Cherry Grove, Fire Island: Sixty Years in America's First Gay and Lesbian Town (1993)

by Esther Newton

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Esther Newton tells the story of Cherry Grove, the popular gay and lesbian resort community off of Long Island. Newton discusses the importance of camp, gay theater and the intersections of race, gender, class and sexuality in America's first gay and lesbian town.

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One of my favorite histories; anthropological and using significant oral history. A snapshot of gay/lesbian 20th century history, as well as a great history of 'place'. (

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lquilter | Sep 27, 2009 |

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Awards

Gustavus Myers Outstanding Book Award (1993)

Lambda Literary Award (Nominee – Gay Men's Studies – 1993)

Ruth Benedict Prize (Winner – 1994)

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Alternative titles

Original publication date

1993

People/Characters

Important places

Fire Island, New York, USA

Cherry Grove, New York, USA

Important events

Related movies

Epigraph

The coast is a blur and without meaning
The churches and routines
Which stopped there and never cared or dared to
  Cross over to interfere
With this outpost where nothing is wicked
  But to be sorry or sick

    — W. H. Auden, "Pleasure Island"

Ferry after ferry brings us in, candidates for sun, survivors,
Certain that this time it will be better,
That the most private heart,
Playing house in houses built on sand,
Will bear exposure and not be burnt.
  We need nothing.
  We know this world is miraculous.

     — Robert Adams, "The Island"

Dedication

This book is dedicated to
Amber Hollibaugh
for getting us to Cherry Grove,
and for many other reasons.

First words

I had decided to write about gay Cherry Grove several months before I met Kay in 1986, having become attached to the *place* - a resort community on Fire Island about forty-five miles east to New York City - during the previous summer. -Prologue

The first gay Grovers came of age in the 1920s and 1930s, when New York City became the undisputed cultural capital of the United States. -Chapter One, How the Grove Became Gay, 1936-1945

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Canonical DDC/MDS

305.90664

306.766309747

Canonical LCC

HQ75.6.U5

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▾Book descriptions

Esther Newton tells the story of Cherry Grove, the popular gay and lesbian resort community off of Long Island. Newton discusses the importance of camp, gay theater and the intersections of race, gender, class and sexuality in America's first gay and lesbian town.

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