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Grady Harp wrote on 09/24/2010:

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