plots that are specific to gender and sexual minorities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jake Halpern</span>

Jake Halpern is an American writer, commentator, and podcast producer.

Patrick Merla is a gay American "literary agent, editor and prominent figure in gay publishing."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrey Avinoff</span> Russian-American artist and painter, lepidopterist, entomologist, and museum director (1884–1949)

Andrey Avinoff ; was an internationally-known artist, lepidopterist, museum director, professor, bibliophile and iconographer, who served as the director of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh from 1926 to 1945.

<i>New York Native</i> Defunct gay newspaper published in New York City

The New York Native was a biweekly gay newspaper published by Charles Ortleb in New York City from December 1980 until January 13, 1997. It was the only gay paper in New York City during the early part of the AIDS epidemic, and pioneered reporting on AIDS when most others ignored it. The paper subsequently became known for attacking the scientific understanding of HIV as the cause of AIDS and endorsing HIV/AIDS denialism.

<i>TheaterWeek</i>

TheaterWeek was a national weekly magazine catering to artists and lovers of theater and cabaret. It covered Broadway, off-Broadway, regional and educational theater with articles that included profiles and interviews of actors, directors and designers, reviews, theater news and behind-the-scenes looks at shows. The magazine was founded and first edited by Mike Salinas. Later, Bob Sandia and then John Harris edited the magazine. Columnists as Peter Filichia, Alexis Greene, Charles Marowitz, Ken Mandelbaum, Davi Napoleon, Leslie (Hoban) Blake, and Michael Riedel were featured. The New York Daily News called the magazine "influential".

The Violet Quill was a group of seven gay male writers that met in 1980 and 1981 in New York City to read from their writings to each other and to critique them. This group and the writers epitomize the years between the Stonewall Riots and the beginning of the AIDS pandemic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Everard Baths</span> Bath house in New York City, United States

The Everard Baths or Everard Spa Turkish Bathhouse was a gay bathhouse at 28 West 28th Street in New York City that operated from 1888 to 1986. The venue occupied an adaptively reused church building and was the site of a deadly fire.

Lawrence D. Mass is an American physician and writer. A co-founder of Gay Men's Health Crisis, he wrote the first press reports in the United States on an illness later became known as AIDS. He is the author of numerous publications on HIV, hepatitis C, STDs, gay health, psychiatry and sex research, and on music, opera, and culture. He is also the author/editor of four books/collections. In 2009 he was in the first group of physicians to be designated as diplomates of the American Board of Addiction Medicine. Since 1979, he has lived and worked as a physician in New York City, where he resided with his life partner, writer and activist Arnie Kantrowitz. Having written for the New York Native since the 1970s, he currently writes a column for The Huffington Post. An archival collection of his papers are at the New York Public Library.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">C. B. Colby</span> American writer

Carroll Burleigh Colby was an American writer, primarily of nonfiction children's books. He wrote more than 100 books that were widely circulated in public and school libraries in the United States. He is best known for Strangely Enough! (1959).

Jeffrey Potter was an American biographer best known for his 1985 biography of Jackson Pollock, whom he had befriended in 1949. He also published two children’s books and two non-fiction works: one about environmental disaster, and an authorised biography of Dorothy Schiff.

Michael Denneny was an American editor and author. He was one of the first openly gay editors at a major publishing house.

References

  1. Sandomir, Richard (2023-04-25). "Michael Denneny, 80, Dies; Editor Created Outlets for Gay Literature". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2023-04-30.
  2. Kleinfield, N. R. (1978-08-01). "Homosexual Periodicals Are Proliferating". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2023-04-30.
  3. Miller, Stephen (October 1995). "Who Stole the Gay Movement?". Christopher Street. Retrieved 2006-12-07.
  4. "Arm yourself with a copy of 'The Homosexual Agenda'". Pam's House Blend. 2006-06-25. Archived from the original on 2012-09-09. Retrieved 2006-12-07.
  5. Bram, Christopher. Eminent Outlaws: The Gay Writers Who Changed America. 2012: Twelve, New York.
  6. Ted (January 28, 2013). "Cartoons from Christopher Street (July 1976 – December 1995)" . Retrieved April 5, 2018.
  7. Gehr, Richard (2014). Only Read it for the Cartoons: The New Yorker's Most Brilliantly Twisted Artists. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. p. 48. ISBN   9780544114456.