Finding aid of the Comprehensive Bibliography of
Homosexuality Work Papers
Michael P. Palmer
ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives
909 West Adams Boulevard
Los Angeles, California 90007
Phone: (213) 741-0094
Fax: (213) 741-0220
Email: askone@onearchives.org
URL: http://www.onearchives.org
© 2008
ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives. All rights reserved.
Finding aid of the Comprehensive Bibliography of Homosexuality
Work Papers
Collection number: Coll2008-007
ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives
Los Angeles,
California
- Processed by:
- Michael P. Palmer
- Date Completed:
- March 28, 2008
- Encoded by:
- Michael P. Palmer
© 2008 ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives. All rights reserved.
Processing this collection has been funded by a generous grant
from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission.
Descriptive Summary
Title: Comprehensive Bibliography of Homosexuality work
papers
Dates: circa
1980
Collection number: Coll2008-007
Creator:
Legg, W. Dorr, 1904-1994
Creator:
Dynes, Wayne R., 1934-
Collection Size: 1 box + 8 archival 3 x 5-inch
boxes 2.5 linear feet
Repository:
ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives.
Los Angeles, California 90007
Abstract: Photocopy typescript and bibliographic cards for
the
Comprehensive Bibliography of
Homosexuality
, projected but never completed by W. Dorr Legg
(1904-1994) and Wayne R. Dynes (1934-), and intended to supersede Vern L.
Bullough, Barrett W. Elcano, W. Dorr Legg, and James Kepner, ed.,
An Annotated Bibliography of Homosexuality
(1976).
Languages: Languages represented in
the collection: English
Access
The collection is open to researchers. There are no access
restrictions.
Publication Rights
Researchers wishing to publish materials must obtain permission in
writing from ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives as the physical owner.
Researchers must also obtain clearance from the holder(s) of any copyrights in
the materials. Note that ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives can grant
copyright clearance only for those materials for which we hold the copyright.
It is the responsibility of the researcher to obtain copyright clearance for
all other materials directly from the copyright holder(s).
Preferred Citation
Comprehensive Bibliography of Homosexuality Work Papers, Coll2008-007,
ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives, Los Angeles, California.
Acquisition Information
Retained by W. Dorr Legg after the project fell through in the
1980s.
Processing Information
Collection processed by Michael P. Palmer, March 28, 2008.
Processing this collection has been funded by a generous grant from the
National Historical Publications and Records Commission.
History
The
Comprehensive Bibliography of Homosexuality
was a project of W. Dorr Legg and Wayne R. Dynes, and was intended to supersede
Vern L. Bullough, Barrett W. Elcano, W. Dorr Legg, and James Kepner, ed.,
An Annotated Bibliography of Homosexuality
(1976). The project was not completed due to a controversy between the authors
as to whose name was to appear first in the credits. Dynes subsequently used
much of the material he had collected in his
Homosexuality; A Research Guide (1987) and
Encyclopedia of Homosexuality (1990).
Pioneer gay activist William Dorr Legg was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan,
on December 15, 1904. He graduated A.B. in 1926 from the University of
Michigan, where he also earned a Bachelor's Degree in Music and a Master's
Degree in Landscape Design in 1928. He originally practiced landscape design in
Florida and New York City, before taking an appointment as Assistant Professor
of Landscape Design at Oregon State College (now University), in Corvallis, in
1935. In the mid-1940's Legg returned to Michigan to care for his elderly
parents. While there he fell in love with Merton Bird, an accountant of African
American ancestry. In search of a social environment more accepting of their
interracial relationship, the couple moved in 1949 to Los Angeles, where Legg
became increasingly active in the post-World War II gay community. Shortly
after their arrival, the couple founded an interracial social organization for
gay men, the Knights of the Clocks, which flourished for several years in the
early 1950s. In 1951, Legg joined the Mattachine Society, founded the previous
year by Harry Hay, and in 1952, Legg became one of the founders of ONE, Inc.,
giving up his professional career to become the business manager of the
organization's monthly publication, also called
ONE, the first issue of which appeared in
1953. With a distribution of 5,000 copies by the end of the 1950s, it was the
first widely distributed gay publication in the United States. Although the
United States Post Office confiscated the October 1954 issue as "lewd, obscene,
lascivious and filthy" and therefore unfit to be sent through the mails, in
1958 the United States Supreme Court, in a landmark ruling, ruled in favor of
ONE, thereby establishing the right to send gay and lesbian material through
the mail.
Legg considered educating the public as key to gaining acceptance for
gays and lesbians. To this end he was instrumental in establishing ONE's
Institute of Homophile Studies, which opened in 1956, offering college- and
graduate-level courses, special programs, and public lectures, and supporting a
library of research materials. In the same year, Legg, under the pseudonym
Marvin Cutler, published the first American survey of the gay rights movement,
Homosexuals Today: A Handbook of Organizations and
Publications
. Legg also founded ONE Institute's Quarterly of Homophile
Studies and co-edited the
Annotated Bibliography of Homosexuality
(1976), a pioneering interdisciplinary survey of gay and lesbian studies.
Legg remained a vigorous activist and scholar until the very end of his
life. In 1994, in collaboration with David G. Cameron and Walter L. Williams,
he published
Homophile Studies in Theory and Practice, an
exhaustive history of ONE and its educational endeavors. Legg died shortly
after the book's publication, on July 26, 1994, in Los Angeles.
Wayne R. Dynes was born in 1934, and was raised in Los Angeles. He
earned a B.A. from UCLA, and in 1969 a Ph.D. at the Institute of Fine Arts, New
York University. He is retired as Professor of Art History at Hunter College,
City University of New York. He is the author of
Homolexis: A Historical and Cultural Lexicon of
homosexuality
(1985) and
omosexuality: A Research GuideH (1987).
Dynes also edited the two-volume
Encyclopedia of Homosexuality (1990) and is
former editor of
Cabirion: Gay Books Bulletin. He was a
co-founder of New York's Gay Academic Union in 1973.
Scope and Content of Collection
The collection consists of a photocopy of a typescript of the proposed
Comprehensive Bibliography of Homosexuality,
together with 3 x 5-inch cards with bibliographic entries. The photocopy
typescript covers the letters A through L, arranged in binders, and includes
loose interleaved slips and cards. The bibliographic cards were found in
drawers, arranged as follows: Cos-Dil, Dim-E, Mas-Mi, Mo-Ni, No-Pa, Pe-Po,
Pr-Rh, Sa-Sch, Sco-Sn, M-Z, and Porn.
Indexing Terms
The following terms have been used to index the description of this
collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Dynes, Wayne R., 1934-
Legg, W. Dorr, 1904-1994
Homosexuality--Bibliography
Collection Contents
Box: 1 : 1 - 15
Binders
circa 1980
Physical Description: 15 folders.
Box: 1 : 1 - 3
A-B
circa 1980
Physical Description: 3 folders.
Box: 1 : 4 - 7
C-E
circa 1980
Physical Description: 4 folders.
Box: 1 : 8 - 10
F-G
circa 1980
Physical Description: 3 folders.
Box: 1 : 11-13
H-J
circa 1980
Physical Description: 3 folders.
Box: 2 - 9
Bibliographic cards
circa 1980
Physical Description: 8 boxes.
Box: 2
ACossery - Dryer
circa 1980
Box: 3
Duane - Eyster ; Martin - Mezieres
circa 1980
Box: 4
Miami - Mitzel ; Moan - Nizam
circa 1980
Box: 7
Ro - Schjeldahl
circa 1980
Box: 8
Schlaf - Snyder
circa 1980
