Armistead Maupin

The fifth novel in the beloved Tales of the City series, Armistead Maupin’s best-selling San Francisco saga.‘Some of the sharpest and most speakable dialogue you are ever likely to read’ Guardian____________________Tranquillity reigns in the ancient redwood forest until a women-only music festival sets up camp downriver from an all-male retreat for the ruling class. Among those entangled in the ensuing mayhem are a lovesick nurseryman, a panic-stricken philanderer, and the world’s most beautiful fat woman. Significant Others is Armistead Maupin’s cunningly observed meditation on marriage, friendship and sexual nostalgia. Hurdling barriers both social and sexual, Maupin leads the eccentric tenants of Barbary Lane through heartbreak and triumph, through nail-biting terrors and gleeful coincidences in 1980s San Francisco. The result is a glittering and addictive comedy of manners that continues to beguile new generations of readers.

The eighth novel in the beloved Tales of the City series, Armistead Maupin’s best-selling San Francisco saga.'Perhaps the most sublime piece of popular literature America has ever produced’ Salon____________________A touching portrait of friendship, family, and fresh starts, the City by the Bay welcomes back Mary Ann Singleton, the beloved Tales of the City heroine who started it all. A new chapter begins in the lives of both Mary Ann and Michael ‘Mouse’ Tolliver when she returns to San Francisco to rejoin her oldest friend after years in New York City… the reunion that fans of Maupin’s beloved Tales of the City series have been awaiting for years. Hurdling barriers both social and sexual, Maupin leads the eccentric tenants of Barbary Lane through heartbreak and triumph, through nail-biting terrors and gleeful coincidences in a sexually-liberated San Francisco. The result is a glittering and addictive comedy of manners that continues to beguile new generations of readers.

The ninth novel in the beloved Tales of the City series, Armistead Maupin’s best-selling San Francisco saga.'Wonderful. . . . As compulsively readable and endearing as all the previous novels have been’ Booklist (starred review)____________________Now ninety-two, Mrs. Madrigal has seemingly found peace with her ‘logical family’ in San Francisco. Some members of that family are bound for the otherworldly landscape of Burning Man, the art community in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert but Anna has another destination in mind: a lonely stretch of road outside of Winnemucca where the 16-year-old boy she once was ran away from the whorehouse he called home. There she journeys into the dusty troubled heart of her Depression childhood to unearth a lifetime of secrets and dreams and attend to some unfinished business she has long avoided. Hurdling barriers both social and sexual, Maupin leads the eccentric tenants of Barbary Lane through heartbreak and triumph, through nail-biting terrors and gleeful coincidences in a sexually-liberated San Francisco. The result is a glittering and addictive comedy of manners that continues to beguile new generations of readers.

The seventh novel in the beloved Tales of the City series, Armistead Maupin’s best-selling San Francisco saga.'Tender-hearted and frolicsome… A tale of long-lost friends and unrealised dreams, of fear and regret, of penance and redemption, and of the unshakeable sense that this world we love, this life we live, this drama on which we all play, does indeed go by much too fast’ New York Times____________________Nearly two decades after ending his iconic Tales of the City saga of San Francisco life, Armistead Maupin revisits his all-too-human hero Michael Tolliver—the fifty-five-year-old sweet-spirited gardener and survivor of the plague that took so many of his friends and lovers—for a single day at once mundane and extraordinary... and filled with the everyday miracles of living. Hurdling barriers both social and sexual, Maupin leads the eccentric tenants of Barbary Lane through heartbreak and triumph, through nail-biting terrors and gleeful coincidences in a sexually-liberated San Francisco. The result is a glittering and addictive comedy of manners that continues to beguile new generations of readers.

The fourth novel in the beloved Tales of the City series, Armistead Maupin’s best-selling San Francisco saga.‘A consummate entertainer who has made a generation laugh.... It is Maupin's Dickensian gift to be able to render love convincingly’ Edmund White, Times Literary Supplement____________________When an ordinary househusband and his ambitious wife decide to start a family, they discover there’s more to making a baby than meets the eye. Help arrives in the form of a grieving gay neighbour, a visiting monarch, and the dashing young lieutenant who defects from her yacht. Bittersweet and profoundly affecting, Babycakes was the first piece of fiction to acknowledge the arrival of AIDS. Hurdling barriers both social and sexual, Maupin leads the eccentric tenants of Barbary Lane through heartbreak and triumph, through nail-biting terrors and gleeful coincidences in 1970s San Francisco. The result is a glittering and addictive comedy of manners that continues to beguile new generations of readers.

