In the Shadow of the Bridge

As a young man, celebrated author and playwright Joseph Caldwell arrived in downtown Manhattan from Milwaukee to become one of the original pioneers of New York's gay bohemian community. In this charming, brutally candid memoir, Caldwell describes his tenure working at the venerated classical music station WQXR, marching in civil protests and being arrested, his evolution as a writer, and his many accomplished acquaintances. Opening with a tender and intimate moment he shared with photographer William Gale Gedney on the Brooklyn Bridge in 1959, Caldwell charts the course of his quixotic pining for him across three decades. But by the early 1980s, the AIDS epidemic terrorizes New York, and the atmosphere of free love and sex is replaced by unrelenting fear. In a tragic twist of fate, Caldwell is finally reunited with Gedney to care for him as he is ravaged by the disease. "[Joseph Caldwell's] intimate portrait of gay life in New York City before Stonewall is an important addition to LGBTQ history." --