Collection context
Summary
- Creators:
- Thompson, Mark
- Abstract:
- Mark Thompson, author and editor, was born and raised on the Monterey Peninsula, California, during the 1950s and '60s. In 1973, Thompson helped found the Gay Students Coalition at San Francisco State University, where he was a journalism student, and has worked for gay causes throughout his life. He began his writing career at the national gay and lesbian newsmagazine The Advocate in 1975, reporting on culture and politics in Europe. Thompson continued to serve the publication during the next two decades in a number of capacities--as a feature writer, photographer, and Senior Editor. His papers contain correspondence, working files, writing, his husband Malcolm Boyd's materials, Thompson's library, and memorabilia.
- Extent:
- 61.8 linear feet (100 document boxes, 9 flat boxes, 5 oversize flat boxes, 2 oversize folders, 1 shoe box, and 1 poster tube), 81 audiovisual carriers (33 audiocassettes, 48 videocassettes), and 92 born-digital carriers (77 optical discs, 14 floppy disks, 1 computer tower)
- Language:
- English .
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item], Mark Thompson papers (Collection 2356). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
Background
- Scope and content:
-
The Mark Thompson papers range in date from 1948-2016 and contain Thompson's Rolodex from his Advocate days, love letters from husband Malcolm Boyd, professional correspondence with James Broughton and the One Institute and Archives, mail that documents trauma and hatred during the AIDS epidemic, Leatherfolk letters, correspondence concerning the faerie wars, notes with manuscripts from gay writers such as Paul Monette, and Thompson's final emails from Palm Springs. Thompson's working files and writing comprise the bulk of the papers and include his documentation of his work at the Advocate, Radical Faeries, gay liberation, Harry Hay, gay spirituality, S/M, Robert Opel, Gilgamesh, Fellow Travelers, Gay Body, Gay Soul, Leatherfolk, Rise Up and Shout!, AIDS workshops, and Antioch coursework. The Malcolm Boyd materials include photographs, memorabilia, scrapbooks, interviews, and commonplace books. The library of Mark Thompson includes every book written by Thompson and his husband Malcolm Boyd in addition to a collection of LGBTQ+ community works. Memorabilia includes art, photo albums, leather gear, BDSM equipment, posters, awards, a Faerie drum set, Thompson's photograph of the 1979 Radical Faerie Mud Ritual, and his photograph of Robert Mapplethorpe.
- Biographical / historical:
-
Mark Thompson, author and editor, was born and raised on the Monterey Peninsula, California, during the 1950s and '60s. In 1973, Thompson helped found the Gay Students Coalition at San Francisco State University, where he was a journalism student, and has worked for gay causes throughout his life.
He began his writing career at the national gay and lesbian newsmagazine The Advocate in 1975, reporting on culture and politics in Europe. Thompson continued to serve the publication during the next two decades in a number of capacities--as a feature writer, photographer, and Senior Editor. In 1994, he completed his tenure at the magazine by editing Long Road to Freedom: The Advocate History of the Gay and Lesbian Movement (St. Martin's Press), a volume of half a million words and over seven hundred photographs documenting the gay and lesbian struggle for civil rights. The book was nominated for two Lambda Literary Awards.
Thompson is best known, however, for his influential trilogy of books dealing with gay spirituality. The first in the series, Gay Spirit: Myth and Meaning (St. Martin's Press) was published in 1987. The anthology was included on a list compiled by the Lambda Book Report of the "100 Lesbian and Gay Books That Changed Our Lives."
Gay Soul: Finding the Heart of Gay Spirit and Nature (HarperSanFrancisco) followed in 1994. The Lambda Literary Award-nominated book consists of in-depth conversations and photographs with sixteen writers, teachers, and visionaries.
The trilogy was completed in 1997 with the publication of Gay Body: A Journey Through Shadow to Self (St. Martin's Press), an autobiographical memoir combining elements of Jungian archetypes, gay history and mythology, and New Age spirituality.
