Felice Picano, "who in the 1970s and '80s helped usher in a golden age of gay literature as the author of groundbreaking novels and memoirs and as the publisher of dozens of books by gay writers," died March 12, the New York Times reported. He was 81.
Picano published 17 novels and eight volumes of memoirs. His first three books, including Eyes (1975), did not have gay themes or characters, but that changed with The Lure (1979) about a straight man who goes undercover in the gay world to help solve a murder. In 1995, he published an epic novel, Like People in History, which followed two cousins, one gay and one bisexual, from early childhood through middle age.
Picano was a member of the Violet Quill, "a group of seven gay male writers who met regularly in Manhattan and on Fire Island in the early 1980s to discuss their works in progress, at a time when gay literature was just entering the mainstream," the Times wrote. Two members of the group survive him: Andrew Holleran and Edmund White. The others--Christopher Cox, Robert Ferro, Michael Grumley, and George Whitmore--died of AIDS by 1990.
Picano's 1985 memoir, Ambidextrous: The Secret Lives of Children, included a teacher who brutalized him for writing with both hands, as well as his sexual encounters with both boys and girls, starting at age 11.
With Dr. Charles Silverstein (author, with Edmund White, of The Joy of Gay Sex in 1977), he wrote The New Joy of Gay Sex (1992) and The Joy of Gay Sex: Fully Revised and Expanded Third Edition (2003).
Picano established Sea Horse Press in 1977 to publish the work of other gay writers. In 1981, he co-founded Gay Presses of New York. Over 18 years, the two presses released 78 books, including Harvey Fierstein's Torch Song Trilogy, Dennis Cooper's Safe and Closer, and Brad Gooch's Jailbait and Other Stories. The companies also reissued older works.
After graduating from Queens College in 1964, Picano worked as a social worker, a magazine editor, an astrologer, and a bookseller at the Rizzoli bookstore on Fifth Avenue. "After leaving work, he would often write all night," the Times noted, adding that in addition to his books, he produced articles and reviews for many publications.
Of his fellow Violet Quill members, Picano recently observed: "We shared the hope that one day any lesbian or gay teenager could go into any bookstore or library and get a book about his or her own kind. Our dream has come true!"