Secret Historian: The Life and Times of Samuel Steward, Professor, Tattoo Artist, and Sexual Renegade

by Justin Spring

Drawn from the secret, never-before-seen diaries, journals, and sexual records of the novelist, poet, and university professor Samuel M. Steward, The Secret Historian is a sensational reconstruction of one of the more extraordinary hidden lives of the twentieth century. An intimate friend of Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas, and Thornton Wilder, Steward maintained a secret sex life from childhood on, and documented these experiences in brilliantly vivid (and often very funny) detail.

After leaving the world of academe to become Phil Sparrow, a tattoo artist on Chicago’s notorious South State Street, Steward worked closely with Alfred Kinsey on his landmark sex research. During the early 1960s, Steward changed his name and identity once again, this time to write exceptionally literate, upbeat pro-homosexual pornography under the name of Phil Andros.

Until today he has been known only as Phil Sparrow—but an extraordinary archive of his papers, lost since his death in 1983, has provided Justin Spring with the material for an exceptionally compassionate and brilliantly illuminating life-and-times biography. More than merely the story of one remarkable man, The Secret Historian is a moving portrait of homosexual life long before Stonewall and gay liberation.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, History, Queer, LGBT, Gay, Biography Memoir

496 pages, Hardcover

First published August 17, 2010

About the author

Justin Spring is a New York based writer specializing in twentieth-century American art and culture. He is the author of many monographs, catalogs, museum publications, and books, including the biography Fairfield Porter: A Life in Art (Yale University Press, 2000) and Paul Cadmus: The Male Nude (Universe, 2002). He has been the recipient of a number of grants, fellowships, and awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and the International Association of Art Critics Best Show Award. He has held research fellowships from Yale University, Brown University, Radcliffe College and Amherst College. His monograph on Paul Cadmus was a finalist for the Lamda Literary Award in Art History.

Reviews

[Justin Tate · Rating 5 out of 5]

The biography of a gay Casanova! Sam Steward was born in 1909 and got into the game early, servicing his fellow high school athletes. From then on, despite this being the homophobic 1930s, he had no trouble bedding men of all backgrounds and orientations.

Few men could resist his charms and always-willing availability. It was a time of great sexual repression for the gays, but also straights. If somebody was offering, apparently you didn't turn down the opportunity! Steward's conquests numbered in the thousands, included Thornton Wilder and the hottest heartthrob of the era, Rudolph Valentino.

But Steward's claim to fame was far more complex than being a turn-of-the-century gay playboy. He was a gifted author who hung out with Gertrude Stein and her community of geniuses (Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Joyce, Pound, etc.). He became one of the most sought-after tattoo artists of the era. And as far as his sex was concerned, he didn't just have it--he meticulously documented every encounter to support the research of renowned sexologist, and his close friend, Alfred Kinsey.

While perhaps a little creepy, Steward's shockingly detailed archive of sex documentation proves to be a thrilling biography. It's a miracle the documents were found in a dusty attic after his death. He got into some freaky stuff that's sure to make most readers blush. I had my mouth dropped open on numerous occasions, and I constantly have my nose in Sexual Revolution-era history.

The bulk of the book does revolve around Steward's sex research. I understand why. It would be very hard to leave out any of these juicy details. I did wish there was a longer dissection of Steward's erotic novels, however, since that's what I admire most about him. Admittedly the novels were never cultural milestones, but they were impactful to the gay community at the time. As it is though, the book never has a dull moment and certainly the major highlights of his life are explored at satisfactory depth.

If you've found history boring in the past, maybe this book will get you excited. Steward's life was endlessly fascinating, and the significance of his work cannot be understated. Gay life at this time existed almost entirely in the shadows. Most people didn't just stay hush-hush about it, they would burn records, photographs and other evidence that could expose them as homosexual. Steward did the opposite. Because of him we have access to a major glimpse of what gay life was like at that time.

Can't recommend this one enough. Certain to be on my list of favorite books I've read this year, if not all-time.

[Charles Dee Mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

In 1926, when he was 17 years old, Samuel Steward learned that Rudolph Valentino was checked into a downtown Columbus, Ohio, hotel under his real name, Rudolph Guglielmi. Already an avid autograph hound, Steward went to Valentino's hotel room, knocked on the door, got the autograph, gave the silent film star a blow job, and took home a snippet of his pubic hair. He kept the hair all his life in a monstrance bought at an antique store. That object now resides in a private collection in Rome.

