Robert Duncan in San Francisco

Rating:
Summary: Robert Duncan and San Francisco before Gay Rights
Review: This is an outstanding account both of Robert Duncan's role in the San Francisco "renaissance" of the 1950s, which intersects with (but is not limited to nor primarily of) the Beatnik movement in San Francisco and the rise of the gay subculture, and of Rumaker's personal odyssey as a gay man in a city still dominated by Irish cops and forces explicitly hostile to an implicit gay city.

One shakes with Rumaker's account of being accosted and arrested for walking down Polk Street, an incident which commonly results in publication of one's name in the newspaper and typical ouster from one's employ.

In a city transformed by art and gay rights since those times, it's invaluable to note and fix in one's mind the personal heroism that made San Francisco the most obvious of gay meccas.

Of course, those familiar with Robert Duncan also know that he is one of America's greatest poets and the author of the best gay love poem ever, "Passages 18: The Torso," among many other notable works.