Philip Sparrow Tells All

Essays by Sam Steward, originally published under the name Philip Sparrow, and now edited for republication by Jeremy Mulderig.
   Samuel Steward's life spanned most of the 20th century (1909-1993).  He was an English professor (at DePaul University), a tattoo artist (the Hell's Angels were a prime client), and writer of erotic fiction whose place in gay history has been established by Justin Spring's award-winning biography, Secret History (FSG, 2010).  Muldergi's edition of Steward's essays now gives us Steward in his own words in a way that Spring's biography could only gesture at.  We have here a singular collection of witty, charming, and erudite essays in the tradition of Montaigne and Bacon, examining the world at large and Steward's and the reader's place in it that bring the persona Philip Sparrow to life while reflecting Steward's own expansive knowledge of literature, history, music, art, philosophy, and contemporary events (not to mention Chicago people and places).  Mulderig supplies consistently smart and informative headnotes to each of the 30 essays that speak to general readers on a wide range of topics--including cryptography, espionage, psychiatry, opera, pet cemeteries, bodybuilding, keepsakes, medieval recipes, Gertrude Stein, Chicago, Paris, and the Women's Christian Temperance Union.  That they were originally published in the Illinois Dental Journal (from 1944 to 1949) is notable in itself, for the obscurity of the source as well as the novelty of a venue that would compel its author to create a persona.  Under the guise of "Philip Sparrow" he could say things the he might otherwise have written under his own name. Steward later published material in a Swiss gay magazine and erotica for Danish gay magazines and, in the 1980s, for The Advocate. The collection is a significant life document and will appeal to general readers and students across a spectrum of GLBT studies, Chicago literature, American Studies, and go directly to passionate fans of this cult author, an audience that was born in 2010 with Spring's biography.