Not many people could have that kind of story nor the DNA evidence to back it up -- nor the carefully maintained "Stud File" that chronicled some sixty years of sexual encounters. Steward was an academic and young man of promise who became close friends of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, wrote one light-weight novel, spent two decades teaching English at de Paul University in Chicago, finally left that position to become a full-time tattoo artists, and in the 1970's wrote gay porno novels under the name Phil Andros. Throughout his life he pursued sexual encounters with hustlers, sailors, and working class men, sometimes staging group sex parties in his apartment and venturing further and further into the world of bondage and S/M. He was a significant contributor to Alfred Kinsey's Institute for Sex Research, sending them updates on his sex life and once performing in a film depicting an master/slave training session. His published memoir of Stein and Toklas did not sell well, but it was the event that eventually brought all his identities together as he became the subject, late in his life, of interviews and articles in gay publications. He died of heart failure in 1993 and was quickly more or less forgotten.

For this biography Justin Spring worked with Steward's extensive private papers that had been stored in a Berkeley attic since his death, letters held by the Yale and University of California, Berkeley, libraries, and whatever material the Kinsey Institute was willing to open to researchers. As the author points out in his afterwards, Steward lived through every major change in American gay life except for the internet. His friends came from the arts and from the street, and his life story, at times unbelievable, was carefully documented by himself and Alfred Kinsey. Secret Historian is consistently entertaining but does not shy away from the sadder and darker aspects of Steward's life. It is a compulsively readable and possibly important American biography.

[George Ilsley · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating book about a intriguing character whose adult life spanned the 1930s to the early 90s. Truly one of those "truth is stranger than fiction" personas, Steward's story intersects with Kinsey and with Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, as well as with a raft of others. Can't quite say enough about this book. It’s all too incredible.

Inspired me to read Dear Sammy: Letters from Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, which is a memoir of Steward's time with Gertrude and Alice, and about 100 letters from them to him.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extraordinary. Indispensable. Steward crossed paths with an enviable and astonishing array of literary celebrity, participated in a nearly unbelievable number of sexual encounters, and lived fascinating careers in academia, "tattoodling," and writing. I am thankful to Justin Spring for saving this man's life from obscurity. Born in 1909 and dead just a day shy of 1994, the evidence from his letters and writings paints a portrait that dispels the perceived victimology of gay men during this period. Clear, honest and humorous, Sam Steward's incredibly detailed documentation of his sexuality is remarkable for its only reason being to tell the truth. The best queer lit I've read in years.

[Hal Schrieve · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an incredible incredible book— sometimes literally my credulity that so much could be packed into one life is strained (he claims to have hooked up with 67 year old lord alfred douglas) but some people just get a lot done in a day. He's friends with Stein and Toklas and their evil friend Sir Francis Rose. He tries to integrate his undergraduate college. He takes photos of sex parties on a Polaroid and collects one of the first biggest gay porn collections in the US at a time it's very dangerous to do so. He has a "stud file" which catalogs everyone he has ever had sex with, including (he says) the movie star Valentino and Andre Gide's young Arab boyfriend. He is strangely, remarkably unrepressed for the period of time he was living in-- over the course of his life, the times seem to gradually catch up with him, only meeting him where he's been all along in the 1970s, by which time he's more bitter and jaded. When he's in his forties he switches careers from barely-closeted English professor at Loyola and DePaul to fulltime pornographer and tattoo artist. Then he's a Hell's Angels pet tattoo artist in Oakland. Then he's a pulp porn writer that defines early gay pulp porn for a generation. He tried in the 1950s to translate Genet’s Querelle but Genet got mad at him for translating it without asking him first and he couldn’t find an American publisher anyway because it was the Eisenhower admin. He tried to join the navy in WWII but couldn’t because of food allergies. He made sex films with/for the Kinsey institute…. If there ever was an old guard it’s him and we can learn something from looking back at his life. What a journey I’m on.

Edit: he did fetishize cops by the end of his life in a totally unironic way so be aware of this going in lol gay guys stay being materially stupid about power even as they inform my whole deal and history and life and body

[Stuart · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most fascinating books I've ever read. Speechless (review-less.) Read if you dare. SALACIOUS!. And really well written.

[Dennis Holland · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I were on a Bill and Ted trip through gay history, my excellent adventure would be complete after discovering the Secret Historian. Like whoa.

And to answer the age old question whom I would invite to my infamous dinner party? Well, certainly I would ask Samuel Steward to stay for the after party. And if I were feeling particularly adventurous that evening, he might be the only invite. He was quite the stud.

