In His Own Words

Online Writings by John Preston and Interviews with the Author

* Writings
* Interviews
* Ephemera

WRITINGS

A note on the links in this section: Topman does not link to illegally posted writings by Preston. All of the writings in the sections below were posted by Preston's publishers or by authors who own the rights to the original material.

Excerpt from Franny, the Queen of Provincetown (1983). By John Preston. The only leatherman in town seeks advice from an unlikely source. (The Website is marked for adults, but this particular passage has no adult material.) [True Tales]

Introduction to Lars Eigner's Lavender Blue: How to Write and Sell Gay Men's Erotica (1986). By John Preston. A day in the life of an erotica editor and an erotica author. An essay based all too clearly on Preston's own experiences. [Lavender Blue]

The Importance of Telling Our Stories (1992, 1995). By John Preston. From his essay collection Winter's Light. Describes how he sought to understand his heritage as a New Englander and as a gay man. The link leads to six image files showing the beginning of the essay. To read the remainder of the essay, go to the "search inside this book" form and do a search on the word "importance." You must be a regular Amazon.com customer, or be willing to sign up as one, in order to access the search-function images.[Amazon.com]

Excerpts from Flesh and the Word (1992). By John Preston. All of Preston's introductions in this anthology of gay erotic fiction are available in image form. (Caution: The cover shows erotic art.) To locate the pages, go to the "search inside this book" box and do keyword searches on "introduction," "part one," "part two," etc., in order to locate the page numbers. Then click on the page numbers to bring up the files. In some cases, you may need to follow the link labelled "next page" on the previous page. You must be a regular Amazon.com customer, or be willing to sign up as one, in order to access the images. Preston's writings appear on the following pages:
 

Introduction: My Life with Pornography. 1-13.
Part One: The Forebears. 17-19.
Part Two: The Sexual Grubb Street. 57-60.
Part Three: Women and Gay Men's Erotica. 171-172.
Part Four: The Sexual Underground. 215-216.
Part Five: In the Mainstream. 235-236.
Part Six: First Person, Nonfiction. 259-260.
Part Seven: Post-AIDS, Postpolitical. 285-287. [Amazon.com]

INTERVIEWS

A Dialogue with John Preston on AIDS, Sex, Death, and Illnesses of the Soul in the Gay Community (1990). By Rich Grzesiak. [Home Page]

EPHEMERA

This item is also linked from Topman's Timeline.

Preston learns of the death of his lover, Jason Klein (1981). By John W. Rowberry, Jason Klein, and John Preston. Three excerpts from Drummer. (Caution: The page includes sexual descriptions.) [Topman]

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This text, or a variation on it, was originally published at duskpeterson.com as part of Topman: Online Writings by and about John Preston. Copyright © 2004-5 Dusk Peterson. Some rights reserved. The text is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0). You may freely print, post, e-mail, share, or otherwise distribute the text for noncommercial purposes, provided that you include this paragraph. The author's policies on derivative works and fan works are available online (duskpeterson.com/copyright.htm).