John Preston, an author of gay erotica and gay-themed nonfiction, was born December 11th, 1945 in Medfield, Massachusetts. He recognized his orientation early in life and as a teenager began experimenting with his sexuality, an activity he would later write about in several of his more personal works of nonfiction. In 1963 he moved to Illinois to attend Lake Forest College and afterwards moved back to Boston in order to seek an openly gay community. Prompted by the suicide of a lover, Preston decided to come out as a member and advocate of gay society and moved to Minneapolis to help establish the "Gay House" and the accompanying Gay Community Services. He emigrated from major U.S. city to city during his life, moving to Los Angeles during the 1970s to become an editor for the gay magazine The Advocate and later re-establishing himself in San Francisco and then New York City to experiment in various sexual movements. During this time, Preston became deeply involved in the Leather and BDSM subcultures, which he celebrated in several of his written works. After stints as a sex worker and an S/M underground enthusiast, he began writing erotic fiction and become known for his stories describing the sexual escapades of fictional character Aristotle Benson in an erotic series known as Mr. Benson. Preston pushed for the development of better quality gay erotic writing, which he regarded as a genuine art form, as well as gay nonfiction in general. He received the Lambda Literary Award and the American Library Association's Stonewall Book Award for his nonfiction anthologies, which included Personal Dispatches: Writers Confront AIDS, Sister and Brother: Lesbians and Gay Men Write about their Lives Together, Member of the Family: Gay Men Write About Their Families, Friends and Lovers: Gay Men Write About the Families They Create, and Hometowns: Gay Men Write About Where They Belong. Preston moved, once again, to Portland, Maine in 1979, where he continued writing as both an author and a journalist and working as a gay activist. He pioneered a safe sex erotica movement and edited a safe sex-themed anthology titled Hot Living, which was published in 1985. He also co-founded the AIDS Project in Southern Maine as a part of his efforts to increase awareness of the disease and worked as a safe-sex instructor for the gay community. In 1987, Preston was himself diagnosed as HIV-positive and took a hiatus from writing in order to come to terms with his illness. He resumed, however, and continued writing until his death in Portland on April 28th, 1994 from AIDS complications.
During his life, Preston corresponded frequently with writer Anne Rice (with whom he collaborated on his anthology Flesh and the Word: An Anthology of Erotic Writing) as well as with several other well-known authors and gay activists. He published many significant works of LGBTQ-themed fiction and nonfiction during his lifetime, including I Once Had a Master and Other Tales of Erotic Love, The Big Gay Book: A Man's Survival Guide for the Nineties, Franny, the Queen of Provincetown, the Alex Kane series, and Hustling: A Gentleman's Guide to the Fine Art of Homosexual Prostitution. He did much of his writing under pen names; these pseudonyms included Jack Hilt, Mike McCray, and Preston MacAdam. He rejected the categorization of his work as "erotica," deeming it elitist, and preferred instead to call it pornography; a lecture he gave at Harvard on the subject entitled "My Life as a Pornographer" was later turned into an accompanying essay collection of the same name. His posthumously-published anthology Winter's Light dealt with his struggle to cope with both his own status as a person living with AIDS (PWA) and the loss of many of his friends and fellow writers to the epidemic. Preston's work remains well-regarded today as both an advancement in the world of gay literature and a strong example of activism in the LGBTQ community.
Includes correspondence with Jon Hedu, Gail Hinand, and Michael Kearns.
Includes correspondence with Paul Monette and Scott O'Hara.
Includes correspondence with Betsy Preston (sister), Marvin Preston (brother), and Nancy Preston (mother); Paul Reed; Robert Riger; and Eric E. Rofes.
Correspondence with Laurence Senelick and Sam Steward and subject files on S&M and Safe sex.
Correspondence with Bob Summer and T. R. Witomski
Correspondents include T.R. Witmoski and Les K. Wright.
Bulk of outgoing correspondence addressed to Richard.
Correspondence and research related to the Big Gay Book
Correspondence and research related to the Big Gay Book
Correspondence and research related to the
Faxed correspondence from Anne Rice (1993-1994).
Includes correspondence with Eric Garber (Andrew Holleran) and Michael Lowenthal, among others.
Includes unsorted and unopened correspondence.
Unsorted correspondence originally in fax format, photocopied to preserve information. Includes correspondence with Anne Rice.
Received as gift of Michael Lowenthal.
Single manuscript of Chapters 1-5
Manuscript is inaccessible due to water damage and mold concerns.
Includes
Includes titles
Includes titles
Includes early writings and numerous undated and untitled works.
Includes interviews with and conducted by Preston.
Photocopies of various drafts sent to John Preston.
Photocopies of various drafts.
Writings by numerous authors, many submitted to Preston for consideration in edited volumes, and a manuscript of an unpublished epistolary novel written with T.R. Witomski. Includes thirty-four undated manuscripts by Roy F. Wood.
Drafts and page proofs of
Comprises floppy disks, audiocassettes, and videotapes.
Correspondence (1985-1993), drafts of the bulk of Preston's titles including edited volumes, various essays, addresses, and book proposals. Materials stored on approximately 300 floppy disks (3.5 inch and 5.25 inch). Also includes printout of directories of the files on John Preston floppy disks 1-46 and 47-158.
2 audiocassette tape recorders (one with speaker) and 1 slide viewer.