[Grady · Rating 5 out of 5]

An Exceptional Book on Many Levels,

Reading SECRET HISTORIAN: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL STEWARD, PROFESSOR, TATTOO ARTISTS, AND SEXUAL RENEGADE it is difficult to decide which is the more important - learning about a rather phenomenal man (Samuel Steward) whose life to date has been a well-guarded secret, or discovering one of the finest biographers writing today - Justin Spring. Spring is a seasoned biographer whose publications include 'Paul Cadmus: The Male Nude', 'Fairfield Porter: A Life in Art', 'The Essential Jackson Pollock' and 'The Essential Edward Hopper' among others. But to whichever the compass point designates as the worthier of the two men, this is a fascinating book about art, about philosophy, about the great figures in the world of the arts in Paris and the US in the first half of the 20th century, about the details of the important Alfred Kinsey Reports on human sexuality, a detailed description of the art of tattooing, and, most importantly, a solid well documented written history of the homosexual community in the days before Stonewall began to break down centuries long barricades of understanding human sexuality.

Samuel Steward (July 23, 1909 - December 31, 1993) was a man born out of his time. He was a brilliant teacher and professor who happened to have discovered his sexual preferences very early in life, servicing men without a sense of guile even as a teenager, and following his insatiable sexual appetite with journals and cards, with coded but detailed description of every encounter - a fact discovered by Alfred Kinsey who used Steward's `material' to support his investigations of male sexuality in a book that would change sociology forever, if taking some pauses during the McCarthy era for condemnation! Steward was a very fine writer and would have been an exceptional novelist had his subject matter of choice been more in keeping with the mores of the times. It is doubtful that Alfred Kinsey would have been able to document his interview investigations across the United States without the additional help of constant communication form Steward with his chronologically obsessive diaries of his activities.

But that is only one aspect of the man, Samuel Steward, that Justin Spring so thoroughly and graciously unveils. He had access to Steward's letters to such people as Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas, Thornton Wilder, Thomas Mann, Jean Genet, Jacques Delaunay, George Platt Lynes and so many other who were involved in the early days of sexually oriented literature. He changed his name frequently (monikers to protect his professorial identity to save his job at university), thus surviving in a world that considered materials that dealt with `invert behavior' to be against the law to write, photograph, worn or sell. Always fascinated with pushing boundaries, Steward engaged in sessions of `daisy chains', photographing them and detailing them and then sending them on to Alfred Kinsey. His obsession with rough types of men led him to learn tattooing and he became an authority and an artist of the trade.

Aging altered Steward's narcissistic life and as he entered middle age he traveled form the Midwest to Europe to California, always seeking new and stranger pleasures, including a dangerous desire for sadomasochistic activity. His long life was peppered with episodes of diseases related to his obsession, with loneliness, addiction to alcohol and to drugs, with conflicts with the law, with the fear of growing into a creature that no one would desire. He finally published, moved to San Francisco, monitored the changes in the world after Stonewall and in the upsurge of AIDS, and finally died, known to only a few fascinated with the special gifts this ingenious renegade possessed.
Justin Spring has done an amazing amount of research and from his very readable writings we learn more about many aspects of the subterranean world of the 20th century as any book yet published. If at times it seems that Spring's reportage becomes redundant, it is only because he is reporting a life as it unfolded, one with considerable addiction to repetition. This is a brilliant biography and as interesting a `novel' as it is a treatise. Kudos to Justin Spring! Highly recommended.

Grady Harp

[Joey Manley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sam Steward, the subject of this biography, had sex with a lot of people, and documented every encounter on 3x5 index cards. The running count comes to a little under 1000. Some of those people were famous, like the masterful Rudolph Valentino (whose pubic hair Steward saved and incorporated into a mantelpiece trophy he made for himself), the odious Lord Alfred Douglas (Steward wanted his mouth "to go where Oscar's had gone," only to learn later that "Bosie" and Wilde had only mostly given each other handjobs), and the as-yet-undiscovered Rock Hudson ("ex-Navy, v. good looking" was Steward's note about this encounter, which took place in the elevators at Marshall Fields when the two of them were co-workers there).

Sex wasn't the only thing he did with his life, though it was maybe the most consistent thing he did with it. He actually had several careers, each of which was accomplished enough to have satisfied most people, in its own way.

Steward's first career, as a young novelist, earned him entree into the inner circle of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas (and through them, just about anybody else you've ever heard of during that era who was working in literature and/or the visual arts). He never lived up to the expectations of his literary set, though, fizzling out after a promising first book. Those expectations were very high, though, and most young novelists never even reach the heights that Steward managed to reach in the first flush of his promise. Who among us can lay claim to the friendship and patronage of a figure as important to the history of art and literature as Gertrude Stein? So yeah. But then that fizzled.

Then he taught college for twenty years. At DePaul, he was a popular professor who (we learn later) had a profound effect on his students, causing many of them to choose lives as artists, thinkers, and creators. But Steward himself hated the gig, becoming addicted to "uppers" and alcohol during the course of his tenure there. To be a popular professor for twenty years is quite an accomplishment, though. No?

