Although he had only written three books when he died in 1994 at age forty- two, Randy Shilts had already helped "set the standard" by which gay journalism is judged, according to Robert B. Marks Ridinger in Gay and Lesbian Literature. When Shilts...

Randy Shilts, journalist and author: born Davenport, Iowa 8 August 1951; died Guerneville, California 17 February 1994. TO "come out" and openly proclaim one's homosexual orientation in the provincial United States of 1970 was an act of brave defiance. Randy Shilts did so...

I still remember the terror in the pit of my stomach when "The Mayor of Castro Street," Randy Shilts's biography of slain and openly gay San Francisco supervisor Harvey Milk, was published in 1982. Randy - who died yesterday at 42 - and...

In June 1985, a centerpiece float in San Francisco's Gay Freedom Day Parade bore a giant mock tombstone shrouded in garlands. Solemn volunteers walked down Castro Street, handing out fistfuls of free condoms. Not long before, the parade had been an extravaganza replete with drag...

A well-known American novelist, historian, and critic, Wills is author of Nixon Agonistes: The Crisis of the Self-Made Man (1970), a study of Richard Nixon's political career. In the following interview, Shilts discusses his writing, personal life, and career.

Goldstein is an American editor and critic. In the following review of The Mayor of Castro Street, he commends Shilts's objectivity and directness in presenting the events of Harvey Milk's life and career.

In the following excerpt, Holt provides Shilts's comments on The Mayor of Castro Street and on events that preceded the book's publication.