- unitid
-
{"value"=>"17770", "type"=>"local_mss"}
{"value"=>"b20828685", "type"=>"local_b"}
{"value"=>"MssCol 17770", "type"=>"local_call"}
- unitdate
-
{"value"=>"1920s-2002", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1920/2002"}
{"value"=>"1983-2002", "type"=>"bulk", "normal"=>"1983/2002"}
- unittitle
-
{"value"=>"Eric Marcus papers"}
- physdesc
-
{"format"=>"structured", "physdesc_components"=>[{"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"669 audio files", "unit"=>"containers"}, {"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"669 audio_files", "unit"=>"audio_files"}, {"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"2 computer files", "unit"=>"containers"}, {"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"2 computer files", "unit"=>"computer_files"}, {"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"65 kb", "unit"=>"computer_files"}, {"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"65 kilobytes", "unit"=>"kilobytes"}, {"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"27 boxes", "unit"=>"containers"}, {"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"11.73 linear feet", "unit"=>"linear_feet"}], "supress_display"=>true}
- repository
-
{"value"=>"<span class=\"corpname\">Manuscripts and Archives</span>"}
- abstract
-
{"value"=>"Eric Marcus is an author of non-fiction, public speaker, and television news producer noted for his use of interviews and oral histories to document the lesbian and gay rights movement in the United States. The bulk of the Eric Marcus papers date from 1983 to 2002 and contain research files, interview transcripts, sound and video recordings, typescripts, photographs, correspondence, news clippings, galleys, and scripts of public speaking engagements."}
- langmaterial
-
{"value"=>"English"}
- origination
-
{"value"=>"Marcus, Eric", "type"=>"persname"}
- bioghist
-
{"value"=>"<p>Eric Marcus was born in 1958 in New York City, where he has lived most of his life. He completed undergraduate studies at Vassar College in 1980 and received a master's degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1984. As a student, Marcus did volunteer work for gay groups such as Identity House and Gay Men's Health Crisis. Following graduate school, he began his journalism career working as an associate producer for ABC's <span class=\"title\">Good Morning America</span> and <span class=\"title\">The CBS Morning News</span>, but soon made the transition from producing television news to writing non-fiction books.</p> <p>He is perhaps best known for his <span class=\"title\">Making History</span>, published in 1992, an early influential gay and lesbian historical text. This volume and its follow-up, <span class=\"title\">Making Gay History</span>, are compilations of oral histories of individual lesbian and gay people, edited and presented together to tell the story of the gay rights movement in the United States. <span class=\"title\">Making Gay History</span>, published in 2002, provides updated information on many of the original <span class=\"title\">Making History</span> interview subjects and extends coverage through the end of the 20th century. Both volumes address the Stonewall Riots, the AIDS crisis and other significant gay and lesbian historical events.</p> <p>Other gay- and lesbian-themed titles by Marcus include <span class=\"title\">The Male Couple's Guide</span>, <span class=\"title\">Is It a Choice?</span>, <span class=\"title\">What If Someone I Know Is Gay?</span>, and <span class=\"title\">Together Forever</span>. Marcus assisted in the writing of several autobiographies of famous gay athletes, most notably Olympic diver Greg Louganis' <span class=\"title\">Breaking the Surface</span>. In 1995, he co-edited the reference book, <span class=\"title\">Out in All Directions: The Almanac of Gay and Lesbian America</span>. Non-fiction titles of general interest written by Marcus include <span class=\"title\">Why Suicide?</span>, which was inspired by his father's suicide when he was a child, and <span class=\"title\">Expect the Worst</span>, a book of humorous quotations about negative attitudes.</p> <p>Marcus also wrote magazine articles about the lesbian and gay experience, which were published in popular magazines such as <span class=\"title\">Newsweek</span> and <span class=\"title\">Time</span>, and received considerable attention in the early 1990s. More recently, Marcus has been a frequent public speaker on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) issues at colleges and for LGBT groups across the United States. He continues to reside in New York City.</p>"}
- scopecontent
-