Next he became a tattoo artist, becoming the "official" tattoist of the Hell's Angels motorcycle gang at the height of their notoriety, and eventually mentoring two of the most influential figures in the art-form, Cliff Raven and the ubiquitous Ed Hardy. Tattoo aficionados to this day speak of the fineness of his line and the artfulness he introduced to the field, at a time when it was mostly about machismo and marking for the sake of marking.

His sexual documentation became a major source for Alfred Kinsey's landmark studies on sexuality in America, and he developed a deep friendship with the man.

Late in his life, wrote some of the most influential of the early gay "pulp" novels, the Phil Andros series.

Then [SPOILER ALERT] he died, cramped and alone in an apartment filled with his hoard of books, papers, letters from famous people, and sexual memorabilia. Most people, until now, have never heard of him. Strike that: most people still have never heard of him.

Spring's prose is never sensationalistic, which, one imagines, was a difficult feat, given the subject matter. Like the people he surrounded himself with, I found myself getting a little bored toward the end, after the sex ran out, and he turned into an old crank organizing his neighborhood into anti-prostitution watches while he let his little lap dogs piss all over his belongings. But I'm an evil bitch like that.

If, like me, you have an interest in pre-Stonewall gay male sexuality, or if you just want to read up on one of the most strangely well-connected figures in the 20th century (and either look forward to, or can handle, reading lots and lots of descriptions of anonymous and semi-anonymous sexual encounters), then, yes, you should pick this up.

On a personal note: thanks to Steward, I find myself (via Steward's editor at St. Martin's, who was also my editor) connected by only two degrees of separation to some of the most famous figures of the 20th century -- many of whom he had sex with!

Originally posted this review on my blog at http://www.joeymanley.com

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating read about a fascinating man who would have remained almost unknown if not for Justin Spring's diligent research.

While there's a lot of things Steward did in his life that I don't condone, I am going to be the first to admit that he is a man I truly admire, for his honesty in the time period he's lived in is truly exceptional. To pay homage to one of his letters in the book, he really was a man who let himself feel freedom. He did what he wanted to do whether that was being an English professor, becoming a tattoo artist or writing pornography - and throughout all he was unabashedly himself during a time when most people never even dreamed of living their truth.

As Spring writes in the afterword, this book
"tells the intimate story of one highly intelligent, exceptionally honest, and significantly troubled man whose life was decisively changed by his unwillingness to submit to a form of social oppression he knew to be unjust" - and I can't think of a better way to describe Sam.

Justin Spring also avoids trying to psychoanalyze him - he presents him in a clear and straightforward manner and only offers some sort of explanation on why Sam was the way he was at the very end to tie it all together - other than that he lets the reader draw their own conclusion. He writes objectively but he still admires Steward, a feeling I more than relate to after reading this.

I could write a way longer review about this book, about Sam's rejections in life, about his inability to connect to someone, about the quotes "I am an invert but I am also ambitious" and "We needed, above all, to know we were not alone” or how the letters he's received from his former students almost brought me to tears.

This is a book that leaves you with a lot of thoughts and feelings, but above all, I am left with the question of what Sam Steward's life would have been like if he'd got to live in a kinder world.

[Sineala · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really interesting and well-written biography of someone I had never even heard of before picking this up. I always enjoy pre-Stonewall queer history, and, okay, this guy's life spans Stonewall, and wow, did he ever do a lot of stuff. He was an English professor whose writing career never really took off (his dream was to move to Europe and be a writer and that never really happened), and so he turned to tattooing, and then when that dried up he ended up writing gay porn novels. Under the pseudonym of "Phil Andros," which is just the pseudonym I expect a gay academic would pick. Apparently the porn is very good? That was how the biographer found him, anyway.

He also had a lot of sex. Like, a LOT of sex. Which we know because he kept a card catalog of every single time he had sex and what he did and who he did it with. He slept with Rudolph Valentino! Rock Hudson! Lord Alfred Douglas! Thornton Wilder! I didn't even know Thornton Wilder was gay! He was also BFFs with Alfred Kinsey, who apparently really liked that he kept so much data about all the sex he was having. And he was BFFs with Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas.

So, anyway, for someone who never really did anything big, he seems to have led an interesting life, and the biography is very well-written, and if you'd like to read some gay history that basically spans the entire 20th century, you should read this.

[Dana · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't generally read biographies, so I have nothing to compare this to, but it seemed a little too much like a re-telling of all Steward's sexual exploits without enough historical context or details about his life outside of his sexual encounters. I do realize that was the most significant thing in his life, but it wasn't the only thing. I would've liked to know more about his teaching, for one, or his friendship with Emmy, which spanned decades but was only mentioned in passing.

