Book explores life and times of gay pioneer Samuel Steward

Book explores life and times of gay pioneer Samuel Steward
Samuel Steward at his Chicago tattoo parlor in the mid-1950s. Photo courtesy of the Estate of Samuel M. Steward
Book explores life and times of gay pioneer Samuel Steward
Samuel Steward at his Chicago tattoo parlor in the mid-1950s. Photo courtesy of the Estate of Samuel M. Steward

Book explores life and times of gay pioneer Samuel Steward

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The talents of Samuel Steward were as varied as the pseudonyms he employed. Under different names, Steward worked in Chicago as an academic, a tattoo artist and a writer of literature and pornography. But his greatest, and most lasting work, resulted from the time he spent with famed sex researcher Alfred Kinsey.

Steward’s candid tales of his many sexual conquests provide a window into gay life in the mid 20th century.

Secret Historian: The Life and Times of Samuel Steward, Professor, Tattoo Artist, and Sexual Renegade” is a new biography about Steward. Justin Spring is the author and he joined Eight Forty-Eight to discuss Steward’s story.

Spring reads from the book Wednesday evening at 7 at the Lincoln Park Borders.

Music Button: Afrocubism, “Djelimady Rumba”, from the CD Afrocubism, (World Circuit/Nonesuch)