Kinsey Zero through Sixty
I'm sure I mentioned before the story that I wrote about a year ago for my friend, occasional co-author, and frequent editor Ron Suresha. The story, an episodic "biography" of a copy of the Kinsey Report during it's (so far) sixty-year life, is called "Between Red Covers" (a title that refers to the original book jacket, but also meant to evoke some vague sense of McCarthyism, not to mention the sexual allusion) and publication is upon us.
I wrote the story for an anthology Ron was putting together to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the publication of Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, by Alfred C. Kinsey, Wardell B. Pomeroy, and Clyde E. Martin (Philadelphia : W.B. Saunders Company, 1948. xv + 804 pages), a ground-breaking and quickly notorious work. As research for the story I managed to find an inexpensive first edition (second printing) of the book online and I read it all in November of last year. It was fascinating to read, especially having heard so much about it, not to mention so much that was incorrect about it. I'll remind you that I wrote a book note at the time.
As it happens, mine is the only piece of fiction in the anthology. It's a daunting prospect, but I also feel personally gratified. The anthology is called Kinsey Zero through Sixty: Bisexual Perspectives on Kinsey. It is being published as a special, double-issue of the Journal of Bisexuality by Taylor & Francis (who recently acquired Haworth Press, previous publishers of the Journal of Bisexuality and publisher of one of Ron's previous anthologies, BiGuys, in which I also had a story). The table of contents are here.
Dan Jaffe (an author with whom I've shared the table of contents in a couple of Ron's anthologies) recently published a nice interview with Ron, talking about this newest volume and some of his earlier work at BiblioBuffet: "Ron Suresha: An Interview".
And now, finally, to my pretext for all this self-aggrandizing talk: Ron is having a book-release party for Kinsey Zero to Sixty on Friday, 21 November, in New London, Connecticut. Click on this Facebook Event Page for more information and to see a nice picture of the original dust jacket of the Kinsey Report. I won't be able to make it, alas, but if you're near please drop in, say hi, and meet interesting people. Be sure to give Ron a big hug from me, too.
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on Saturday, 15 November 2008 at 04.50
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Congratulations on the inclusion and publication of your story, Jeff.
I remember in my teen years Kinsey and his book being referred to in the hushed remarks afforded to things considered scandalous and/or taboo. I expect the book would seem tepid and kind of quaint now. Still, it was a brave and pioneering work, and should be respected as such.