#Samuel steward photos full#

And maybe this is Sam Steward’s time if so, it is thanks to an executor who just cleared his throat and got on with the task of preserving dozens of boxes’ worth of the most unseemly material I know of, then waited until the right biographer came into focus. Perhaps Steward is to culture what Kinsey was to science-someone who understood the concept but never bothered to play by the rules. And he was also a key informant for founder of Sexology Alfred Kinsey, whose star itself seems to wax and wane regularly as weather. In effect Spring’s colossal research and inspired prose seem almost to expand the field of what culture is, or what it amounts to, since Steward’s greatest achievements were his tattoo artistry, his work in gay porn, and his friendships, some of them erotic, with the great closeted names of his time. And though he was a decent enough writer, he was no Fairfield Porter his real talents lay in other directions, almost off the culture map entirely. Steward wasn’t tortured as much as he was obstinate, though Spring’s book lets us in on his myriad disappointments and frustrations.

#Samuel steward photos full#

And yet once I thought about it with full attention, a life of Sam Steward made sense.įairfield Porter (1907-1975) was a realist painter who seemed in some odd way the other half of a figure like De Kooning, the yin to his yang or whatever, and he was a bisexual working in a heavily heterosexual time and milieu-and he was an excellent writer, largely on art subjects. Humph, thought I, my original dandelion idea has more merit. I could barely credit my senses when someone, I can’t recall who, told me that the biographer would next be turning his storytelling powers to Samuel Steward, whom I knew slightly back in the mid 1980s.

I so admired Spring’s previous biography, Fairfield Porter, A Life in Art (1999), that if he had turned his attention next to the life of a dandelion I would have been interested. In keeping with Steward’s proclivity for traversing the academic and the popular, this conference seeks to create spaces where scholars, students, community members, artists, and performers can interact and converse with each other.Justin Spring’s new biography of the late Sam Steward has only been out for a month or two and it has already received some rapturous reviews: last week it was nominated for the National Book Award. These funds have only recently resurfaced and are now being put to their intended use. In 1995, the estate of Samuel Steward, at his bequest, donated funds to the Department of English at OSU, which were meant to further research on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, and queer lives and issues. Steward went on to teach literature at OSU and other colleges for several years, eventually abandoned academia and became a well-respected tattoo artist under the name Phil Sparrow, and later on wrote a number of erotic novels, using the pseudonym Phil Andros, as well as other books. Born in 1909 in the small town of Woodsfield, Ohio, Samuel Steward enrolled at Ohio State University in 1927 and earned a BA in 1931 and a PhD in 1934, both in English literature. It is fitting that the first, full-scale, academic queer studies conference at OSU should be made possible by, and in commemoration of, one of the university’s former graduates. Comprised of a number of concurrent sessions, two plenary panels, a roundtable on collecting and archiving LGBTQ materials, and a keynote address, the conference aims to take stock of recent trends in queer studies scholarship and to open up new avenues of inquiry, research, and expressive practice. This 2-day conference provides a forum for scholars, creative writers, performance artists, archivists, and others to present and discuss their work relating to queer issues.

I will be attending this symposium next week on Sam Steward Queer Places, Practices & Lives A Symposium in Honor of Samuel Steward The Ohio State University The goal is to find a common human connection that transcends generations. Steward enjoyed company, thought it proper to invite anyone who feels connected to these experiences to join in with their comments, critiques and stories. In an effort to understand this analogous life of ours, the posted pieces create dialogues with Mr.

is a beyond-the-grave dialogue with one of the most intelligent, charismatic, and complicated American scholars – Samuel M. The first is this amazing blog that was created by a writer who blogs about Steward’s life and his own interests and connections to Steward’s life. Since my first post it has become obvious that I need to make a list of all of the links and connections with Sam Steward that are on the web.