James Turcotte papers

1969-1992

Turcotte, a former tax advisor and art gallery owner, began writing in the late 1960s, at first primarily fiction and free verse reflecting his experiences as a gay man, father, drug user and resident of Los Angeles and New York. He was diagnosed with AIDS in 1988. His subsequent writings were primarily poetic and journalistic recordings of his life and observations. Turcotte died of AIDS-related causes on May 11, 1993.

On November 30 1945, I was born above a gas station on Manchester Street in Lawrence Massachusetts. I lived with my mother and her aunt, whom I called Nana and referred to as my grandmother. They were close. Nana had raised my mother while holding down a mill job. My mother (Madi) moved to Los Angeles briefly, and married my father (Ray), But nine months after my mother became pregnant, my father died under mysterious circumstances in the US Navy, and so she returned to live with her aunt in Lawrence. They fought frequently. I attended St Patrick's Grammar School. We moved to a housing project in South Lawrence. My mother built a new house, partially with my father's veteran's benefits, and partially with Nana's money. Nana moved to Florida after a fight they had. My mother decided to earn a bachelor's degree from Merrimack, a local Augustinian college. After this, she sold the house and we moved to Amherst Massachusetts so she could get her Master's Degree at the University of Massachusetts. I was sent to Cranwell Academy, a Jesuit boarding school. On account of my homosexual conduct, I was expelled and had to attend Amherst High School.

In 1961, my mother bought a tract home in Tempe Arizona. I graduated from Tempe High School, and attended Arizona State University.

In 1965, I moved to New York and then to Madrid Spain, where I lived for almost two years. In 1967, I returned to Arizona and completed a bachelor's degree in Spanish.

During this period I read philosophy, Latin American literature, and autobiographical journals of early settlers in the west. Detailed and factual, the journals impressed me more than much fictional literature I'd read.

In 1969, after graduation from the university, I returned to New York. In the rabbi's study of Temple Emmanu-El in Manhattan, I married Judi Baskin, a college friend from Los Angeles. We separated shortly after. Judi returned to Los Angeles, and I remained in New York. Judi visited frequently, and in 1976 conceived our son David. Again, she returned to Los Angeles. A few months before the birth of my son, I moved to Los Angeles. He was born at UCLA Hospital on May 30, 1977.

In Los Angeles, I worked for the Internal Revenue Service, and eventually opened an art gallery and ran a successful tax practice out of the gallery office. The practice supported the gallery and, to the extent of the law, my son David. His mother and I separated after he was born.

In February 1988, I moved back to New York with my lover Andre. By August, I was diagnosed with AIDS. At this point I began to print and bind my own books and give them to friends. In this way I believed they would live - even if outside the enigmatic monolith of the publishing world.

Note: Around 1968, I began writing in a stream of conscious style that concealed my homosexuality. Eventually, I moved to fiction, changing the names and genders of the people I was and knew. And finally, after my diagnosis, I switched to clear and concise journal story telling of actual people and events in my life.