[Robert Vaughan · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most colorful lives that has been reconstructed diligently by biographer Justin Spring. Sam Steward lived a marginal life, and yet, like Zelig, was able to morph among the various personas he continued to re-create throughout his long life. Also equally intriguing was his note-taking and record keeping, which in an era like the 1950's, as a gay man inscribing a "Stud File" about his sexual exploits, well! Just read this fascinating biography.

[Abe W. · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a life!!!

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Drawn from the diaries, journals, letters and sexual records of the novelist, poet, and university professor Samuel M. Steward, this biography is a reconstruction of one of the most bizarre lives in modern gay culture.

An introvert English professor by day, sexual renegade by night, Steward was an intimate friend of Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas, and Thornton Wilder. He also claims to have had sexual relations with a number of famous, or soon-to-be-famous, men, including Rudolph Valentino and Rock Hudson.

For most of his adult life Steward kept a detailed file of each sexual contact, of which there were well over eight hundred, and included the most intimate details of each encounter. As he grew older, he was drawn more into picking up rough trade, and enjoyed BDMS relations with his partners, where he always played the submissive role. Steward hooked up with Alfred Kinsey, and his sex file was instrumental in Kinsey’s landmark sex research.

He finally fled the academic world to make his living as Phil Sparrow, a tattoo artist on Chicago’s notorious South State Street. There he was able to meet a steady stream of sailors and rough trade, and kept the back room jumping. Later in life, during the early 1960’s, Steward moved to the San Francisco Bay Area, and through his Tattoo parlor in Oakland, became friends with many Hell’s Angels. Once in California, under the name of Phil Andros, he wrote a number of pro-gay pornographic novels and short stories.

Steward published three significant nonfiction books in his later years: Bad Boys and Tough Tattoos, a social history of American tattooing; Dear Sammy: Letter From Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, a memoir of their friendship; and Chapter from an Autobiography, a memoir of his life and times.

This book should have been titled “The Life and Times of an Underground Slut.” Through his twenties and thirties, he averaged a sexual contact every forty-eight hours, and he was convinced gay men had no business being in relationships. Keep in mind this was decades before Stonewall and gay liberation. Later in life, he enjoyed paying straight hustlers to force him into submission, and even had a one-page typed sheet explaining what treatment he expected of them.

Although I neither approve or normally enjoy reading about such behavior, it is a tribute to the author that I kept turning to the next page to find out more. This is an extremely well written biography. Sometimes funny, often times shocking, always vivid. I couldn’t put it down. Justin Spring is a huge talent, and even makes the most mundane topics seem interesting.

More interesting than Steward’s personal life, was the times that he lived, where being caught with another man could land you in prison, and many a man fell prey to blackmail. It was times when all gay men were driven deep underground, and even the mere suspicion of being gay would lose you your career. The author presents a fly-on-the-wall account of American homosexual subculture and persecution. It does make one appreciate how far we’ve come in fifty years.

This book is a journey, a long one, but well worth the time and effort. I can highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn more about gay life prior to Stonewall, or simply read the remarkable tale of a man who threw caution to the wind and lived the life he craved.

[JOSEPH OLIVER · Rating 5 out of 5]

I stumbled across a reference to this book on a blog and decided to give it a shot. Having an interest in unrecorded or unknown history I thought it would be interesting despite the fact that I had never heard of the man – even casually – nor had any interest in those obsessions that filled his life. I was interested in the fact that he was a man with a brain who decided to live out his fantasy life even if it did mean he had to take the disdain of those around him outside his immediate circle.

The book is very well researched and was obviously a labour of love rather than a money making undertaking. It is copiously annotated lest anyone living or those belonging to them decide to take a court case! The author has a very fluid writing style with practically no repetition. When he does repeat, it is to draw the reader’s attention back to someone or some incident mentioned previously. This was important because the book is over 400 pages long and Sam Steward knew an awful lot of people (and quite a few awful ones too!). It is not necessary to have any interest in the topics which obsessed Steward – S&M and tattooing with the latter being a support for his interest in the former because it gave him access to so many young vigorous sailors, policemen and armed forces personnel. These two topics (and his very detailed obsessive recording of his personal bedroom activities for Kinsey and himself) are diluted by his cultured education and intelligence. He had the means to put all his experience into a coherent, articulate order. To the prurient, like myself, we are spared the details of what went on behind closed doors. It is alluded to and if you are interested in that topic you will be disappointed but such information is quite easily available today compared to when Steward was alive.