The third novel in the beloved Tales of the City series, Armistead Maupin’s best-selling San Francisco saga.‘An enormously talented writer… By writing about what's seemingly different Armistead Maupin always manages to capture what's so hilariously painfully true for all of us’ Amy Tan____________________The calamity-prone residents of 28 Barbary Lane are at it again in this deliciously dark novel of romance and betrayal. While Anna Madrigal imprisons an anchor-woman in her basement, Michael Tolliver looks for love at the National Gay Rodeo, DeDe Halcyon Day and Mary Ann Singleton track a charismatic psychopath across Alaska, and society columnist Prue Giroux loses her heart to a derelict living in a San Francisco park. Hurdling barriers both social and sexual, Maupin leads the eccentric tenants of Barbary Lane through heartbreak and triumph, through nail-biting terrors and gleeful coincidences in 1970s San Francisco. The result is a glittering and addictive comedy of manners that continues to beguile new generations of readers.

The first novel in the beloved Tales of the City series, Armistead Maupin’s best-selling San Francisco saga, is an uproariously moving novel and an indelible portrait of cultural change from the seventies. Named as one of the BBC’s 100 Most Inspiring Novels, a PBS Great American Read Top 100 Pick and Britain’s favourite gay/lesbian novel from The Big Gay Read____________________Originally serialised in the San Francisco Chronicle in the 1970s, Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City afforded a mainstream audience of millions its first exposure to straight and gay characters experiencing on equal terms the follies of urban life. Among the cast of this ground-breaking saga are the lovelorn residents of 28 Barbary Lane: the bewildered but aspiring Mary Ann Singleton, the libidinous Brian Hawkins; Mona Ramsey, still in a sixties trance, Michael 'Mouse' Tolliver, forever in bright-eyed pursuit of Mr. Right; and their marijuana-growing landlady, the indefatigable Mrs. Madrigal. Hurdling barriers both social and sexual, Maupin leads them through heartbreak and triumph, through nail-biting terrors and gleeful coincidences. The result is a glittering and addictive comedy of manners that continues to beguile new generations of readers.

The tenth novel in the beloved Tales of the City series, Armistead Maupin's best-selling San Francisco saga.____________________When Mona Ramsey married Lord Teddy Roughton to secure his visa-allowing him to remain in San Francisco to fulfil his wildest dreams-she never imagined she would, by age 48, be the sole owner of Easley House, a romantic country manor in the UK. Now, with her adopted son, Wilfred, Mona has opened Easley's doors to paying guests to keep her inherited English manor afloat. As they welcome a married American couple to Easley, Mona and Wilfred discover their new guests' terrible secret. Instead of focussing on the imminent arrival of old friend Michael Tolliver and matriarch Anna Madrigal, Mona will need to use her considerable charm, willpower and wiles to set things right before Easley's historic Midsummer ceremony. For almost four decades Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City series has blazed its own trail through popular culture?from ground-breaking newspaper serials turned into ten classic novels, to a television event that entranced millions around the world. The denizens of the mythic apartment house at 28 Barbary Lane dazzle in these sparkling, indelibly comedic portraits of an era that changed forever the way we live.

The second novel in the beloved Tales of the City series, Armistead Maupin’s best-selling San Francisco saga.‘Entertains, illuminates… A cultural touchstone that has enlarged our understanding of the varieties of human behavior’ Washington Post____________________The tenants of 28 Barbary Lane have fled their cosy nest for adventures far afield. Mary Ann Singleton finds love at sea with a forgetful stranger, Mona Ramsey discovers her doppelgänger in a desert whorehouse, and Michael Tolliver bumps into his favourite gynaecologist in a Mexican bar. Meanwhile, their venerable landlady takes the biggest journey of all—without ever leaving home. Hurdling barriers both social and sexual, Maupin leads the eccentric tenants of Barbary Lane through heartbreak and triumph, through nail-biting terrors and gleeful coincidences in 1970s San Francisco. The result is a glittering and addictive comedy of manners that continues to beguile new generations of readers.