Thompson's other work includes Leatherfolk: Radical Sex, People, Politics and Practice (Alyson Publications), a 1991 anthology dealing with human sexuality and identity. He has also contributed to a variety of other collections, including Hometowns: Gay Men Write About Where They Belong (Dutton), Out in All Directions (Warner Books), Positively Gay: New Approaches to Gay and Lesbian Life (Celestial Arts), Out in Culture (Duke University Press), and Gay Men at the Millennium (Tarcher).
Thompson lectured frequently on the psycho-spiritual aspects of gay experience, and has spoken at the University of California/Los Angeles, the City University of New York, and the University of Wisconsin, as well as to groups ranging from the Unitarian Church to the National Organization of Changing Men to in cities across the United States. Thompson holds a Master's Degree in Clinical Psychology from Antioch University and worked part-time as a psychotherapist with gay and lesbian youth and people living with HIV. He also served on the board of ONE Institute and Archives.
Mark and Episcopal priest and author Malcolm Boyd began a long-term relationship in February 1984. They exchanged vows on May 16, 2004 at the Los Angeles Cathedral Center officiated by Episcopal Bishop Jon Bruno. They were legally married when that was possible in California in July, 2013. Following Boyd's death in 2015, Mark moved from Silver Lake to Palm Springs where he worked as a therapist. He died on August 16, 2016.
(This statement was written by Mark Thompson in 2004 with material added following his death by Mark Bowman and minor edits for this finding aid by LSC Archivist Kelly Besser in 2024.)
- Acquisition information:
- Gift of John B. Thompson, 2017.
- Custodial history:
-
After Mark Thompson's death in 2016, his brother John B. Thompson stewarded this collection until the 2017 transfer to UCLA Library Special Collections.
- Processing information:
-
Processed by Kelly Besser with assistance from Bella Durgin, Gabe McNeill, and Steph Zager, 2024.
The UCLA Library Preservation and Conservation Department provided expert care for the Memorabilia series. Book and paper conservator Nicole Alvarado rehoused faerie and leather gear and paper conservator Devin Mattlin rehoused posters.
Collections are processed to a variety of levels depending on the work necessary to make them usable, their perceived user interest and research value, availability of staff and resources, and competing priorities. Library Special Collections provides a standard level of preservation and access for all collections and, when time and resources permit, conducts more intensive processing. These materials have been arranged and described according to national and local standards and best practices.
We are committed to providing ethical, inclusive, and anti-racist description of the materials we steward, and to remediating existing description of our materials that contains language that may be offensive or cause harm. We invite you to submit feedback about how our collections are described, and how they could be described more accurately, by filling out the form located on our website: Report Problematic Content and Description in UCLA's library collections and archives.
- Arrangement:
-
This collection has been arranged in the following series:
- Series 1: Correspondence, 1970-2016
- Series 2: Working files and writing, 1964-2015
- Series 3: Malcolm Boyd materials, 1948-2014
- Series 4: Books from the library of Mark Thompson
- Series 5: Memorabilia, 1962-2015
- Physical / technical requirements:
-
COLLECTION CONTAINS UNPROCESSED DIGITAL, AUDIO, and AUDIOVISUAL MATERIALS: Digital, audio, and audiovisual materials are not currently available for access and will require further processing and assessment. If you have questions about this material please email AskLSC@library.ucla.edu.
- Physical location:
- Portions of the collection stored off-site. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.
- Rules or conventions:
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Access and use
- Restrictions:
-
Open for research. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.
- Terms of access:
-
Copyright to portions of this collection has been assigned to the UCLA Library Special Collections. The library can grant permission to publish for materials to which it holds the copyright. All requests for permission to publish must be submitted in writing to Library Special Collections. Credit shall be given as follows: The Regents of the University of California on behalf of the UCLA Library Special Collections.
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item], Mark Thompson papers (Collection 2356). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
- Location of this collection:
-
A1713 Charles E. Young Research LibraryBox 951575Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575, US
- Contact:
- (310) 825-4988