Steward’s writing is alluded to throughout his adult life. It was not as a brilliant tattooist, Kinsey volunteer researcher or friend of famous writers such as Genet or Wilder that he wanted to be remembered. It was as a writer that he wanted to be immortalised but that eluded him during his lifetime. The ‘60s and ‘70s were not the time for gay sexually explicit novels to become best sellers like Fifty Shades. Everything was under the counter and Steward was hard done by his publishers and he made little from his Phil Andros novels even though they wiped the floor with the competition because he used his academic background as an English professor to put plot and depth into them.

Overall I would heartily recommend this biography of a man who lived without fear or favour a life he wanted to live when so many men had no choice but to marry. I would put him in the same category (and he would absolutely hate this) as Quentin Crisp in that he lived as a social outcast but as time progressed found that he had become mainstream without changing views or address.

There is a short video on YouTube by the writer which is worth watching too.

[Jeffrey Powanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating, meticulously documented biography of Samuel Steward, a gay writer and a scholar, who obsessively recorded his sex life for decades (during much of the 20th century), as well as produced numerous journals, diaries, letters, essays, photographs, paintings, drawings, and tattoo sketches throughout his strange, varied life.

Steward was many things: poet, novelist, university professor, Kinsey sex researcher, tattoo artist, and pornographer. He was competent in all of these things, excellent at only one or two of them. Desperate to break out of teaching, he fashioned alternative identities for himself (Philip Sparrow the tattoo artist and Phil Andros the pornographer). Unfortunately, none of his activities led to personal or financial stability. Steward led a messy life.

The book is a remarkable story of the violent repression that homosexuals faced in postwar society. Steward continually faced the prospect of police persecution, robberies, beatings, and blackmail.

Steward achieved some success with his first novel as a young man, but then found his life continuously sidetracked due to teaching obligations, alcoholism, drug addiction, and obsessions with sadomasochism and tattooing. The prurient aspects of his story are gripping, shocking, and often surprising. Steward had many famous friends (for example, Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas, Thornton Wilder, Thomas Mann, Lord Alfred Douglas, Alfred Kinsey, Kenneth Anger, James Purdy, Andre Gide, and Sonny Barger of the Hells Angels), and he had sex with over a thousand men (including Rudolph Valentino--though the story has been disproven--and Rock Hudson), whose liaisons he documented thoroughly in a card file he called the Stud File.

Late in life, Steward casually joked about his "wasted life" to friends. That is the overwhelming sadness in this story. Steward was an ambitious young man, but his ambitions were crushed. He might have become a successful writer. Instead, he immersed himself even deeper into his obsessions. One wonders what he might have accomplished had he found a mentor or a partner to serve as a stabilizing influence, preventing him from wasting his time and energy on sleazy or trivial pursuits. Perhaps Steward recognized the sad, lonely quality of his life, as he wrote:

"How much happier man would be were he only to realize that a state of unhappiness or frustration or despair is the usual thing, the lot of nearly all men nearly all the time! The frenetic reachings would cease, the compulsions disappear, the nervous chase smooth itself into a serene and contented acceptance."

Author Justin Spring spent 10 years at work on the book, and it shows. He assembled a remarkably detailed portrait of Steward. I found myself drawn to Steward's intelligence, honesty, and humor, apparent in his letters and journals.

I read the Kindle version and was surprised there were no photos.

[Tex Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.0 of 5 stars – Detailed, Sad Study of One "Homosexual's" Life.

I am a fan of the gay history and experience, and for that this is a laudable record by Justin Spring of Sam Steward's life (aka Phil Sparrow-tattoo artist, Phil Andros-porn author), just as Steward's own writings were a unique and valuable documentation of his sex life and fantasies.

Spring's work is well-researched. While covering now familiar ground about the gay experience in the early to mid-1900's, this account of one "homosexual's" life (using the term to mirror Steward's own self-description) portrayed what the daily experience was like and how societal oppression affected the psychology and lives of gays at the time, although be it a subculture of the glbtq community. I am, however, mixed about the large amount of detail, with it being both good and bad, the latter resulting in my getting bogged down in the day-to-day details. For example, the inclusion of Steward's writing was illustrative of his writing and mind, but it often was also too repetitive with the same point or summary just made by the author. The first chapter was the best, laying out Steward's early childhood and young adult development that would later influence his life, but after that it was a series of one day/detail after another. Admittedly there was also along the way enough introspection and analysis to get a good psychological understanding and feel for Steward's development over the years, in fact better than in many bios. But it could have been more brief - Ultimately, I had to say that I get it - he had a lot sex, and then taught/tatooed/wrote/knew people/travelled, and he had a lot of sex wherever he went.

