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Creator
Rodwell, Craig, 1940-1993
Call number
MssCol 2606
Physical description
7 linear feet (21 boxes)
Language
Materials in English
Preferred Citation

Craig Rodwell papers, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library

Repository
Manuscripts and Archives Division
Access to materials
Request an in-person research appointment.Restrictions apply
Portions of this collection have been digitized and are available online.

Craig Rodwell (1940-1993) was an American gay rights activist. He was active in the Mattachine Society in New York City and in 1967 founded the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop, the first bookstore devoted to serious writing by gay authors. A participant in the Stonewall riots in 1969, Rodwell figured prominently in the gay liberation movement of the 1970s and 1980s. Collection consists of correspondence, photographs, printed matter, artifacts, and other items documenting Rodwell's work as an activist and proprietor of the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop. Correspondence is mainly incoming letters from friends and colleagues, and writings, ca. early 1970s, are on gay-related topics. Rodwell's files contain clippings, flyers, correspondence and other materials all pertaining to aspects of gay and lesbian politics and culture. Other papers include printed matter, Martin Duberman's interview with Rodwell, and materials from Rodwell's childhood and youth. Also, photographs and slides; artifacts such as political buttons, banner, T-shirts, and puzzle; and two sound recordings. (Sixteen commercial sound recordings were transferred to the International Gay Information Center Archives.).

Biographical/historical information

The gay rights activist Craig Rodwell was born in 1940. In the late 1950s, he moved to New York City, where he was active in the Mattachine Society and other homophile organizations. In 1967, he founded the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop, the first bookstore devoted to serious writing by gay authors. A participant in the Stonewall riots in 1969, Rodwell figured prominently in the gay liberation movement of the 1970s and 1980s. He died of cancer in 1993.

Craig Rodwell was born in 1940 in Chicago, Illinois. When he was less than a year old, his parents separated and later divorced; unable to find adequate day-care for Craig while she worked as a secretary, his mother Marion enrolled him in the Chicago Junior School, a boys' boarding school affiliated with the Christian Science Church, in 1947. Describing his years there in an interview with the historian Martin Duberman, Rodwell characterized them as significant in giving him a lifelong affinity for the teachings of Christian Science, in particular the precept that "truth is the highest good; " and for providing him with early opportunities to experiment with same-sex relationships, which enabled him to think of himself as gay from a young age without the guilt and confusion that many other young people experienced.

After graduation from the Junior School in 1954, Rodwell moved home to attend Sullivan High School in Chicago. One of his lovers during those years was an older man from whom Rodwell first learned about the Mattachine Society. Intrigued by the idea of an organization that advocated civil rights for homosexuals, Rodwell resolved to join it when he reached the required age of 21.

Rodwell briefly studied ballet in Boston before moving to New York in 1958, where he took ballet classes, worked at odd jobs, and volunteered at the Mattachine Society, although he became disappointed at the group's lack of activism. In 1961, he had a brief relationship with Harvey Milk, the future gay rights activist and San Francisco city supervisor. Milk's termination of their affair led Rodwell to attempt suicide, which resulted in his being hospitalized for several weeks. (Correspondence concerning this period in Rodwell's life is in Box 1.)

In early 1964, Rodwell sought to infuse Mattachine with new energy by creating Mattachine Young Adults, which increased Mattachine's membership and eventually brought some of Rodwell's more militant friends into its leadership. He was also an early member of East Coast Homophile Organizations (ECHO) and the North American Conference of Homophile Organizations (NACHO), and from 1964 to 1969 was a participant in the Annual Reminder demonstrations in Philadelphia, in which neatly-dressed lesbians and gay men picketed in front of Independence Hall on the Fourth of July to inform passers-by that some Americans still lacked basic human rights.

The idea of creating a bookstore devoted to serious writing (i. e., not pornography) by gay authors came to Rodwell in the mid-1960s. In late 1967, he opened the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop, which quickly became an informal community center in Greenwich Village, as well as the headquarters for an organization Rodwell started, the Homophile Youth Movement in Neighborhoods (HYMN). During the Stonewall riots of June 1969, Rodwell produced and distributed leaflets under HYMN's aegis, calling for an end to the Mafia and police presence in gay bars. (See Box 5.)

In the aftermath of Stonewall, and with the emergence of the gay liberation movement in the 1970s, Rodwell's activism increased further. He was a founder of the Christopher Street Liberation Day Committee, which staged annual demonstrations, later known as the Gay Pride Marches, on the anniversary of the riots, and was among the creators of Gay People in Christian Science (GPICS) in 1978.

In 1992, a year after testing negative for HIV, Rodwell was diagnosed as having stomach cancer. He died in June 1993.

Scope and arrangement

Clippings, handbills, correspondence, photographs, artifacts, and other items documenting Rodwell's work as an activist and the proprietor of the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop.