{"value"=>"<p>The Eric Marcus papers, which date from the 1920s to 2002, document the author's non-fiction books and popular magazine articles, written primarily on gay and lesbian themes. The bulk of the collection contains sound recordings and transcripts of interviews with over 200 gay and lesbian people that Marcus used as source material for many of his books. In most cases, these recordings and transcripts are closed until 2040. Check the the container list for specific restrictions. Other materials related to Marcus' published work consist of research files, photographs, typescripts, correspondence, news clippings, and galleys. The collection also contains a smaller quantity of files documenting Marcus' public speaking engagements, radio appearances, and earlier television news production career.</p> <p><span class=\"title\">Making History</span>, often cited as Marcus' most important work, is very well represented in the collection. The author's research process for this book involved interviewing over 80 lesbians and gay men about their lives, focusing particularly upon those who had been involved in gay and lesbian activist groups, or who had been present at pivotal events. He interviewed activists as well as ordinary people, from the very young to the very old. Many of his interview subjects, such as Frank Kameny, Barbara Gittings, Kay Tobin Lahusen, Randy Shilts, Vito Russo, Sylvia Rivera, and Larry Kramer, were later regarded as highly influential in the modern struggle for LGBT rights after the book's publication. Marcus wove these first-person accounts into a narrative of the history of the gay and lesbian rights movement in the United States during the second half of the 20th century. This process of gathering personal oral histories and using them as the main source material for a non-fiction book became a repeatable model for Marcus, utilized for the follow-up to <span class=\"title\">Making History</span>, <span class=\"title\">Making Gay History</span>, and other titles. Other artifacts of his writing process, including a master index of interview subjects and research files, are included in this subsection. Correspondence with interviewees and those who declined to be interviewed, including Rita Mae Brown, Phil Donahue and Harvey Fierstein, as well as from readers, is found in boxes 3 and 4. Correspondence and contracts with the publisher, Harper Collins, are included as is a file of author photographs. Documentation of the critical performance of <span class=\"title\">Making History</span> and Marcus' efforts to promote it can be found in publicity, review, clipping, and book tour files in this subsection. Recordings and transcripts of all interviews in this subsection are restricted until 2040, unless the researcher obtains permission from the author and the interview subject.</p> <p>As an updated version of <span class=\"title\">Making History</span>, <span class=\"title\">Making Gay History</span> occupies a much smaller portion of the collection. Files on this volume consist of a galley, updated information on many of the original interview subjects and interviews with a few additional people not interviewed for the first volume, including Ellen DeGeneres, Al Gore, Jim Kolbe, Megan Smith, and Kevin Jennings. Recordings and transcripts of all interviews in this subsection are restricted until 2040, unless the researcher obtains permission from the author and the interview subject.</p> <p>Two titles represented more prominently in the collection are <span class=\"title\">The Male Couple's Guide</span> and <span class=\"title\">Together Forever</span>. Most of the 132 oral histories found in these two titles are those of couples discussing their long-term same-sex relationships. In the case of <span class=\"title\">Together Forever</span>, interview subjects are identified by their first names, which in some cases have been changed to protect the subjects' privacy. Recordings and transcripts of all interviews in both titles' subsections are restricted until 2040. For both of these titles, files holding correspondence, contracts, reviews and publicity materials are included. <span class=\"title\">The Male Couple's Guide</span> subsection also holds several files on research relating to specific chapters and themes discussed in the book, such as communication, intimacy, monogamy and non-monogamy, commitment, domestic life, family, parenting, finances, health, aging, loss, and divorce.</p> <p>Marcus deployed familiar interview tactics in the writing assistance he provided for autobiographical works by Greg Louganis, Rudy Galindo, and Rod and Bob Jackson-Paris, interviewing these out gay athletes extensively prior to writing drafts of their biographies. Numerous hours of recorded interviews with Louganis and Galindo are included in the <span class=\"title\">Breaking the Surface</span> and <span class=\"title\">Icebreaker</span> subsections respectively. Use restrictions apply to some of the autobiographical works' interviews. See individual boxes and folders for specific restrictions. In addition to numerous hours of recorded interviews with Louganis, the <span class=\"title\">Breaking the Surface</span> subsection contains several versions of typescript drafts of the book including one with Louganis' comments and corrections, found in box 15, folder 17. The Olympic diving champion came out publicly as gay and HIV+ for the first time with the publication of <span class=\"title\">Breaking the Surface</span>. Other files in this collection hold news clippings relating to Louganis' coming out announcement and disclosure of HIV status, as well as critical reactions to the autobiography. Some clippings are in German.