His near obsessive record-keeping interested seminal sex researcher Alfred Kinsey who made Steward an integral collaborator at his Institute of Sex Research.ĭescribing his first meeting with Kinsey, Steward remembers, revealing, as well, the extent of his sexual records, “The thing that amazed him most of all was that I was a ‘record keeper’-’something all too rare,’ he said. Since he was a young man, Steward kept extremely detailed records of all his sexual encounters in what he termed the “Stud File” (don’t you love the name?). However, I know what all you, dear filthy readers, want to hear about: the sex. A fascinating read, Secret Historian is a sometimes gossipy, sometimes raunchy, sometimes melancholy, sometimes gleeful and always amusing ride through Steward’s life.Īs shown in Spring’s introduction, there are clearly too many details in the biography to insert in this gushing review from his double life as a tattoo artist in Chicago to his lifelong adoration of rough trade (unsurprisingly he was a huge fan of Genet) to his struggles with alcoholism and later, barbituate addiction. ![]() ![]() Embarking on an enormous amount of research, Spring resurrects Steward’s raucous, rebellious, role model-worthy and ultimately historically significant biography for readers, rendering Secret Historian arguably mandatory for anyone interested in queer history. Spring continues, “Steward’s journals, letters, memoirs, diaries, and archives of published materials brought all these various identities together into one man,” which is exactly what Spring accomplishes in his illuminating biography of Steward (xiii).īefore Secret Historian, few understood Steward’s entire story, mostly knowing one of his many alter egos. Toklas, and Thornton Wilder Thomas Cave, spiritual seeker Sam Steward, unofficial sex researcher for Alfred Kinsey’s Institute for Sex Research Phil Sparrow, streetwise Chicago tattoo artist “Phil” and “Phillip von Chicago,” homoerotic illustrator Ward Stames, homophile journalist “Doc” Sparrow, official tattoo artist of the Oakland Hell’s Angels motorcycle gang and finally, Phil Andros, the homophile pulp pornographer who described the sexual underground of the American 1950s with passion, good humor, and charm” (xii-iii). Steward, the mild-mannered poet, literary novelist, and professor of English literature at a Catholic university in Chicago “Sammy” Steward, adoring young friend and fan of Gertrude Stein, Alice B. He states, “…I have come to know my subject as a complicated man of many identities. The book was the recipient of many literary honors, and was a finalist for the National Book Award.In his introduction to the captivating Secret Historian: The Life and Times of Samuel Steward, Professor, Tattoo Artist and Sexual Renegade, author Justin Spring discusses the almost unbelievably vast range of personas, lives and experiences of Sam Steward. In 2010, a fascinating biography was released on Steward which was written by scholar Justin Spring: Secret Historian: The Life and Times of Samuel Steward-Professor, Tattoo Artist, and Sexual Renegade (Farrar, Straus and Giroux: New York City, 2010). Steward also was a lead researcher and subject in Alfred Kinsey’s Institute of Sexuality. He eventually became the primary tattoo designer for the Hell’s Angels. Steward abandoned a tenured professor position at Loyala University to pursue a career as a tattoo artist. After retiring from tattooing in 1970, Steward wrote a social history of American tattooing during the 1950s and 60s, which was ultimately published as Bad Boys and Tough Tattoos. Steward in turn mentored Cliff Raven and Ed Hardy, encouraging both to practice the Japanese-style tattooing he himself most admired. (Steward assumed many other pseudonyms over the years as well, including Phil Sparrow.)Īs a leading tattoo artist of the 1950s and 60s, Steward was mentored by master tattooist Amund Dietzel. By the late 60s, Steward started writing a series of pulp pornographic novels featuring the hustler Phil Andros as narrator. ![]() In 1966, thanks to changes in American publishing laws, he was able to release his story collection $TUD with Guild Press in the United States. ![]() Some of his early works described his fascination with rough trade and S/M sex, while others focused on the power dynamics of interracial sexual encounters between men. In the 1960s Sam Steward began writing and publishing his erotica under the pen name of Phil Andros initially with the Danish magazine Eos/Amigo.
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