Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #47834 in Books
• Published on: 2008-10-14
• Released on: 2008-10-14
• Original language: German
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

Review

About the Author

Customer Reviews

A LEADER IN THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT
Randy Shilts was a great writer, his books are always a good read. This was his first, and perhaps best book. It tells the story of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay elected politician in America. I bought this book after reading the reviews of "Milk," the new movie starring Sean Penn as Harvey Milk. It's a good history of how gay men were treated in America in the 1940's and 1950's, tells about Stonewall, then moves to San Francisco and the Castro, when Harvey Milk does.The Castro grew up around the time Harvey Milk first came here, started his camera store and ran for City Supervisor. Milk comes across as someone with compassion and a clear vision of what city governement should do, but also someone with a wicked sense of humor, and a sense of theatre, which makes it a fun read. He really comes alive in this book. The book goes through his assasination by a former police officer, Dan White, the candlelight procession after his death, the trial of Dan White, and subsequent "White Night Riots." A must read for anyone interested in the gay rights movement.

Remembering Harvey Milk
Shilts, Randy. "The Mayor of Castro Street", St. Martin's, 2008.

Remembering Harvey Milk

Amos Lassen

Harvey Milk is an icon in gay history and now with the film, Milk" with an amazing performance by Sean Penn, there is a renewed interest in the man that did so much to advance gay rights. St. Martin's has reissued Randy Shilts' biography of Milk, "The Mayor of Castro Street", which is a remarkable study of Milk as well as social history and a look at the world of politics. The book is not only a powerful character study but a fascinating history of the California gay movement and an intense look at city politics.
Before he was even elected to political office, Harvey Milk was known as the mayor of Castro Street. Shilts takes a look at Milk's personal and political life and his assassination and these reflect the mood of gay America and the real beginning of the emergence of gay rights and the road to gay political power. Here is a history of personal tragedy and political intrigue, of rioting in the streets and how justice was miscarried. However more than that, this is the story of gay power and gay hope.
Randy Shilts always gives a good reading experience and it is too bad that he is no longer with us. "The Mayor of Castro Street" was his first book and he chose a great topic to begin his literary career. He looks at how we, as gay men, were treated in the 1940's and 50's, writes about what happened at Stonewall and then shifts the scene to San Francisco and the Castro, the California center of gay life during Milk's time. We learn of how Milk began his political quest and we feel his sense of humor and dramatics. There is a lot of information here and added plus is the author was once a friend of Harvey Milk which gives us a little more insight.
The book is episodic in nature and each episode begins with a tag line that leads into what was happening. The volume reads like a non-fiction novel as we get a chronology of the gay rights movement in 380 pages. Shilts also knew how to appeal to human emotion and there were instances when I read with tears in my eyes. Milk was an epic hero who lived a somewhat epic life but Shilts manages to let us know him as a simple man with a simple dream. Shilts also leaves no stone unturned and his research is meticulous--including his interviews with two of Milk's lovers.
Another interesting aspect is that even though Shilts and Milk were friends, the author is able to maintain objectivity throughout. His sense of detail is also wonderful and with that he draws the reader in and holds him. Shilts gives an honest and illuminating portrait of the champion of gay rights; one that should be read by any member of the community who wants to know where we were and how far we have come.

A Man Without Fear
Author Randy Shilts was a journalist before he became a best selling author (And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic, 20th-Anniversary Edition, Conduct Unbecoming: Gays and Lesbians in the U.S. Military). His chronicling of the life of Harvey Milk from New York to San Francisco bears witness to the everyman struggles of gay men of that period. From the arrests and harassments in bars to the ultimate victory of being the first gay man elected to United Sates office, Shilts details every aspect of Milk's life. People famous then and now supplied detailed information on the kind of human being that Harvey Milk truly was. (Mind you, this book was written in the early eighties).

Told in a quickly paced and unrelentingly thorough style, Shilts shows how an ordinary man like Milk can make a global change (all after age forty). Milk did this before he was assassinated, making his story all the more intriguing, tragic and poetic. The recent Gus Van Sant film does a great service to the novel, but Shilts is the one that truly gets under the skin of Harvey Milk and displays a man full of integrity, conviction and humility. In his reporter's style, Shilts also describes Milk's associates, friends and coworkers, pulling together the fabric of a life cut far too short. There is a great deal of inside information like Feinstein getting caught with a gun in her purse, Feinstein literally trying to keep Harvey Milk and Dan White away from each other on that fateful day and the bizarre fact that Harvey Milk recorded his obit 1 year and 9 days prior to his assassination. Of course, see the film and the documentary, but read this book to truly comprehend how an ordinary man can turn into a hero for not just a minority, but also any underdog.