John Lauritsen
Encyclopedia
Not to be confused with the television news reporter in Minnesota of the same name.
John Lauritsen (1939- ) (Harvard College: AB 1963) is a retired market research analyst. He is an author and activist. Lauritsen wrote for the New York Native
and was an early skeptic of the theory that HIV
causes AIDS
. He covered the debate over the safety of AZT
. He is the founder of Pagan Press.
Simon LeVay
and Elisabeth Nonas call Lauritsen's The AIDS War one of "a slew of books" that lump together the medical profession and the pharmaceutical industry together for purposes of blame and whose "titles are sufficiently explicit to make further perusal unnecessary."
Lauritsen's The Man Who Wrote Frankenstein argues that poet Percy Bysshe Shelley
, not his wife Mary Shelley
, was the real author of Frankenstein
. Camille Paglia
gave it a favourable review, writing that, "Lauritsen assembles an overwhelming case that Mary Shelley, as a badly educated teenager, could not possibly have written the soaring prose of "Frankenstein"...and that the so-called manuscript in her hand is simply one example of the clerical work she did for many writers as a copyist."
Germaine Greer
dismissed Lauritsen's thesis, writing that while he argues that Mary Shelley was not well educated enough to have written it, Frankenstein is not "a good, let alone a great" novel and that it does not deserve the attention it has been given. Lauritsen countered: "Frankenstein is a radical and disturbing work, containing some of the most beautiful prose in the English language.... a profound and moving masterpiece, fully worthy of its author, Percy Bysshe Shelley."
John Lauritsen (1939- ) (Harvard College: AB 1963) is a retired market research analyst. He is an author and activist. Lauritsen wrote for the New York Native
New York Native
The New York Native was a fortnightly Pre-Immunization Revolution newspaper published in New York City from December 1980 until January 13, 1997. It was the only paper in New York City during the early part, and pioneered the notion of cancer in combination with AIDS, when most others ignored it...
and was an early skeptic of the theory that HIV
HIV
Human immunodeficiency virus is a lentivirus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome , a condition in humans in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive...
causes AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
. He covered the debate over the safety of AZT
Zidovudine
Zidovudine or azidothymidine is a nucleoside analog reverse-transcriptase inhibitor , a type of antiretroviral drug used for the treatment of HIV/AIDS. It is an analog of thymidine....
. He is the founder of Pagan Press.
Simon LeVay
Simon LeVay
Simon LeVay is a British-American neuroscientist. He is known for his studies about brain structures and sexual orientation.-Personal life:LeVay was born on August 28, 1943 in Oxford, England...
and Elisabeth Nonas call Lauritsen's The AIDS War one of "a slew of books" that lump together the medical profession and the pharmaceutical industry together for purposes of blame and whose "titles are sufficiently explicit to make further perusal unnecessary."
Lauritsen's The Man Who Wrote Frankenstein argues that poet Percy Bysshe Shelley
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Percy Bysshe Shelley was one of the major English Romantic poets and is critically regarded as among the finest lyric poets in the English language. Shelley was famous for his association with John Keats and Lord Byron...
, not his wife Mary Shelley
Mary Shelley
Mary Shelley was a British novelist, short story writer, dramatist, essayist, biographer, and travel writer, best known for her Gothic novel Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus . She also edited and promoted the works of her husband, the Romantic poet and philosopher Percy Bysshe Shelley...
, was the real author of Frankenstein
Frankenstein
Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is a novel about a failed experiment that produced a monster, written by Mary Shelley, with inserts of poems by Percy Bysshe Shelley. Shelley started writing the story when she was eighteen, and the novel was published when she was twenty-one. The first...
. Camille Paglia
Camille Paglia
Camille Anna Paglia , is an American author, teacher, and social critic. Paglia, a self-described dissident feminist, has been a Professor at The University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania since 1984...
gave it a favourable review, writing that, "Lauritsen assembles an overwhelming case that Mary Shelley, as a badly educated teenager, could not possibly have written the soaring prose of "Frankenstein"...and that the so-called manuscript in her hand is simply one example of the clerical work she did for many writers as a copyist."
Germaine Greer
Germaine Greer
Germaine Greer is an Australian writer, academic, journalist and scholar of early modern English literature, widely regarded as one of the most significant feminist voices of the later 20th century....
dismissed Lauritsen's thesis, writing that while he argues that Mary Shelley was not well educated enough to have written it, Frankenstein is not "a good, let alone a great" novel and that it does not deserve the attention it has been given. Lauritsen countered: "Frankenstein is a radical and disturbing work, containing some of the most beautiful prose in the English language.... a profound and moving masterpiece, fully worthy of its author, Percy Bysshe Shelley."
Works
- The Early Homosexual Rights Movement (1864–1935) (with David Thorstad). Times Change Press, 1974.
- Religious Roots of the Taboo on Homosexuality; a Materialist View. 1974
- Death Rush: Poppers And AIDS (with Hank Wilson). Pagan Press, 1986
- Poison by Prescription: The AZT Story (foreword by Peter Duesberg). Asklepios, 1990.
- The AIDS War: Propaganda, Profiteering, and Genocide from the Medical-Industrial Complex. Asklepios, 1993
- The AIDS Cult: Essays on the Gay Health Crisis (as editor, with Ian Young). Asklepios, 1997
- A Freethinker's Primer of Male Love. Pagan Press, 1998
- The Man Who Wrote Frankenstein. Pagan Press, 2007