Recordings Include interviews with John Preston and programs related to AIDS activism. Numerous unlabeled audiocassettes. The bulk of the materials are undated. Comprises 41 audiocassettes
Recordings Include interviews and Preston's Preston's keynote address at the "Creating Change" Conference (1992) as well as programs related to AIDS activism. Numerous unlabeled audiocassettes. The bulk of the materials are undated. Comprises 22 audiocassettes
3 videotapes including John Preston interview on "Personally Speaking" (Maine Public Television, 1993).
Photographs, contact sheets, and negatives. Includes materials collected for publication.
7 mounted photographs and 1 print, negatives, and oversize proofs.
8 images mounted on cardboard; several tagged photos which were to be included in a thematic calendar.
Materials include clippings of published writings by John Preston.
Materials include articles by or about John Preston.
3 broadsides including publicity for Preston speaking engagements and a certificate honoring Preston.
Popular LGBTQ-themed publications and printed ephemera, many featuring Preston authorship or involvement.
Materials include a 1992 Lambda Literary Award for Gay Men's Anthologies; a birdhouse from Leigh Rutledge dated 1992; a gavel engraved "Mr. Drummer"; a small lock, and a personal stamp.
Includes Preston writings, edited pieces, newspaper clippings, printed fliers and articles, personal ephemera, personal realia, interviews, and other writings.
Materials include correspondence, manuscript drafts of various works including
Received as a gift of Michael Lowenthal in three accessions, February 1995 (A95-13 and A95-18) and November 2007 (A2007-087 and A2007-088).
Incoming correspondence from John Preston addressed to Lark Hapke.
Received as a gift of Lark Hapke, August 1995 (A95-82).
Received as a gift of Gail Hinand, August 1995 (A95-87).
Received as a gift of Michael Denneny, February 1995 (A95-91).
Unannotated photocopy.
Volume 20, Number 5 (Spring 1995). This issue contains advertisement for Flesh and the Word: a John Preston Gathering, October 6-8, 1995 at the John Hay Library, Brown University.
Photographs, clippings, and miscellaneous printed ephemera.
Correspondence, clippings, typescripts, memorial service program. Correspondence from Preston dates from circa 1988-1992 or is undated.
Received as a gift of Celeste DeRoche, Alpril 2000 (A2000-27).
34 typed and signed letters from Preston to Rogers, including 2 typed manuscripts of essays, book sales records, and information on an anthology put together after Preston's health deteriorated.
Received as a gift of Susan Fox Rogers (A2018.029)
5 8x10 photographs by Robert Diamante taken in Portland, Maine. All are numbered 3 of 5.
Received as a gift of Robert Diamante (A2018.031)
The John Preston papers include correspondence, manuscripts, and research materials collected by John Preston, a notable gay writer, self-identified pornographer and LGBTQ activist of the 1970s and 80s, as well as several of his close friends and business partners. The materials in the collection date from roughly 1973 to 1995, spanning the last 21 years of Preston's life. The collection is organized into eight series.
John Preston transferred his copyright to all his writings to Brown University. For permission to publish or cite materials from the John Preston papers, please contact the John Hay Library, Brown University.
John Preston papers, Ms.2011.032, Brown University Library.
The papers are arranged in eight series:
There are no restrictions on access for non-digital materials, except that the collection can only be seen by prior appointment. Some materials may be stored off-site and cannot be produced on the same day on which they are requested. Advance notice is required to view born-digital records. Born-digital materials in this collection have not been reformatted yet. Researchers may request access to copies by contacting the John Hay Library with the collection name, collection number, and a description of the item(s) requested. Access to original physical digital media is restricted.
Collection received as gift of John Preston and the John Preston Estate (1992-1995). Additional materials received from Celeste DeRoche (2000), Lark Hapke (1995), Diane Hamer (2007-2009), Gail Hinand (1995), Michael Lowenthal (1995-2007), and various other sources.
As I processed the John Preston Collection, I attempted to remain respectful of provenance (original order) whenever possible. As part of this effort, I broadly categorized the materials into correspondence, writings, floppy disks, etc., visual materials, printed materials, additions, and subject files while allowing for a fair amount of overlap between series. This entails that the correspondence boxes contain some manuscripts and printed materials; the writings series contains some letters and printed ephemera, and so on. The Preston estate donated several boxes' worth of his own personal alphabetized subject files; we kept these mostly in order while organizing the materials. The Additions series was something of a complication: rather than attempting to categorize each non-Preston accession on its own, we arranged them together as a large group and divided them into the subseries correspondence, printed papers, and writings. This allowed us to accommodate diverse materials without losing any of Preston's original order. Some of Preston's letters included correspondence with people of renown such as Anne Rice and Michael Lowenthal; however, rather than distract from the main subject of this collection, John Preston, by creating special series for others, we merely integrated their materials with the rest of the additions. Several preservation efforts were taken: in addition to re-foldering and re-boxing the materials when necessary, we examined one water-damaged manuscript for conservation possibilities (although little was able to be done for it). We removed some of the large-scale images from their mounts and frames and placed them in one-sized boxes. The most rearrangement we did in the collection was in the writings series. The series was re-organized into two broad categories: the writings of John Preston and the writings of others. The Preston writings were further arranged into works of fiction, works of nonfiction and short writings in order to improve user access to the collection. The Realia and Printed Materials portions are also comprised of materials we combined in order to create more cohesive series. I dispensed with very few materials; almost everything that was donated in the Preston accessions was retained during our processing. Overall, the most important features of original order have been retained and I believe we have maximized user access with what liberties we took in rearranging donations.