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EspañolARMISTEAD MAUPIN
'Armistead Jones Maupin' Jr.[1] (born ) is an American writer best known for his ''Tales of the City'' series of novels based in San Francisco.
Biography
Maupin was born to a conservative, Christian family in Washington D.C. but moved early on to North Carolina where he was raised.'Growing up Gay in old Raleigh - in ''The Independent'' of Raleigh, North Carolina, June 1988 - autobiographical memoir He says he has had storytelling instincts since he was eight years old. He attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he got into journalism through writing for ''The Daily Tar Heel''.A Conversation with Author Armistead Maupin - on KUOW radio, 2007-06-19 After earning his undergraduate degree, Maupin enrolled in law school, but later dropped out. He worked at a television station in Raleigh managed by conservative television personality and later U.S. Senator Jesse Helms, who nominated him for a patriotic award, which he won. Maupin says he was a typical conservative and even a segregationist at this time and looked up to Helms, who he knew and was a family friend, as a sort of "hero figure". He later changed his views dramatically - "I've changed and he hasn't" - and condemned Helms at a gay pride parade on the steps of the North Carolina State Capitol. He is a veteran of the U.S. Navy; he served several tours of duty including one in the Vietnam War.
Maupin's work on a Charleston newspaper was followed with an offer of a post at the San Francisco bureau of the Associated Press in 1971.[2][3] He says he knew he was gay since childhood, but didn't have sex until he was 26 and only decided to come out publicly in 1974.[4][5] The same year, he began what would become the ''Tales of the City'' series as a serial in a local newspaper, ''The Pacific Sun'', moving to the San Francisco Chronicle after the former newspaper folded.
His former partner of twelve years, Terry Anderson, was once a gay rights activist (Maupin himself has done much work in this area),[6][7] and co-authored the screenplay for ''The Night Listener''. He lived with Anderson in San Francisco and New Zealand.[8] Ian McKellen is a friend[9] and Christopher Isherwood was a mentor, friend, and influence as a writer.[10][11] Maupin is now married to Christopher Turner, a website producer and photographer who he came across on an internet dating website and then "chased him down Castro Street, saying, "Didn’t I see you on Daddyhunt.com?""Armistead Maupin: The quick-witted author mined his own experience for The Night Listener - in Time Out New York.[12] Armistead and Christopher were married in Vancouver, British Columbia on February 18 2007, though he says that they had called each other 'husbands' for two years prior. Armistead Maupin’s Family Ties He enjoys doing public readings of his own works and has recorded them all as audiobooks.
Works
Tales of the City
Main articles: Tales of the City
''Tales of the City'' is a series of novels, the first portions of which were initially published as a newspaper serial starting on August 8 1974 in a Marin County newspaper, ''The Pacific Sun'' picked up in 1976 by the ''San Francisco Chronicle'', and later reworked into the series of books published by HarperCollins (then Harper and Row). The first of Maupin's novels, entitled ''Tales of the City'', was published in 1978. Five more followed in the 80s, ending with the last book, ''Sure of You'', in 1989.''Tales of the City'' graphic timeline A seventh novel published in 2007, ''Michael Tolliver Lives'', continues the story of some of the characters. In ''Babycakes'', published in 1983, he was one of the first writers to address the subject of AIDS. Of the autobiographical nature of the characters, he says "I’ve always been all of the characters in one way or another".
The ''Tales of the City'' books have been translated into ten languages (French: ''; German: ''Stadtgeschichten'') and there are more than six million copies in print.
Television miniseries
Main articles: Tales of the City (miniseries)
The first three books in the series have also been converted into three television miniseries starring Olympia Dukakis and Laura Linney, the first airing on the American television network PBS and the latter two on the American cable television channel Showtime.[13]
Musical projects
He collaborated on ''Anna Madrigal Remembers'', a musical work written by Jake Heggie and performed by choir Chanticleer and mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade on 6 August 1999, for which Maupin provided a new libretto. He also participated in a concert series with Seattle Men's Chorus entitled ''Tunes From Tales (Music for Mouse)'', which included readings from his books and music from the era.[14]
''Maybe the Moon'' and ''The Night Listener''
Main articles: Maybe the Moon, The Night Listener (novel), The Night Listener (film)
Maupin has written two novels, ''Maybe The Moon'' and ''The Night Listener'', which are not part of the ''Tales'' series.
''Maybe The Moon'' is a story Maupin describes as 'partly autobiographical', despite the main character being a female heterosexual Jewish dwarf. The character was also based on his friend Tamara De Treaux, who was the actor for E.T.[15][16]
''The Night Listener'' is a roman a clef, inspired by Maupin's real-life experiences surrounding the Anthony Godby Johnson hoax.[17][18][19] He says that he aimed to create a solid psychological thriller, while being able to put autobiographical elements in it. The issues he addresses include his break-up with his long-term partner and his relationship with his father. The book very lightly references the ''Tales'' world via Gabriel Noone's assistant, who is one of DeDe Halcyon-Day's twins from ''Tales''. It was serialised on the internet, on salon.com, prior to its print publication. ''The Night Listener'' has been adapted into a movie that was screened at the Sundance Film Festival in late January 2006 and released by Miramax the following August.
''Michael Tolliver Lives'': a continuation of ''Tales''?
