Scope and arrangement
The Dick Leitsch papers, which date from the 1940s through 2018, are the extant personal records of the author and pre-Stonewall era gay rights leader. Significant overlap among Leitsch's personal interests, his professional curiosities, and his activist concerns is evident throughout the collection. The collection reflects Leitsch's time as a gay rights activist and leader; his creative process and output as an author; his experiences working as bartender, waiter, and at odd jobs, as well as his private life. The collection is arranged in the following series: Research; Writing; Mattachine Society of New York; Journals; Correspondence; Other Employment and Household Concerns; Speaking Engagements and Media Appearance; and Personal.
The Dick Leitsch papers are arranged in eight series:
-
1950s-2017
The Research series reflects Leitsch's diligent observation of popular culture and current events, as well as his interest in a wide range of historical topics and gay themes. Some, but not all, of the Research files relate directly to Leitsch's journalistic work. Research subseries include Articles, Clippings, and Magazines; Name Files; Notes and Notebooks; and Subject Files.
-
1960s-2018
The Writing series includes published and unpublished work. Leitsch's journalistic output in the late 1960s and 1970s is well represented through manuscripts and published versions of Leitch's recurring Gay magazine column in the early 1970s; The American Bicentennial Gay Guide, a travel guide that Leitsch edited; and other essays, articles, and short stories by Leitsch. Leitsch published a considerable volume of straight erotic short stories under pseudonyms in the 1970s. Drafts and published clippings of these are included in this section. Several interviews with Leitsch, as well as those conducted by Leitsch, notably an early interview with a then-unknown Bette Midler, are also present. An incomplete memoir manuscript from the early 1990s and other book project ideas and fragments are present. Researchers searching for Leitsch's Mattachine Society of New York newsletter columns and other writings penned in his capacity as MSNY president will find them in Series III: Mattachine Society of New York.
-
1950s-1992
This series encompasses files that Leitsch retained from his tenure as president of the Mattachine Society of New York (MSNY) from 1965 to 1971. It includes administrative files, correspondence, publicity files, and reference material. A near complete run of MSNY newsletters dating from 1964 to 1974, including many articles written by Leitsch but often unsigned, is present, as are newsletters of other Mattachine chapters and sibling organizations. Also contained in this series is a set of files on legal cases involving gay people and related issues, usually centering around discrimination, police entrapment, or obscenity. MSNY correspondence is between Leitsch and other MSNY officers and members. Also of note is a set of pamphlets about homosexuality apparently kept as a reference resource by MSNY. A file of newsclippings from later decades mentioning MSNY is present.
-
1955-2010
Journals reflect both Leitsch's professional activities and personal life. Journals from the mid-1960s through 1971 reference Leitsch's official Mattachine activities. A datebook from 1966 notes the day of the "Sip-in" protest at Julius' Bar as well as specific dates of police entrapment of gay men around that time. Detailed typed journals from the late 1980s through the early 1990s show a slice of gay male life in New York City during the AIDS epidemic, including Leitsch's account of the illness and death of his partner Timothy Scofield.
-
1958-2018
The bulk of correspondence files are arranged alphabetically by correspondent name. A run of letters and drafts of letters in electronic form for which recipients are unclear precedes the alphabetical run. These electronic records are unsorted except by year. Dick Leitsch wrote many letters. He usually kept copies of his letters, which tended to be lengthy, sometimes serving as testing grounds for new ideas and written work. Leitsch's friends Jack Nichols and Ed Yeatts were his most frequent correspondents. Nichols was Leitsch's counterpart president of the Mattachine Society of Washington, D.C., as well as his editor at Gay magazine and GayToday.com. Nichols's and Yeatts's correspondence files each span several decades and contain samples of their own published writings. Notable LGBTQ+ authors who appear among Leitsch's correspondence, include Esther Newton, George Chauncey, David Carter, Paul Cain, and Eric Marcus. After his cancer diagnosis, Leitsch received letters of appreciation for his youthful activism from Bill and Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
-
1970-2008
Files in the Other Employment and Household Concerns series pertain to non-activist, non-writing paid work Leitsch performed to pay personal expenses and to supplement often unpaid volunteer roles he held over the course of his life. This series is a testament to the diminished earning potential that publicly out LGBTQ+ people of this time period faced and its specific impact upon Leitsch's life. Files hold resumes; job application cover letters; a bartending school diploma; menus and bar supply lists; material on a gay club Leitsch managed in the late 1970s called Warehouse Pier 51; and correspondence documenting occasional personal financial turmoil and disputes with the landlord of his longtime residence on the Upper West Side.
-
1966-2016
The Speaking Engagements and Media Appearances series includes a file on Leitsch's testimony before the New York State Assembly during their 1971 hearings on homosexuality and his television appearances on The David Susskind Show, The Dick Cavett Show, and The Phil Donahue Show. A file relating to later public appearances from 2000 to the 2010s is also present.
-
1940s-2018
Series VIII contains primarily personal materials that document Leitsch's early life and family through photographs; Pride celebration programs; religion files; travel files; and ephemera and miscellaneous files. This series shows evidence of Leitsch's wide-ranging interests and includes personal effects such as address books and mementos of his school days. Also included is a group of files on drag performer Billie (Billy) Kamp.