Armistead Maupin

by Patrick Gale

An intimate biography of the gay icon whose Tales of the City changed America’s understanding of LGBT culture during the 1970s and ’80s.

Step into Armistead Maupin’s house, and you will be greeted by a strapping young gardener, a wave of marijuana smoke, and the most gracious host in the world. When he isn’t flitting from protests to orgies, Maupin is a natural storyteller, and San Francisco is his favorite subject. Pull up a chair and prepare to be swept away on a wave of wit, gossip, and the most outrageous sexual anecdotes you’ve ever heard.
 
His house seems like a scene out of his legendary Tales of the City, and that’s no accident: Every moment of his groundbreaking series was drawn, one way or another, from Maupin’s remarkable life, from a middle-class upbringing in North Carolina to a stint in the navy during Vietnam. Maupin landed in San Francisco just in time to chronicle the gay rights revolution that was sweeping the city and the country as a whole, and from the moment his Tales were first serialized, that city was never the same.
 
This is an intimate biography, written by Maupin’s longtime friend, Patrick Gale. From his fling with Rock Hudson to the darkest days of the AIDS crisis, Maupin saw it all—and lived to tell the tale.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, LGBT

189 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 13, 1999

About the author

Patrick was born on 31 January 1962 on the Isle of Wight, where his father was prison governor at Camp Hill, as his grandfather had been at nearby Parkhurst. He was the youngest of four; one sister, two brothers, spread over ten years. The family moved to London, where his father ran Wandsworth Prison, then to Winchester. At eight Patrick began boarding as a Winchester College Quirister at the cathedral choir school, Pilgrim's. At thirteen he went on to Winchester College. He finished his formal education with an English degree from New College, Oxford in 1983.

He has never had a grown-up job. For three years he lived at a succession of addresses, from a Notting Hill bedsit to a crumbling French chateau. While working on his first novels he eked out his slender income with odd jobs; as a typist, a singing waiter, a designer's secretary, a ghost-writer for an encyclopedia of the musical and, increasingly, as a book reviewer.

His first two novels, The Aerodynamics of Pork and Ease were published by Abacus on the same day in June 1986. The following year he moved to Camelford near the north coast of Cornwall and began a love affair with the county that has fed his work ever since.

He now lives in the far west, on a farm near Land's End with his husband, Aidan Hicks. There they raise beef cattle and grow barley. Patrick is obsessed with the garden they have created in what must be one of England's windiest sites and deeply resents the time his writing makes him spend away from working in it. As well as gardening, he plays both the modern and baroque cello. His chief extravagance in life is opera tickets.

Reviews

[Doug · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gale Project #13.

So I'll presume I am the ONLY person to read this not out of an abundance of affection for the subject, but instead because I am enamored of the author. I was going to skip this entry in my deep-dive of the Gale canon, since it isn't fiction and I only have a cursory knowledge or interest in the subject - but it only took a few hours to read, and much of it proved interesting and entertaining.

I've only read the first of Maupin's Tales of the City books, and I think also his stand alone The Night Listener - so a lot of the material dealing with the tidbits about his writing and where things originated from kind of flew over my head - but many of the anecdotes were humorous and had lots of gossipy name-dropping. (Rock Hudson! Lily Tomlin! Betty Windsor!!!)

My main criticism is that the book skips all over the place chronologically, so that we read about something in 1985 then backtrack to something that took place 10 or 20 years earlier. Sometimes, 'characters' are thrown into the story without proper introduction - Maupin's longtime partner Terry first appears on p. 44 in such fashion, and we don't find out who he is till 20 pages later. Since it came out in 1999, there's also nothing current, so I had to go to Wiki to find out his current status.

I can't say I came away with any more interest in reading more of Maupin, nor 'liking' his somewhat prickly personality any better. But this is mainly a labor of love between two authors whose endearing fondness for each other becomes abundantly clear, so it doesn't really matter.

[Monica · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was interesting to read this extended interview with Maupin from 1999, when he thought that he was done writing Tales books. Since then, he’s written four more Tales books and a memoir. I did appreciate the tone of this book, which was that of a dishy friend of Maupin’s (which he is). And I learned much more about the origins of characters, including Mona and Mrs. Madrigal.

[Robyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Published in the late 1990s, this biography remains an historic snapshot of gay life and Armistead Maupin's significance via his Tales of the City series. A friend to his subject, author Patrick Gale retains a casual, informal tone that may not appeal to all. (3.5 stars)

With Maupin's addition of three books to complete the series, as well as the changing landscape of sexual politics, an updated biography would make for an interesting read.

[Cathy Haynes · Rating 5 out of 5]

I truly was not sure what to expect when I first started reading this. I found the stories funny, honest and open. It seemed a true look into Maupins life; the ups and downs in the life of a gay man in the South.

[Emma]

I love Armistead Maupin, and I love everything he has ever written, but this biography didn't grab me and, frankly, I really wasn't all that interested in his life.