</p> <p>Other gay- and lesbian- themed titles that are less well-represented in this collection include <span class=\"title\">Is It a Choice?</span>, <span class=\"title\">What If Someone I Know Is Gay?</span>, and <span class=\"title\">Out in All Directions: The Almanac of Gay and Lesbian America</span>, which all contain files of contracts, correspondence, and publicity materials.</p> <p>Two titles of general interest, not pertaining specifically to lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT) themes in this collection are, <span class=\"title\">Why Suicide?</span> and <span class=\"title\">Expect the Worst</span>. <span class=\"title\">Why Suicide?</span> was inspired by Marcus' father's suicide when the author was a child. Files in this subsection consist primarily of research files on topics relating to suicide such as mental illness, methods of suicide, statistics, and prevention. <span class=\"title\">Expect the Worst</span> is a compilation of humorous quotations about pessimism that Marcus solicited and gathered from friends, relatives, and colleagues. Files in the <span class=\"title\">Expect the Worst</span> subsection include correspondence, manuscripts, and publicity materials. A later version of this book is titled <span class=\"title\">Pessimisms</span>, and has been translated into numerous languages.</p> <p>Throughout his career, the author has made frequent appearances on numerous radio programs across the United States both to promote his specific books and to voice general support of LGBT issues. Recordings of many of these appearances can be found in the Radio Appearances section and are arranged chronologically.</p> <p>Documentation of Marcus' public speaking engagements before audiences of college students and LGBT groups is included in this collection and arranged chronologically. A few sound and video recordings, scripts of many of these speeches, event and location information, and correspondence with the groups and academic institutions that invited him are contained in these files.</p> <p>Marcus' early television news production career is represented in the collection in files about his work on <span class=\"title\">Good Morning America</span>, <span class=\"title\">CBS This Morning</span>, a PBS special on the 25th anniversary of Stonewall, and other freelance television work. A handful of video recordings are included in this subsection.</p>"}
{"value"=>"<p class='list-head'>The Eric Marcus papers are arranged in five series:</p>\n<ul class='arrangement series-descriptions'>\n<li><div class='series-title'><a href='/mss/17770#c1384919'>Writings</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1920s-2002</div>\n</li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/mss/17770#c1386334'>Speaking Engagements</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1991-2000</div>\n</li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/mss/17770#c1386380'>Radio Appearances</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1988-1998</div>\n</li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/mss/17770#c1386446'>Television News Production</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1987-1994</div>\n</li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/mss/17770#c1386456'>Other Projects</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1985-2000</div>\n</li></ul>\n", "type"=>"arrangement"}
- arrangement
-
{"value"=>"<p>The Eric Marcus papers are organized into the following sections: Writings; Speaking Engagements; Radio Appearances; Television News Production; and Other Projects</p>", "supress_display"=>true}
- acqinfo
-
{"value"=>"<p>Donated by Eric Marcus, 2007.</p>"}
- processinfo
-
{"value"=>"<p>Compiled by <span class=\"name\">Heather Halliday</span>, <span class=\"date\">2015</span>.</p>"}
- accessrestrict
-
{"value"=>"<p>Interview transcripts and recordings related to many of the author's published titles are closed until 2040. See container list for details.</p>"}
- date_start
-
1920
- keydate
-
1920
- date_end
-
2002
- date_inclusive_start
-
1920
- date_inclusive_end
-
2002
- date_bulk_start
-
1983
- date_bulk_end
-
2002
- extent_statement
-
11.73 linear feet (669 audio files, 2 computer files, 27 boxes); 669 audio_files; 65 kilobytes (65 kb)
- prefercite
-
{"value"=>"Eric Marcus papers, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library"}