Gay San Francisco: Eyewitness Drummer Vol. 1 (Issues 14-20)

Eyewitness Fritscher, the lover of Robert Mapplethorpe, breaks the trance of received gay history. In this timeline archive of art, sex, obscenity, gender, and gay mafia, 21st-century readers will get up to speed fast on the serious fun of who did what to whom when and why. In the Titanic 1970s, longtime Drummer editor Fritscher added erotic realism to the magical thinking of Drummer readers wanting a magazine that made newly liberated sex seem possible and accessible. Based on internal evidence in Drummer, journals, diaries, letters, photos, interviews, recordings, and newspapers, this ultimate insider’s guide to the Rise and Fall of Castro and Folsom Streets is a risky ride that brings back what a thrill it was to pick up your first issue of Drummer. Fritscher’s frisson anchors San Francisco’s wild Gay Lib history on the clear chronology of the legendary monthly Drummer. Academia meets pop culture! Fritscher is the Ken Burns of Drummer magazine. Fritscher has done the research work most academics won’t do–thus ensuring that historians, critics and anthropologists will cut and paste with delight for years to come.“Fritscher reads gloriously!” San Francisco Chronicle