Randy Shilts

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Randy Shilts (born August 8, 1951 in Davenport, Iowa , † February 17, 1994 in Guerneville , Sonoma County , California ) was an American journalist and author .

Live and act

Shilts worked as a reporter for The Advocate and the San Francisco Chronicle and the San Francisco Bay Area television station .

Shilts grew up in Aurora, Illinois with five brothers. He studied journalism at the University of Oregon and worked on a student newspaper, the Oregon Daily Emerald. While still a student Shilts had 1,971 be coming out and coined the slogan Come out for Shilts

After completing his studies in 1975, Shilts initially had problems finding a job as a journalist because of his open approach to his homosexuality. After working as a freelance journalist for several years, he found a job as a correspondent for the San Francisco Chronicle in 1981 .

In addition to his work as a journalist, Shilts wrote three books. His first book, The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk, is a biography of the gay politician Harvey Milk , who was murdered by a political rival in San Francisco in 1978 .

Shilt's second book, And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic (1980–1985) was published in 1987, won the Stonewall Book Award, and brought Shilts national attention and literary fame in the United States. It is extensive research into the early days of the AIDS outbreak in the United States. The book was translated into seven languages ​​and filmed on HBO television in 1993 under the title … And Life Goes On . Well-known actors such as Matthew Modine , Richard Gere , Anjelica Huston , Phil Collins , Lily Tomlin and Alan Alda were found in leading and supporting roles . The film received 20 nominations and 9 awards, including the 1994 Emmy Award for Outstanding Made for Television Movie .

His last book, Conduct Unbecoming: Gays and Lesbians in the US Military: Vietnam to the Persian Gulf , which exposed discrimination against lesbians and gays in the US military , was published in 1993. Shilts and his assistants conducted over a thousand interviews during the research. Shilts, already suffering from AIDS, dictated the final chapter of the book from his hospital bed. In June 1994 the book won the Lambda Literary Award in the gay men's studies category.

Shilts saw himself in the role of a writer of documentary novels in the tradition of Truman Capote and Norman Mailer .

Shilts tested HIV positive in March 1987 . He died on February 17, 1994 at the age of 42 of complications from AIDS. His significant other, Barry Barbieri, buried Shilts along with Shilt's mother and Shilt's brothers in the Redwood Memorial Gardens in Guerneville.

Shilts left 170 boxes of notes, papers, and collected materials in the San Francisco Public Library . At the time of his death, Shilts was planning a fourth book on the subject of homosexuality in the Roman Catholic Church.

Works

literature

  • Howard J. Brown: Familiar Faces, Hidden Lives: The Story of Homosexual Men in America Today. 1976, ISBN 0-15-630120-2 .
  • The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk. 1982, ISBN 0-312-52331-9 .
  • And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic (1980-1985). 1987, ISBN 0-613-29872-1 .
  • Conduct Unbecoming: Gays and Lesbians in the US Military. 1993, ISBN 0-312-34264-0 .
  • Andrew E. Stoner: The journalist of Castro Street: the life of Randy Shilts , [Urbana, Illinois]: University of Illinois Press, [2019], 2019, ISBN 978-0-252-08426-3

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Mike Weiss: Randy Shilts was gutsy, brash and unforgettable. In: San Francisco Chronicle . February 17, 2004, p. D-1, found January 3, 2007.
  2. ↑ School of Journalism and Communication Hall of Achievement ( Memento of the original from December 12, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Found January 3, 2007. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / netvolution.uoregon.edu
  3. ^ IMDb entry for And the Band Played On . Found January 3, 2007.
  4. ↑ Jeffrey Schmalz: AT HOME WITH: Randy Shilts; Writing Against Time, Valiantly. In: The New York Times . April 22, 1993, found January 3, 2007.
  5. ^ A b c Janice Albert: California authors: Randy Shilts, 1951–1994. California Association of Teachers of English, found January 3, 2007.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Shilts, Randy
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American journalist and writer
DATE OF BIRTH August 8, 1951
PLACE OF BIRTH Davenport, Iowa
DATE OF DEATH February 17, 1994
Place of death Guerneville , Sonoma County , California