POETRY

• 1969-1987ROMANCE AND BRAIN DAMAGE. A volume of semi-autobiographical free verse. With pen and ink illustrations.
• 1989COUNTING BACKWARDS, a volume of semi-autobiographical free verse. Most written after AIDS diagnosis. With pen and ink illustrations.
• 1991Poems included in UNENDING DIALOGUE by Rachel Hadas. A volume of poems and commentaries by the co-ordinator of the poetry workshop at GMHC in New York. Published by Faber and Faber in Boston.
• FICTION
• 1975-1987X-RAY. Two volumes, ROMANCE and BRAIN DAMAGE. A fictional autobiography about a cuban man, Joe Sueno, and his relationship with a jewish american princess, Holiday Void.
• 1986PARAISO. The legend of Orpheus is blended with the book of Esther in a story told about a mythical Caribbean island. Begins well, spiked with plagiarism, but plods eventually toward the supermarket racks.
• 1987THE CITY OF LOS ANGELES. Novel about a drug addicted and unnamed movie star, two vagrants, an heiress, a gallery receptionist, his lover, a hooker, and an accountant. All become involved with a murder. Sad story of greed and jealousy. Chapter titles: Food, Shelter, Clothing, Sex, Money, Power.
• 1988WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY. Essays on generalities, philosophy, religion, pure science, etc - using the ten categories of the dewey decimal system.
• 1989EL MUNDO AND OTHER STORIES. Novel connecting the lives of an interior decorator, an ambitious model, a garment manufacturer, his drug addicted poetess daughter, his gay restaurateur son, a young heir to a music fortune, a lonely man, a corrupt priest who works the cruise ships, and others. Examines motivation in an occasionally incomprehensible writing style. With pen and ink illustrations. Chapter titles: El Mundo, The Radiant Altar, Hot Climates, Interest, Making Money, The Man and The Muse, Life in Pictures, Those Fabulous Achilles Heels, Barbarism, The Package, The Lead Balloon.
• 1990CITY. A collection of short stories based on people and places in my life. Titles: La Gorce, Metamorphosis, Members Only, Friends, Hollywood Divine, Music, Eight, Childs & Co, Billy Martin, Room At The Top, Looking For Love.
• 1990GOLEMS. A novelette about a couple who wish themselves into the past, and then try to imagine themselves out of it. The secret lies in cities, where time moves faster.
• 1990ZERO. A long unfinished novel retelling El Qui jote in the adventures of Joe Sueno and Zero, the vagrants in THE CITY OF LOS ANGELES, Joe being also the protagonist in X-RAY.
• 1992LAND X. Stories, journal entries, and poetry written while I was a member of Other Countries - a writing group of gay black men. Titles: Lipstick. 3-D. My House. Charity. Running. Class. Westworld. Sunkist. Shooting George Bush. We Can Do This.
• 1992X-MEN. (novel in progress). A successful black drug dealer leaves his girlfriend and baby for a gay white museum employee. The girlfriend befriends the girl next door. Strangely attracted to her, she becomes pregnant by what turns out to be a young female impersonator.
• 1989COUNTING BACKWARDS. Beginning with a seat in the welfare office, each successive chapter moves backwards in time. Observations on being diagnosed with AIDS. My gay life in Hollywood. Living with a schizophrenic, robbing a bank while working for the IRS, doing drugs. Moving backwards, the book ends at the point where X-RAY left off, in effect, connecting James Turcotte to Joe Sueno. Chapter titles: Welfare, Class, The System, Work, Rooms, Smoking, Andre, Mitchell, Shelter, Joe, Flying, Rex.
• 1990FALL. In Manhattan. Living with AIDS, visiting hospitals, and working with an art dealer. The pressure and the horror in a glamorous setting. Chapter titles: Nick, George, Tom, Joe, Jen, Lee, Days, Fall.
• 1990GEORGE. Stories about an art dealer. Some gossip - about Keith Haring and his foundation - by Keith's ex-lover. Chapter titles: George, Miami, La Gorce, Juan, Keith, Dorothy, Thanksgiving.
• 1990THE HOLIDAYS. Thanksgiving in Manhattan (repeated chapter). And then, two weeks around New Years - as I spent them with my mother and son in Arizona. Disillusionment in New York. Desert history and travel. Observations about family life. Chapter titles: Thanksgiving, Xmas, Madeline, David, Claire, Havana, New Years.
• 1991SUMMER. Chapters about spending three weeks with my son and my mother. Travels around Manhattan and Brooklyn on bikes. Incidents about racism, poverty, urban life. Chapters'. The Homestead. Markets. August. The Adult Stage. Forbidden Planet. Minions. Planes.
• 1992MOVING PLACES. Descriptive narratives about visiting an ex-lover and friends in Philadelphia, and Garrison New York. Entries: The Sporting Club, Travarrow, Ciboulette.
• 1992GAYLIFE. (in progress) Straightforward journal involving the gay world.
• 1992HETLIFE. (in progress) Concurrent, straightforward journal not involving the gay world.