Craig Rodwell's papers consist primarily of newspaper and magazine clippings, political handbills, correspondence, photographs, and such artifacts as political buttons and T-shirts. The majority of material dates from the 1960s and 1970s, and documents Rodwell's activism for gay rights before and after the Stonewall demonstrations of 1969. Aside from scattered letters from friends, there is little of a personal nature.

The Craig Rodwell papers are arranged in five series:

  • Series 1: Correspondence and Writings

    Series 1 consists mostly of incoming letters from friends, boyfriends, and Rodwell's activist colleagues. Aside from the individuals mentioned in the Container List on page 8, correspondents include Barbara Gittings, Kay Lahusen (Kay Tobin), and Randy Wicker. The two folders of professional and political correspondence concern Rodwell's work in homophile organizations and with the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop; among the latter are a letter from Rita Mae Brown (1972) and a note from John Rechy (1980).

    Other correspondence is scattered throughout the Rodwell Papers, particularly in Series 2 and 3.

    The writings in this series are contained in one folder, and consist of half-a-dozen typescripts, circa the early 1970s, on gay-related topics.

  • Series 2: Chronological Files

    These files contain clippings, flyers, correspondence, and other materials, all pertaining to aspects of gay and lesbian politics and culture, such as reviews of plays and films with gay-related themes, news stories about demonstrations, newsletters from various gay/lesbian organizations, and correspondence about the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop. Items are filed by year; coverage is especially extensive for the middle and late 1970s.

  • Series 3: Subject Files

    Like the chronological files, the items in this series pertain entirely to gay/lesbian topics, with files on organizations such as the Daughters of Bilitis and Mattachine Society; AIDS; the assassination of Harvey Milk; and the "Annual Reminder" demonstrations of the middle and late 1960s.

    The materials are arranged alphabetically, except for the files on Christian Science, which are at the end of the series in Boxes 8 and 9. The bulk of those files, subarranged chronologically, concern Rodwell's work with Gay People in Christian Science (GPICS).

  • Series 4: Other Materials

    The items in Series 4 fall into three categories: printed matter (Boxes 10-11), Martin Duberman's interview with Rodwell for Stonewall (Box 12), and materials from Rodwell's childhood and youth (Box 13). The printed matter consists mostly of clippings, flyers, pamphlets, and ephemera such as bumper stickers; topics include the Stonewall Inn demonstrations of 1969, and literature from various regional gay and lesbian organizations.

    Among the contents of Box 13 is a letter written to Rodwell by his father in 1954, when Rodwell was thirteen, and items from his grammar school.

  • Series 5: Photographs, Artifacts, and Sound Recordings

    Box 14 contains a family album, with pictures of Rodwell from infancy to young adulthood, as well as pictures of his parents. There are also loose snapshots, mostly of gay rights demonstrations and the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookstore; and a postcard album compiled by a relative. Box 15 contains slides from Rodwell's childhood and of the bookstore.

    The artifacts consist of political buttons (Box 16); the banner carried at demonstrations, "Gays in Christian Science" (Box 17); about two dozen T-shirts from gay pride marches and related events (Boxes 18-19); and a "Gay Pride! " jigsaw puzzle (Box 20).

    There are only two sound recordings: a reel-to-reel tape of the 1975 memorial service for Howard Brown, New York City's Commissioner of Health; and a cassette recording of a performance of the New York Gay Community Marching Band, 1980.

    Sixteen commercial sound recordings were transferred to the International Gay Information Center Archives. A list of these transferred items is on pages 11-12.

Administrative information

Source of acquisition

Gift of Craig Rodwell and Marion Rodwell Kastman, 1993.

Processing information

Compiled by Laura K. O'Keefe, June 1995

Separated material

The following phonograph records were transferred to the International Gay Information Center Archives:

45-RPM singles:

Madeline Davis: "Stone Wall Nation"

Bill Folk: "We Are Here"

Sandy Baron's "God Save the Queen's"

Albums:

Charlie Murphy: "Catch the Fire" (two copies)

Blackberri & Friends: "Finally"

San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus "Tours America '81"

"Boy Meets Boy"

Paul Wagner: "To Be a Man"

"Lavender Country"

"AC-DC Blues"

Robin Flower: "More Than Friends"

"Music for Mixed Emotions"

"Homosexuality in the American Male"

"June 28, 1970: Gay and Proud"

Michael Cohen: "Some of Us Had to Live"

Steven Grossman: "Caravan Tonight"

Related Material

Collections at the New York Public Library that pertain to Rodwell include the papers of Martin Duberman, which contain the audio tapes of the interviews Duberman conducted with Rodwell for Stonewall.

Using the collection

Location

Manuscripts and Archives Division
Stephen A. Schwarzman Building
Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street, New York, NY 10018-2788
Brooke Russell Astor Reading Room, Third Floor, Room 328

Access restrictions

Use of sound recordings requires advance notice; otherwise, no restrictions.