Arthur Evans (author)
Encyclopedia
- For other persons named Arthur Evans, see Arthur Evans (disambiguation)Arthur Evans (disambiguation)Arthur Evans may refer to:*Arthur Evans Moule , English missionary to China*Arthur John Evans , British archaeologist*Arthur Grant Evans , American university administrator, second president of the University of Oklahoma...
.
Arthur Scott Evans (October 12, 1942, York, Pennsylvania
York, Pennsylvania
York, known as the White Rose City , is a city located in York County, Pennsylvania, United States which is in the South Central region of the state. The population within the city limits was 43,718 at the 2010 census, which was a 7.0% increase from the 2000 count of 40,862...
– September 11, 2011, San Francisco, California
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
) was an early gay rights advocate and author, most well known for his 1978 book
1978 in literature
The year 1978 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*The Bookseller/Diagram Prize for Oddest Title of the Year, a humorous award given annually to books with unusual titles is created. The first winner was Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Nude...
Witchcraft and the Gay Counterculture.
Early life
When Evans graduated from public high school in 1960, he received a four-year scholarship from the Glatfelter Paper CompanyGlatfelter
Glatfelter is a global manufacturer of specialty papers and engineered products, headquartered in York, Pennsylvania. U.S. operations include papermaking facilities in Spring Grove, Pennsylvania, and Chillicothe and Fremont, Ohio...
in York to study chemistry at Brown University
Brown University
Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...
. While at Brown, Evans and several friends founded the Brown Freethinkers Society, describing themselves as "militant atheists
Atheism
Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities...
" seeking to combat the harmful effects of organized religion.
The society picketed the weekly chapel services at Brown, then required of all students, and urged students to stand in silent protest against compulsory prayer. National news services picked up the story, which appeared in a local York newspaper.
As a result, the paper company informed Evans that his scholarship was cancelled. Evans contacted Joseph Lewis, the elderly millionaire who headed the national Freethinkers Society. Lewis threatened the paper company with a highly publicized lawsuit if the scholarship were revoked. The company relented, the scholarship continued, and Evans changed his major from chemistry to political science.
Move to New York City
Evans withdrew from Brown and moved to Greenwich VillageGreenwich Village
Greenwich Village, , , , .in New York often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families...
, which he later described it as the best move he ever made in his life.
In 1963, Evans discovered gay life in Greenwich Village, and in 1964 became lovers with Arthur Bell
Arthur Bell (journalist)
Arthur Bell was a journalist, author and LGBT rights activist.Bell, an early member of the Gay Liberation Front and a founding member of the Gay Activists Alliance in New York City, wrote two books. Dancing the Gay Lib Blues was published in 1971 and he published Kings Don't Mean a Thing in 1978...
who later became a columnist for The Village Voice
The Village Voice
The Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper and news and features website in New York City that features investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts and music coverage, and events listings for New York City...
. In 1966, Evans was admitted to City College of New York
City College of New York
The City College of the City University of New York is a senior college of the City University of New York , in New York City. It is also the oldest of the City University's twenty-three institutions of higher learning...
, which accepted all his credits from Brown University.
Evans participated in his first sit-in on May 13, 1966, when students occupied the administration building of City College in protest against the college's involvement in Selective Service. A picture of the students, including Evans, appeared the next day on the front page of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
.
In 1967, after graduating with a BA degree from City College, Evans was admitted into the doctoral program in philosophy at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
, specializing in ancient Greek philosophy. His doctoral advisor was Paul Oskar Kristeller
Paul Oskar Kristeller
Paul Oskar Kristeller was an important scholar of Renaissance humanism. He was awarded the Haskins Medal in 1992. He was last active as Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Columbia University in New York, where he mentored both Irving Louis Horowitz and A...
, one of the world’s leading authority on Renaissance humanist philosophy. Kristeller had studied under Karl Jaspers
Karl Jaspers
Karl Theodor Jaspers was a German psychiatrist and philosopher who had a strong influence on modern theology, psychiatry and philosophy. After being trained in and practicing psychiatry, Jaspers turned to philosophical inquiry and attempted to discover an innovative philosophical system...
and Martin Heidegger
Martin Heidegger
Martin Heidegger was a German philosopher known for his existential and phenomenological explorations of the "question of Being."...
in Germany but fled to the US after his parents were killed in the Holocaust.
