Homosexuality in the Ancient World

by Wayne R. Dynes (Editor), Stephen Donaldson (Editor)

First published in 1993. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

520 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 1992

About the author

Wayne R. Dynes (born August 23, 1934) is an American art historian, encyclopedist, gay activist and bibliographer. He is Professor Emeritus in the Art Department at Hunter College, where he taught from 1972 to 2005.

Dynes spent his early years in southern California, where he attended UCLA and received his B.A. in 1969. After extended sojourns in Italy and England, he settled permanently in Manhattan, New York City where he obtained his Ph.D. from the Institute of Fine Arts of New York University. The subject of his art-history dissertation was an eleventh-century illuminated Bible from Belgium. His training as a medievalist provided the basic core of his college teaching (first at Columbia, then at Hunter College).

During the 1960s Dynes was a member of the Mattachine Society of New York (MSNY). He was in Europe at the time of the Stonewall Uprising in Greenwich Village in June of 1969. After returning, he collaborated with his close friend Jack Stafford, a librarian, on a basic bibliography of gay studies, a project sponsored by Barbara Gittings. Ultimately, his dedication to this task yielded his tome Homosexuality: A Research Guide (New York: Garland, 1987). An electronic copy of this work, together with other contributions by Dynes, may be consulted at the excellent web site maintained by Dr. Erwin Haeberle at the Archive for Sexology, Humboldt University, Berlin: www2.hu-berlin.de/sexology/BIB/ResGde. This accomplishment led to Dynes’ service as editor-in-chief of the Encyclopedia of Homosexuality (New York: Garland, 1990). A major achievement, this two-volume set ranks as the first work of its kind. It garnered six major awards, including three from library organizations.

For a number of years Wayne Dynes was active in the Gay Academic Union, editing and publishing its periodical The Cabirion (also known as Gay Books Bulletin). As a gay scholar he has been sharply critical of the Social Construction and Queer Theory trends.

Since 2004 Dynes has conducted his own eclectic blog www.dyneslines.blogspot.com.

Now retired, Wayne R. Dynes continues to live and work on the West Side of Manhattan, a neighborhood said to rank as one of the last redoubts of the struggling American left. A self-described “libertarian with sanity,” Dynes prefers to march to the rhythm of a different drummer.