Descriptive Summary
Administrative Information
Biography
Scope and Content of Collection
Related Material at the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Historical Society
Descriptive Summary
Title: Robert Prager Papers,
Date (inclusive): 1961-2003
Accession number: 1998-20
Creator:
Robert Prager
Extent:
9 Boxes
Repository: The
Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Historical Society.
San Francisco, California.
Abstract: This collection documents the intellectual pursuits of independent literary scholar Robert Prager. Included in the collection
is correspondence and interviews with gay male writers. Also included is biographical research, including interviews and correspondence,
into the life of artist Chuck Arnett.
Language:
English.
Administrative Information
Access
Collection is open for research.
Publication Rights
Copyright to selected material has been transferred to the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Historical Society. Copyright
of correspondence, unpublished writings, and oral history interviews are retained by the author/narrator unless otherwise
noted.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Prager Papers, 1998-20, Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Historical Society.
Acquisition Information
Donated to the GLBT Historical Society by Robert Prager from 1998 through 2002.
Biography
Robert Prager was born on May 16, 1955. Although Prager claims that his "education has largely been a matter of self-education,"
he attended Cass Technical High School in downtown Detroit, Michigan from 1970 until 1973. He then attended nearby Wayne State
University from 1973 until 1975 with a declared major in Journalism. After dropping out of Wayne State University, Prager
worked in various surveying, construction, and road-building jobs. He returned to Wayne State University as a student in 1979
and graduated a year later Phi Beta Kappa in 1980 with a B.A. in English.
At the end of June 1990 Prager was hired to work as a bartender at Folsom Street leather bar The Powerhouse and then in July
1991 at My Place, also located on Folsom Street. He quit bartending a year later at the end of June 1992 to attend Syracuse
University as a graduate student in its MA program in American literature. He withdrew from his formal studies in literature
in February 1993 to resume bartending at My Place, a position he continued to hold until the end of October 1993 at which
time he retired from the business.
Prager became very interested in "gay literature" beginning when he lived in Key West, Florida in 1981. He was fascinated
by the overlap and interplay between the ideology of the gay movement and the aesthetics of literary production. He began
corresponding with various published and unpublished gay writers as a way of documenting the literary history of the post-Stonewall
gay literary movement.
Scope and Content of Collection
The Robert Prager Papers were donated to the GLBT Historical Society by Robert Prager beginning in 1998. The collection includes
a significant collection of correspondence, the majority of which was exchanged between Prager and published gay male authors
and others within the publishing industry. The most extensive and important exchanges were with Daniel Curzon (author of
Something You Do in the Dark), Andrew Holleran (author of
Dancer from the Dance), and Dirk Vanden (author of
I Want It All); the content of these letters focuses on gay literature as well as the creative process. Also included in this collection
are interviews with selected authors as well as copies of drafts and other unpublished writings by Prager and other writers.
The second significant portion of this collection is composed of documents relating to the life and work of artist and pioneer
leatherman Chuck Arnett; along with a small cache of correspondence Arnett wrote in the 1960s are tapes and transcripts of
interviews Prager conducted with individuals who knew Arnett. The collection also includes five cartoon panels of Tom Hachtman's
Gertrude's Follies displayed in a frame.
Arrangement
The collection is divided into 4 series: :
-
Correspondence
-
Gay Authors Research and Writings
-
Chuck Arnett Project Research
-
Audio-Visual
Related Material at the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Historical Society
Title: Chuck Arnett Paintings
Identifier/Call Number: 1997-42
Title: Chuck Arnett Artifacts and Papers
Identifier/Call Number: 1999-10
Title: David Barnard Papers
Identifier/Call Number: 1998-07
Title: Kerry Bowman Papers and Ambush Records
Identifier/Call Number: 1998-30
Title: William Ewing Photo Album
Identifier/Call Number: 1995-14