Evans participated in many anti-war protests during these years, including the celebrated upheaval at Columbia in the spring of 1968. He also participated in the protests at the 1968 Democratic National Convention
1968 Democratic National Convention
The 1968 Democratic National Convention of the U.S. Democratic Party was held at the International Amphitheatre in Chicago, Illinois, from August 26 to August 29, 1968. Because Democratic President Lyndon Johnson had announced he would not seek a second term, the purpose of the convention was to...
in Chicago. While at Columbia, Evans joined the Student Homophile League
Columbia Queer Alliance
Columbia Queer Alliance is the central Columbia University student organization that representing lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning LGBTQ students...
, founded by Nino Romano and Stephen Donaldson, although Evans himself was still closeted. On December 21, 1969, Evans, Marty Robinson, and several others met to found the early gay rights group Gay Activists Alliance.
In November 1970, Robinson and Evans, along with Dick Leitsch of the Mattachine Society
Mattachine Society
The Mattachine Society, founded in 1950, was one of the earliest homophile organizations in the United States, probably second only to Chicago’s Society for Human Rights . Harry Hay and a group of Los Angeles male friends formed the group to protect and improve the rights of homosexuals...
, appeared on The Dick Cavett Show
The Dick Cavett Show
The Dick Cavett Show has been the title of several talk shows hosted by Dick Cavett on various television networks, including:* ABC daytime ...
, making them among the first openly gay activists to be prominently featured on a national TV program. In 1971, Evans and Bell separated. Bell died from complications of diabetes in 1984.
Move to Washington
By the end of 1971, Evans had become alienated from urban life and the academic world. With a second lover, Jacob Schraeter, he left New York in April 1972 to seek a new, countercultural existence in the countryside.Evans, Schraeter, and a third gay man formed a group called the "Weird Sisters Partnership". They bought a 40-acre spread of land on a mountain in Washington State, which they named New Sodom
Sodom and Gomorrah
Sodom and Gomorrah were cities mentioned in the Book of Genesis and later expounded upon throughout the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament and Deuterocanonical sources....
. Evans and Schraeter lived there in tents during summers.
During winter months in Seattle, Evans continued research that he had begun in New York on the underlying historical origins of the counterculture, particularly in regard to sex. In 1973, he began publishing some of his findings in the gay journal Out
Out (magazine)
Out is a popular gay and lesbian fashion, entertainment, and lifestyle magazine, with the highest circulation of any gay monthly publication in the United States. It carries itself in a similar editorial manner to Details, Esquire, and GQ. Out was published by PlanetOut Inc...
and later in Fag Rag. He also wrote a column on the political strategy of zapping for The Advocate
The Advocate
The Advocate is an American LGBT-interest magazine, printed monthly and available by subscription. The Advocate brand also includes a web site. Both magazine and web site have an editorial focus on news, politics, opinion, and arts and entertainment of interest to LGBT people...
, the gay newspaper.
Move to San Francisco
In 1974, Evans and Schraeter moved into an apartment at the corner of Haight and Ashbury Streets in San Francisco, in which Evans remained until he died. Schraeter returned to New York in 1981 and died from AIDS in 1989.In the fall of the 1975, Evans formed a new pagan-inspired spiritual group in San Francisco, the Faery Circle. The Circle combined countercultural consciousness, gay sensibility, and ceremonial playfulness.
In early 1976 he gave a series of public lectures based on his research on the historical origins of the gay counterculture; these "Faeries" lectures took place at 32 Page Street, an early San Francisco gay community center. In 1978 he published this material in his groundbreaking book Witchcraft and the Gay Counterculture. The book offered evidence that many of the people accused of "witchcraft" and "heresy" in the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
and the Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
were actually persecuted because of their sexuality and ancient pagan
Paganism
Paganism is a blanket term, typically used to refer to non-Abrahamic, indigenous polytheistic religious traditions....
practices.
Evans also was active in Bay Area Gay Liberation (BAGL) and the San Francisco Gay Democratic Club, which later became the vehicle through which Harvey Milk
Harvey Milk
Harvey Bernard Milk was an American politician who became the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California when he won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors...
rose to political prominence.
In the late 1970s, Evans became upset at the pattern of butch conformity that was then overtaking gay men in the Castro neighborhood. Adopting the nom de plume
Pen name
A pen name, nom de plume, or literary double, is a pseudonym adopted by an author. A pen name may be used to make the author's name more distinctive, to disguise his or her gender, to distance an author from some or all of his or her works, to protect the author from retribution for his or her...
