Virgilio Piñera Born August 4th

Virgilio Piñera was born in Cuba. Little about Piñera seems to be written in English. He was exiled in Buenos Aires and returned to Cuba in 1958 months before Castro came to power.

Salvador Novo Born July 30th

Referred to as Mexico's Oscar Wilde, Salvador Novo was born July 30th. Sadly, little about Novo seems to be written in English. There is the obligatory Wikipedia entry.

Tony Kushner Born July 16th

Tony Kushner, author of Angels In America, was born July 16th, 1956.

Jean Cocteau Born July 5th

Poet, playwright, author, and filmmaker, Cocteau was born July 5th, 1889 in Maison-Lafitte just outside of Paris. Cocteau was equally welcomed in aristocratic drawing rooms and seedy taverns.

Learn more about Cocteau at Gay For Today.

Donald Windham Born July 2nd

Author, playwright and best friend to Tennessee Williams, Donald Windham was born July 2nd, 1920 in Atlanta, GA.

Learn more about Windham at GLBTQ.

Frank O'Hara Born June 27th

Poet, playwright, art critic. Dead at the age of 40 in a freak accident after being hit by a man driving a speeding dune buggy on Fire Island in July 1966.

Read more about O'Hara at Gay For Today and GLBTQ.

Larry Kramer Born June 25th

Playwright, author, public health advocate, LGBT rights advocate, co-founder of Gay Men's Health Crisis organization, founder of ACT UP, provocateur.

John Wilmot Born on April 10th

John Wilmot, the second Earl of Rochester, was born on April 10th, 1644 at Ditchley Manor House in Oxfordshire, England. Wilmot is the epitome of a Restoration rake (or rakehell) who indulged in wine, women, and song, though in Wilmot's case, "any port in the storm" should be substituted for women. Wilmot is considered England's first pornographer and is reputedly the author of Sodom, or The Quintessence of Debauchery (1684), the first work to be censored in England. The play is alleged to have had a single performance before a private court audience. Wilmot's life served as the basis of The Libertine, a film from 2004 starring Johnny Depp.

Read more at Rictor Norton, the Diary of Samuel Pepys, and IMDB.

Tennessee Williams Born March 26th

Thomas Lanier Williams was born March 26th, 1911 in Columbus, Mississippi. His father Cornelius came from a prestigious Tennessee family which included the state's first governor and senator. Thomas was given the nickname "Tennessee" while being enrolled at the University of Iowa, and began to go by it when he moved to New Orleans. Williams is best known for writing the plays Cat On a Hot Tin Roof, A Streetcar Named Desire, and Night of the Iguana.

"All your Western theologies, the whole mythology of them, are based on the concept of God as a senile delinquent."







Read more at GLBTQ.

Doric Wilson Born February 24th

Time Magazine photo

Doric Wilson was born in Los Angeles. Wilson was a pioneer in the off off Broadway theater movement and one of the first resident playwrights of Cafe Cino, considered by many to be the original off off Broadway performance space. in 1974 Wilson, along with Billy Blackwell, Peter del Valle and John McSpadden, started  Tosos, a professional theater to overtly tackle gay experiences.

A Conversation with Edmund White and Doric Wilson
The Collected Plays of Doric Wilson