What didn't help was the details going on and on about a sad situation - it's not fun fare with a detached lonely existence (no love affair or living with anyone), life-long depression, alcohol/drug/sex addiction, unfulfilled dreams, rudderless career(s), bad luck (or societal oppression) despite his efforts, double life of homosexuality/bdsm, muggings and rapes - you get the picture. Because of there being more focus on sex, his Stud File, Kinsey study, etc., except for some side-comments, I lost some of the good things - the idea of how good and popular a professor/teacher he was, and how much an "extraordinary sense of humor" he had (author's words). But I was somewhat gratified that there was near the end a nice 15-minutes of fame and contact from former students that at least gave him a sense that he did indeed make an impact.

In the end, a sympathetic and sensitive story of one man's lifelong pursuit of self-esteem and (as Steward's friend Gertrude Stein told him and he continued to mention) "the question of being important inside in one."

[Gay Men’s Book Group-Chicago monthly selection]

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredible biography of a fascinating man and of the gay/queer underworld pre Stonewall, although Steward lived on into the 1990s. Steward was above anything else the author of Phil Andros novels some of the great gay pulp novels - they had a literary quality that put them way ahead of the competition but Steward like so many others never received rewards but fortunately in the post Stonewall years he did receive some recognition from young gay men often the second or third generation to learn about their sexuality from his books. Many were as astounded to find 'Phil Andros' alive as he was pleased to receive the acknowledgements.

Steward and his life and times is fascinating - he opens the reader up to a different gay world, a different world in total to what we have now. Although I don't sentimentalise the past there are enough various stories here to supplant the image of a past of oppression and persecution. Of course they were there but there was a lot more and his many and varied sexual partners present a world of less definition and greater freedom then we now know.

This is an absolute jewel of a book full of interest and insights and one that well repays more then one reading.

[Tosh · Rating 4 out of 5]

A remarkable world that Samuel Steward lived in. A collage professor turned tattoo artist who also happened to be a great sex adventurer - Justin Spring really captures the underground world of Gay sexuality and life in the 20th Century. But for that we have to be thankful for Steward's zeal for keeping track on all his sexual adventures. Steward built up an erotic museum of sorts - and this gentleman of pleasure is a wonderful figure in Gay social history. Essential read for anyone who is interested in the counter-culture and the sexual world via the world of Hustlers and tattoo artistry. And now I have this incredible urge to read his "Phil Andros" novels.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Goodreads ate my long and thoughtful review so suffice to say i love this book and was immersed for over a week....this guy was amazing. He was a friend and confidant to Gertrude Stein and Alice Toklas, a beloved English professor, a talented and successful tattooist (mentored Ed Hardy, tattooed Kenneth Anger and bobby Beausoleil, was the tatttooist for the Oakland Hells Angels), worked with Albert Kinsey and contributed to his research on homosexual sex and lifestyles, and was a novelist....and kept meticulous records of his sexual activities, which were almost his main vocation. Fantastic book.

[Rick · Rating 5 out of 5]

A look at someone who truly lived life according to his own terms...at times when it was very difficult to do so. Moving, arousing, astonishing, and unputdownable, this book chronicles one of the 20th century's most fascinating lives.

[Marshall Thornton · Rating 5 out of 5]

fascinating.

[Al · Rating 3 out of 5]

The key to understanding the value of this biography of Samuel Steward is in the title, “Secret Historian.” While it may be hard for today’s generation to understand, living an openly or even partially open gay life from the nineteen twenties to the fifties was an opening to harassment, extortion, unemployment and violence. The publishing world, terrified of strict obscenity laws, avoided almost all gay content in books, except when heavily coded. Laws and attitudes would gradually change in the nineteen sixties and beyond, but there’s little public record from those earlier times. So the treasure trove of writings found by historian Justin Spring from DePaul University literature professor/failed novelist/tattoo artist/sexual cataloger/pornographer Sam Steward provide rare insight into gay life in America from WWII to Stonewall. Steward meshed easily with both the intelligentsia and rough trade, and his biography examines both. Alfred Kinsey, Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas and Thornton Wilder are here as well as the Hell’s Angels of Oakland. Steward, despite alcoholism, severe beatings, robberies and STD’s, lived a long life from 1909 to 1993. It was a life that revolved around sex which he documented in records and even films he donated to the Kinsey Institute. By his own admission, he never found love except from a dachshund he inherited. "Secret Historian" is for a limited audience, but those who study the history of sexual behavior in America will appreciate the thorough research of Justin Spring in this unusual biography.

