RANDY SHILTS PAPERS 1955-1994 Collection number: GLC 43 The James C. Hormel LGBTQIA Center San Francisco Public Library 2018 Randy Shilts Papers GLC 43 p. 2 LGBTQIA Center, San Francisco Public Library TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction p. 3-4 Biography p. 5 Scope and Content p. 6 Series Description p. 7-8 Container Listing p. 9-63 Series 1: Personal Papers, 1965-1994 p. 9-12 Series 2: Professional Papers, 1975-1994 Series 2a: Journalism, 1975-1994 p. 13-25 Series 2b: Books, 1980-1994 p. 26-49 Series 3: General Subject / Research Files p. 50 Series 4: Gay Subject / Research Files p. 50 Series 4a: Gay by Date Series 4b: Gay Subject / Topic Files Series 5: AIDS Subject / Research Files, 1983-1994 Series 5a: AIDS by Date p. 50 Series 5b: AIDS Subject / Topic Files p. 50-53 Series 5c: Files collected by other people p. 54-55 Series 6: Photographs, Audiovisual Materials, 1940s-1994 p. 56-62 Series 7: Publications and Reports Series 8: Realia / Objects p. 63 Randy Shilts Papers GLC 43 p. 3 LGBTQIA Center, San Francisco Public Library INTRODUCTION Provenance The Randy Shilts Papers were donated to The San Francisco Public Library by the Estate of Randy Shilts in 1994. Access The collection is open for research and available in the San Francisco History Center on the 6th Floor of the Main Library. The hours are: Tues.-Thurs. 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Fri. 12 noon-6 p.m., Sat. 10 a.m.-6 p.m. and Sun. 12 noon-5 p.m. Publication Rights All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts should be addressed to Michael Denneny, Literary Executor, St. Martin’s Press, 175 – 5th Avenue, New York, NY, 10010. Collection Number GLC 43 Size ca. 120 cu. ft. Materials Stored Separately Photographs, slides and negatives are stored with the San Francisco History Center’s Historical Photograph Collection and are available on Tuesdays and Thursdays 1-5 p.m. and Saturdays 10 a.m.-noon, 1-5 p.m. Processed by Timothy T. Wilson Randy Shilts Papers GLC 43 p. 4 LGBTQIA Center, San Francisco Public Library Date Completed June 2005, box numbering revised 2016. Folder listing for Box 11 revised, 2018. Preferred Citation [Identification of item], Randy Shilts Papers (GLC 43), LGBTQIA Center, San Francisco Public Library, San Francisco, CA. Conservation Note During processing, the entire collection was refoldered and re-housed in acid-free folders and boxes. All metal fasteners were removed and replaced with plastic clips where necessary. Many brittle and torn items have been photocopied onto Permalife bond paper. Randy Shilts Papers GLC 43 p. 5 LGBTQIA Center, San Francisco Public Library BIOGRAPHY Randy Shilts (August 8, 1951 – February 17, 1994) was an openly gay reporter and author whose journalism and books documented significant gay and lesbian issues. His books were The Mayor of Castro Street: the life and times of Harvey Milk (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1982), And The Band Played On: politics, people, and the AIDS epidemic (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1987), and Conduct Unbecoming: gays and lesbians in the U. S. military, Vietnam to the Persian Gulf (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1993). Randy Shilts was born on 8 August 1951, in Davenport, Iowa. His father was Bud Shilts, a salesman, and his mother was Norma Shilts, a homemaker. Randy attended Portland Community College in Portland, Oregon, and completed his education at the University of Oregon in Eugene, majoring first in English and later in journalism. He received his B.S. degree in 1975. He was the managing editor of the campus newspaper and became the head of the Eugene Gay People’s Alliance. After graduation, Shilts became the Northwest correspondent for the Advocate, a gay publication; he moved to San Francisco shortly thereafter. He resigned from the Advocate in 1978. Shilts, meanwhile, contributed freelance reports about San Francisco’s burgeoning homosexual community and about local politics to the city’s public television station, KQED, from 1977 to 1980, and to Oakland’s independent station, KTVU, from 1979 to 1980. The income from these reports enabled him to commence an extensive career as a freelance writer on gay and lesbian issues for several major American newspapers and magazines. His first book, The Mayor of Castro Street: the life and times of Harvey Milk (St. Martin’s, 1982), intertwined the story of the slain gay leader with the emergence of gay political power in San Francisco in the 1970s. The San Francisco Chronicle hired Shilts as a staff reporter in 1981, making him the first openly gay journalist to write for a major daily newspaper. Initially assigned to cover the gay community, his articles about an alarming new disease striking gay men were among the first reports on AIDS in the mainstream press. His extensive research on AIDS resulted in his groundbreaking And The Band Played On: politics, people, and the AIDS epidemic (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1987). Shilts’ final book, Conduct Unbecoming: Gays and Lesbians in the U.S. Military, Vietnam to the Persian Gulf (St. Martin’s, 1993), was an exhaustive history of an explosive public issue at the time of its publication. It exposed the military’s homophobia and hypocrisy, documenting its selective enforcement of its ban on homosexuals in its ranks. Shilts developed full-blown AIDS in 1992. On Memorial Day 1993, he participated in a commitment ceremony with his lover, Barry Barbieri, a film student. Randy Shilts died from AIDS on February 17, 1994, at his ten-acre ranch along the Russian River in Guerneville, California. Randy Shilts Papers GLC 43 p. 6 LGBTQIA Center, San Francisco Public Library SCOPE AND CONTENT The collection contains the personal and professional papers of Randy Shilts. The personal papers include correspondence and high school and college materials. The professional papers and research series comprise the bulk of the collection. The professional papers include drafts of writings for his books and journalism, as well as correspondence relating to the same. Most of this material documents important issues for the gay and lesbian population—from gays in the military, to AIDS and the public response to the epidemic, to the rise of the gay and lesbian movement in San Francisco. The bulk of the collection consists of about 80 cubic feet of newspaper and magazine clippings documenting GLBT and AIDS coverage by the major print media. This portion of the collection spans 20 years and contains a wealth of references to gay and lesbian issues of the time. The audiovisual materials include photographs, and audio- and videotapes of interviews by and of Shilts. ARRANGEMENT NOTE The material has been arranged into eight series: Personal Papers, Professional Papers, General Subject Files, Gay Subject/Research Files, AIDS Subject/Research Files, Audio-Visual Materials, Publications and Reports, Realia. Most series are arranged alphabetically by folder title, and materials are filed chronologically within each folder; the bulk of the research files are organized chronologically with some additional folders that are arranged by folder title. Randy Shilts Papers GLC 43 p. 7 LGBTQIA Center, San Francisco Public Library SERIES DESCRIPTIONS SERIES 1: RANDY SHILTS PERSONAL PAPERS, 1965-1994. 10 cu. ft. Arranged by format and then alphabetically by folder title. This series contains correspondence, a few diaries, high school and college related material, and newspaper clippings and other ephemera about Shilts. Personal correspondence includes letters to and from his family members. There are two diaries that cover the 1970s into the 1980s with entries that jump several years at a time. One of them begins with his brief account of Harvey Milk’s historic walk down Market Street on the day of his swearing in for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. There are several notebooks and college papers from The University of Oregon. Photographs have been separated out and placed in Series 6. SERIES 2: RANDY SHILTS PROFESSIONAL PAPERS, 1973-1994. 49 cu. ft. a. Journalism, 1975-1994 (10 cu. ft.) organized chronologically, this series contains notes, draft stories, by-lines and interviews for stories for The Advocate, The San Francisco Chronicle, and KQED and KTVU television stations. These story files cover a broad spectrum of interests from changes in San Francisco’s voting districts to MUNI reforms, as well as many issues of importance to the gay and lesbian community such as anti-gay violence, gay rights, and Anita Bryant’s campaign to Save America’s Children. Since the files are arranged chronologically, they illustrate which topics captured local and national interest by month and year. b. Books, 1973-1994 (39 cu. ft.) organized chronologically by book. This series contains research notes, drafts and correspondence relating his three published books: The Times of Harvey Milk (1982), And the Band Played On (1987), and Conduct Unbecoming (1993). The Times of Harvey Milk section is the smallest of the three and contains handwritten interview notes with several people close to Milk, drafts, and corrections. It also includes correspondence and drafts of screenplays of the book. And the Band Played On materials are primarily drafts and correspondence with the larger section of research files handled separately as Series 4 AIDS Research files. There are no interview files or audiotapes for this book. The Conduct Unbecoming materials include interviews with servicemen and women, as well as drafts, research files and correspondence. The Conduct Unbecoming interview files contain the interviewer’s notes, the audiocassette tapes, and occasionally transcriptions. SERIES 4: GENERAL SUBJECT/RESEARCH FILES Arranged alphabetically by title. This series contains newspaper clippings, magazine articles, photocopies of short papers and scattered correspondence on variety of general topics.