WILLIAM J. MANN

He
worked as a journalist at Metroline magazine, New England's oldest gay
publication, from 1992 to 1995. Mann published his first novel, The Men
From the Boys, in 1997, and continued with a series of books set in
Provincetown, although he has also set his fiction in Palm Springs and
Los Angeles.

This is the ninety-third post in a series
highlighting the best gay and lesbian authors from the 20th century
(with a few before and after that period) who have recorded in fiction,
and nonfiction, the history of gay people telling what life is, and was,
during an important time of history.

William
J. Mann is an American novelist, biographer, and Hollywood historian
best known for his biography of Katharine Hepburn, Kate: The Woman Who
Was Hepburn (2006). Kate was declared the "definitive" work about
Hepburn by The Sunday Times and was named one of the 100 Notable Books
of 2006 by The New York Times.

Mann
was born in Connecticut and, after working briefly as a Capitol Hill
aide, received his Master's degree at Wesleyan University. He worked as a
journalist at Metroline magazine, New England's oldest gay publication,
from 1992 to 1995. Mann published his first novel, The Men From the
Boys, in 1997, and continued with a series of books set in Provincetown,
although he has also set his fiction in Palm Springs and Los Angeles.
In addition, Mann has written the nonfiction books Wisecracker (1998), a
biography of film star William Haines, for which he won the Lambda
Literary Award, Behind the Screen: How Gays and Lesbians Shaped
Hollywood (2001), and Edge of Midnight: The Life of John Schlesinger
(2005).

Mann's most recent biography, How to Be a Movie Star:
Elizabeth Taylor in Hollywood, was published by Houghton Mifflin on
October 1, 2009. "Reading this life is like gorging on a chocolate
sundae," Publishers Weekly wrote of the book. In 2009 Mann also
published a novel, Object of Desire, about which Instinct Magazine said,
"Mann's writing is smart, aware and cognizant enough to take a
well-practiced theme and give it a shot in the arm."

Bibliography

Non-fiction
Wisecracker: The Life and Times of William Haines (1998)
Behind the Screen: How Gays and Lesbians Shaped Hollywood (2001)
Edge of Midnight: The Life of John Schlesinger (2005)
Kate: The Woman Who Was Hepburn (2006)
How to Be a Movie Star: Elizabeth Taylor in Hollywood (2009)

Fiction
The Men From the Boys (1997)
The Biograph Girl (2000)
Where the Boys Are (2003)
All American Boy (2005)
Object of Desire (2009)