[jedbird · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the story of someone I think I'd have liked to meet. Sam Steward/Phil Andros was a schoolteacher, author, correspondent, tattoo artist, and promiscuous masochistic voluptuary who was friends with Gertrude Stein, Thornton Wilder, and Alfred Kinsey. He was the tattooing mentor of Ed Hardy, he of the gaudy 1990s tattoo-themed sportswear. He was the mentor of John Preston, author of literate BDSM books. All his life, Mr. Steward kept meticulous records of his sexual activity. He wrote pornographic books as Phil Andros which are notably superior to the rest of the pulp porn of that era. His is an interesting but ultimately sad and lonely life.

It took me four and a half years to read this, picking it up and putting it down again for months at a time, because it is exhaustingly dense. Although Mr. Steward was a prolific correspondent and a living mass of data points, his own words are used less than one might expect, especially since it turns out he wrote an autobiography that is unpublished. Might it not have been a good idea to edit and publish that either instead of or in addition to a book like this one? Worth reading, but not a quick read by any means.

[Isabella Schmidt · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a really very well researched biography on the life of Stewart. I just felt, personally, that it focused so heavily on sex and his sexual escapades that I found myself continually asking “so what?” a question that did not get answered until the very end of the biography.
I very interesting look into an example of what life was like for gay men in the 20th century

[Richard Derus]

WINNER OF THE 23rd Lambda Literary Award—BEST GAY MEMOIR/BIOGRAPHY!

[Jonathan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maybe I just hate biographies? I think Sam Steward is a super interesting subject for a book like this—both on an individual level and as a lens through which to understand queer men in the first half of the 20th century. And I respect the wild amount of work that went into assembling this text! But it falls quickly into detailing minutiae of Steward's life, which makes the book so boring so fast. I wish this had been edited with a more narrativizing eye, skipping over individual letters and week-by-week summaries of what Steward was up to.

[Jim Coughenour · Rating 4 out of 5]

I knew I was going to enjoy this biography from its first page. Spring writes, "I first came across Steward's name in the gay pulp fiction archive and database at the John Hay Special Collections Library at Brown University..." The gay pulp fiction archive?! Immediately readers know they're in for a ride.

Samuel Steward (aka Donald Bishop, Thomas Cave, John McAndrews, Phil Sparrow, Ward Stames, Phil Andros) was a poet, novelist, Catholic English professor, tattoo artist, gay pornographer, friend of Gertrude Stein and Alice Tolkas, and a key contributor to Alfred Kinsey's sex research. Justin Spring has rescued this astonishing character from oblivion, giving him the break he never got in what Steward described as "my happily wasted life."

This biography is definitely not for the gentle reader. Steward's prodigious sexual escapades from the 30s through the 80s made my few remaining hairs stand on end. Sailors, thugs, underage hustlers, Rudolph Valentino, Thorton Wilder, students, policemen, ex-cons, priests and one Hells Angel, scripted orgies, brutal S/M sessions: all were documented in his meticulous "Stud File." Almost despite himself, quiet little Steward was a defiant, transgressive artist to his core, surviving repression, literary rejection, AIDS, alcoholism and depression with a staggering sense of aplomb. One favorite example (that will only mean something to gay readers of a certain age): in his late 50s, Steward's preferred paid partner was "one very talented and extraordinarily good-looking hustler who later took the porn name of Johnny Harden...* Between late 1966 and 1970 Steward had sex with him 155 times." Now there is a fun fact to know and tell.

—————-
* One of the few safe-for-work photos:

[Karen Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow, what an amazing life, and an essential for folks interested in LGBT or leather history.

Justin Spring does a great job of letting Samuel Steward speak for himself through his letters and writings. I'm glad he does: Steward is a brilliant writer: witty, imaginative, erudite and far-reaching in his interests and his network of friends. HIs dedication to sex and sex-recording is fascinating and provided Dr. Kinsey with a wealth of information that continues to have an impact on our culture today. (Most notably, that no one library has all of Steward's work - academic libraries don't want his pornographic material, porn collectors aren't interested in his correspondence with Gertrude Stein and Alice Toklas - it speaks to that same level of schizophrenia that continues to plague the LGBT community today.)

I felt as if I was reading that essential "connector" book about my community's history. Steward's archival information paints an amazing picture of gay life in the 20's through the 60's. Pre-Stonewall, he was a man who chose not to succumb to the expectations of his time. He was sexually active for his entire adolescent and adult life, and rejected the notion that he should feel ashamed or guilty about it. His friends and lovers ranged across two continents. Close friends included Gertrude Stein and Alfred Kinsey, and Sonny Barger (head of Hell's Angels). Lovers included Rudolph Valentino, Thornton Wilder, Rock Hudson, and literally hundreds of sailors.

For LGBT activists, leather culture fans, literary historians, and those who appreciate a well-written biography, I recommend this book.