Main articles: Michael Tolliver Lives
Maupin has stated on his website that another ''Tales of the City'' novel is unlikely.[20] Though he has explicitly stated that ''Michael Tolliver Lives'' is "not a continuation of ''Tales of the City''," the novel is written from the first-person perspective of ''Tales'' character Michael 'Mouse' Tolliver, now in his fifties and living as an HIV-positive man."Armistead Maupin talks!" - Advocate.com
It also features appearances by familiar ''Tales'' characters, such as Anna Madrigal.[21] Maupin said: "I was interested in pursuing the life of an aging gay man, and Michael was the perfect vehicle ... However, as soon as I started writing, I found that, one by one, all the other characters stepped forward and asked to be present. It felt natural, so I went with it." "Tolliver's Travels" - ''Entertainment Weekly'', 7 June 2007 He calls it "a smaller, more personal novel than I've written in the past." The book was released on June 12 2007, declared 'Michael Tolliver Day' by the mayor of San Francisco.[22] [23]
His next project is another ''Tales'' volume: "Whatever I have to offer seems to come through those characters ... And I see no reason to abandon them."
On being a 'gay writer'
Bibliography
Tales of the City
★ Tales of the City, , Armistead, Maupin, Harper & Row, 1978,
★ More Tales of the City, , Armistead, Maupin, Harper & Row, 1980,
★ Further Tales of the City, , Armistead, Maupin, Harper & Row, 1982,
★ Babycakes, , Armistead, Maupin, Harper & Row, 1984,
★ Significant Others, , Armistead, Maupin, Harper & Row, 1987, [24]
★ Sure of You, , Armistead, Maupin, Harper & Row, 1989,
Other novels
★ Maybe the Moon, , Armistead, Maupin, HarperCollins, 1992,
★ The Night Listener, , Armistead, Maupin, HarperCollins, 2000,
★ Michael Tolliver Lives, , Armistead, Maupin, HarperCollins, 2007,
Notes and references
1. Pronounced 'Mawpin' as read in English rather than rhyming with the French 'Gaugin'. 'Armistead Maupin' happens to be an anagram of 'Is a Man I Dreamt Up' (Armistead Maupin Is a Man I Dreamt Up was the title of a 1990 BBC documentary on him), though neither the name nor Maupin himself was invented. He recalls: 'One person even wrote: "I know for a fact that you don't exist. You're really a lesbian collective in Marin County." (Sometimes I feel like a lesbian collective in Marin County, but I'm not.)' See: Oft Asked Questions.
2. My First Glimpse of The City - in ''Guest Informant'', 1998-1999. Maupin recalls his first experiences of San Francisco.
3. He has said of San Francisco that he had "no sense of it being a gay mecca" and has called it "this amazing city that embraced me, that had made me aware of my true self", and has said "what really floored me was that the straight folks in San Francisco were so civilised about homosexuality." (in the ''New York Times'' interview)
4. For Armistead Maupin, There Are Still Tales To Tell - Interview in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He agreed to be identified as a homosexual in a "Ten Most Eligible Bachelors" article in San Francisco Magazine.
5. Letter to Mama - Michael Tolliver's coming out letter, a response in the book to his parents' participation in Anita Bryant's real-life anti-gay Save Our Children campaign. Maupin used the letter to serve the same purpose for his own parents, who followed the ''Tales'' serial.
6. Remarks for the Closing Ceremonies of the Gay Games IV, Yankee Stadium, June 25 1994
7. Armistead Maupin at the National AIDS Memorial Grove, located in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park
8. Audio interview about Maupin's New Zealand home
9. Audio interview with Armistead Maupin on NPR, 2000-11-11
10. "The First Couple: Don Bachardy and Christopher Isherwood" - Armistead Maupin interviews Christopher Isherwood for The Village Voice, Volume 30, Number 16
11. Foreword to 'The Isherwood Century'
12. Five Questions For Christopher Turner: Daddy-hunt site entrepreneur knows of which he posts - Interview with Christopher Turner in the San Francisco Chronicle
13. A Tale of the Seventies TV Guide, January 1994. Article by Maupin about the difficult process of getting the ''Tales'' series into TV production.
14. Seattle Men's Chorus welcomes Armistead Maupin to Benaroya Hall
15. Behind the scenes: THE OUTSIDER - ''San Francisco Focus Magazine]'', October 1992. Interview with Maupin about his friendship with Tamara De Treaux.
16. Reviews of ''Maybe the Moon'' and synopsis
17. Interview at planetout.com
18. Audio interview about ''The Night Listener'' - on WHYY, October 3 2000
19. 'Suddenly Home' - a story featuring the fictional characters in ''Noone at Night''
20. Literarybent.com - Oft Asked Questions
21. "Sex and the city" - Interview in ''The Observer''
22. "Latest Maupin tale tells of 'closet of age'" - ''The Guardian''
23. "Reader, he married him" - Review in ''The Guardian''
24. Audio interview at the time of publication of ''Significant Others'' with Don Swaim
External links
★ Armistead Maupin official website
★ Literarybent.com - Maupin's previous website, archived on the Wayback Machine; most material is not on the new website
★
★ GLBTQ.com: Armistead Maupin biography - GLBTQ.com
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