"The Red Queen", he distributed a series of controversial satirical leaflets on the subject. In a leaflet titled Afraid You’re Not Butch Enough? (1978) he skewered those who pursued hypermasculine
Hypermasculinity
Hypermasculinity is a psychological term for the exaggeration of male stereotypical behavior, such as an emphasis on physical strength, aggression, body hair, body odor, and virility. This term can be pejorative, though it is also used when examining the behavior dispassionately.One of the first...
bodies and wardrobes as "zombies" and "clones", presaging the "Castro clone" moniker.
Later writings and activism
In 1984 Evans directed a production at the Valencia Rose Cabaret in San Francisco of his own new translation, from ancient GreekAncient Greek
Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...
, of the Euripides
Euripides
Euripides was one of the three great tragedians of classical Athens, the other two being Aeschylus and Sophocles. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to him but according to the Suda it was ninety-two at most...
play The Bacchae
The Bacchae
The Bacchae is an ancient Greek tragedy by the Athenian playwright Euripides, during his final years in Macedon, at the court of Archelaus I of Macedon. It premiered posthumously at the Theatre of Dionysus in 405 BC as part of a tetralogy that also included Iphigeneia at Aulis, and which...
. The hero of Euripides' play is the Greek god Dionysos, the patron of homosexuality. In 1988, this translation, with Evans' commentary on the historical significance of the play, was published by St. Martin’s Press as The God of Ecstasy: Sex-Roles and the Madness of Dionysos.
As AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
began to spread in 1980s, Evans became active in several groups that later became ACT UP/SF. Evans was HIV-negative. With his close friend, the late Hank Wilson
Hank Wilson
Henry "Hank" Wilson was a longtime San Francisco LGBT rights activist and long term AIDS activist and survivor. The Bay Area Reporter noted that for "over more than 30 years, he played a pivotal role in San Francisco's LGBT history." He grew up in Sacramento, and graduated with a B.A...
, Evans was arrested while demonstrating against pharmaceutical companies making AIDS drugs, accusing the companies of price-gouging.
In 1988, Evans began work on a nine-year project on philosophy. Thanks to a grant from the San Francisco Arts Commission
San Francisco Arts Commission
The San Francisco Arts Commission is the official San Francisco County, USA arts council.The San Francisco Arts Commission It was established in 1932 and runs under the California state arts council, the California Arts Council . The commission is appointed by the major...
, it was published in 1997 as Critique of Patriarchal Reason and included artwork by San Francisco artist Frank Pietronigro
Frank Pietronigro
Frank Pietronigro is an interdisciplinary artist, educator and author.-Arts, cultural and humanities in space:Frank is the first American artist to create "drift paintings" where his body floated within a three-dimensional painting that he created in zero gravity aboard NASA's KC135 aircraft.On...
. The book is an overview of Western philosophy from ancient times to the present, showing how misogyny
Misogyny
Misogyny is the hatred or dislike of women or girls. Philogyny, meaning fondness, love or admiration towards women, is the antonym of misogyny. The term misandry is the term for men that is parallel to misogyny...
and homophobia
Homophobia
Homophobia is a term used to refer to a range of negative attitudes and feelings towards lesbian, gay and in some cases bisexual, transgender people and behavior, although these are usually covered under other terms such as biphobia and transphobia. Definitions refer to irrational fear, with the...
have influenced the supposedly objective fields of formal logic
Formal logic
Classical or traditional system of determining the validity or invalidity of a conclusion deduced from two or more statements...
, higher mathematics, and physical science
Physical science
Physical science is an encompassing term for the branches of natural science and science that study non-living systems, in contrast to the life sciences...
. Evans' former advisor at Columbia University, Dr. Kristeller, called the work "a major contribution to the study of philosophy and its history."
In his later years, Evans devoted much time to improving neighborhood safety in the Haight-Ashbury district. As part of that effort he wrote a series of scathing reports, "What I Saw at the Supes
San Francisco Board of Supervisors
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors is the legislative body within the government of the City and County of San Francisco, California, United States.-Government and politics:...
Today", which he distributed free on the Internet.
Death
Diagnosed in October 2010 with an aortic aneurysmAortic aneurysm
An aortic aneurysm is a general term for any swelling of the aorta to greater than 1.5 times normal, usually representing an underlying weakness in the wall of the aorta at that location...
, Evans died in his Haight-Ashbury apartment of a massive heart attack on September 11, 2011.