The Preston archive

For several years, the John Hay Library has been expanding its collections of gay and lesbian material. The decision to increase our holdings in this area is the result of several factors: within the Harris Collection of American Poetry and Plays, the John Hay is already collecting American and Canadian gay/lesbian poetry and plays exhaustively; within the Hall-Hoag Collection of Dissenting and Extremist Literature there is a sizable component of material pertaining to gay rights issues, both pro and con; and several large gifts of lesbian/gay materials have been received within a short span of time, notably the Preston archive and the Katzoff collection.

The initial gift of books, primarily novels dating from the 1970s and 1980s, was received from the estate of Richard Katzoff in 1991. The Katzoff Collection provides an excellent snapshot of the period when lesbian/gay literature began to burgeon in quantity, and also started to become more acceptable to mainstream publishers and audiences. Authors like Edmund White and David Leavitt, as well as numerous lesser-known writers publishing through small specialty houses such as Alyson and Naiad, are well represented. The Katzoff family has ensured the systematic growth of the collection by establishing an acquisitions endowment that will allow the library to purchase additional, complementary titles. In conjunction with the Brown AIDS Program (BRUNAP), the family also has provided funding for a series of lectures that have brought the collection to the attention of the Brown and Providence communities. Speakers have included authors John Preston and David Feinberg, and Wendy Strothman, Corporation member and publisher.

Augmenting and significantly enhancing the Katzoff Collection are several archival collections that have been given to the John Hay over the past five years. The largest of these collections is the archive of John Preston (pictured here with his Vizsla, Vlad the Impaler), author of over 30 books, ranging from fiction and erotica to such important non-fiction titles as Personal Dispatches: Writers Confront AIDS and Hometowns: Gay Men Write About Where They Belong. The Preston archive is especially important in that it contains many thousands of letters between Preston and a vast array of authors that comment upon matters both literary and socio-historical. Among Preston's most prolific correspondents was Ann Rice, author of the Vampire Chronicles, whose papers provide insight into the link between straight/gay and erotic/mainstream fiction.

More recently, the Library has received from Melissa Murphy '90 the publishing archive of On Our Backs, a lesbian magazine located in San Francisco for the past 11 years . Two additional archival gifts give the John Hay's gay/lesbian holdings a more local flavor. Playwright and Professor of English Paula Vogel, well-known as the author of "Baltimore Waltz," a play based upon her own family-experience of living with AIDS, has given her authorial archive to the Library. Vogel's papers also connect nicely with one of the Harris Collection's major emphases, collecting the works of North American dramatists. Most recently, the library was given, via William Jesdale '91, the archive of Rhode Island Act Up, a group in the forefront of the demand for the rights of the state's lesbian/gay community.

With these gifts, the John Hay Library has made a substantial beginning in documenting the American gay/lesbian experience. The Katzoff Collection now numbers some 1,800 titles with these additions. The entire collection will be cataloged shortly in Josiah. It is the expectation that the collections will grow further as the Library's holdings become better known.-S.S.

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