Set in the early 1990s, the long-awaited tenth novel in Armistead Maupin's beloved and enduring Tales of the City series follows the adventures of Mona Ramsey, now the widowed Lady of a glorious old manor in Britain's golden Cotswolds, and her fabulous adopted son Wilfred, as they come to the aid of an American visitor with a troubling secret. When Mona Ramsey married Lord Teddy Roughton to secure his visa--allowing him to remain in San Francisco to fulfill his wildest dreams--she never imagined she would, by age 48, be the sole owner of Easley House, Teddy's grand, romantic country manor in the UK. She also didn't imagine that she'd need to open the manor's doors to paying guests to afford the electric bill and repair the leaking roof. Yet somehow she and her young friend Wilfred--whom guests assume is serving as Easley's charming-but-clumsy butler--and the loopy old gardener Mr. Hargis, are making it work. This delicate equilibrium is upended when Americans Rhonda and Ernie Blaylock arrive for a weekend vacation at Easley, and Wilfred stumbles onto their terrible secret. Now, instead of being able to focus on the imminent arrival of her old friend Michael Tolliver and beloved parent Anna Madrigal, Mona will need to focus all of her considerable charm, willpower, and wiles--and the help of Wilfred and Mona's girlfriend Poppy, the town's postmistress and local calligraphy whiz--to set things right before the Midsummer ceremony when the whole town will descend on Easley's historic grounds.

A CLASSIC OF LGBTQ LITERATURE THAT HAS BECOME A CULT SENSATION! San Francisco, late 1970s. At 28 Barbary Lane, Anna Madrigal runs a boarding house. She welcomes people who have nowhere else to go: the misfits. This matriarch is known for her unending kindness and her superb marijuana crop. Enter Mary Ann Singleton, a prudish, naïve, young woman who escaped her dull Ohio hometown for San Francisco. She settles in with her other fellow tenants: Michael “Mouse,” a personable young gay man, Brian Hawkins, an incorrigible Don Juan, and Mona Ramsey, a young hippyish bisexual. Little does the group know that they will soon form a dear family together. This is the beginning of a humorous, heartfelt saga, between the summer of love and the appearance of AIDS, in the city of sexual freedom! THE HEROES OF THIS ENCHANTING GROUP HAVE BEEN ENJOYED BY MILLIONS OF READERS WORLDWIDE! The novels have been translated into 10 languages and sold over 6 million copies. The title has been adapted on TV (BBC), Limited Series (Netflix), Theater...and now in graphic novel form for the first time.

"I fell in love with Maupin's effervescent Tales of the City decades ago, and his genius turn at memoir is no less compelling. Logical Family is a must read."--Mary KarrIn this long-awaited memoir, the beloved author of the bestselling Tales of the City series chronicles his odyssey from the old South to freewheeling San Francisco, and his evolution from curious youth to ground-breaking writer and gay rights pioneer. Born in the mid-twentieth century and raised in the heart of conservative North Carolina, Armistead Maupin lost his virginity to another man "on the very spot where the first shots of the Civil War were fired." Realizing that the South was too small for him, this son of a traditional lawyer packed his earthly belongings into his Opel GT (including a beloved portrait of a Confederate ancestor), and took to the road in search of adventure. It was a journey that would lead him from a homoerotic Navy initiation ceremony in the jungles of Vietnam to that strangest of strange lands: San Francisco in the early 1970s. Reflecting on the profound impact those closest to him have had on his life, Maupin shares his candid search for his "logical family," the people he could call his own. "Sooner or later, we have to venture beyond our biological family to find our logical one, the one that actually makes sense for us," he writes. "We have to, if we are to live without squandering our lives." From his loving relationship with his palm-reading Grannie who insisted Maupin was the reincarnation of her artistic bachelor cousin, Curtis, to an awkward conversation about girls with President Richard Nixon in the Oval Office, Maupin tells of the extraordinary individuals and situations that shaped him into one of the most influential writers of the last century. Maupin recalls his losses and life-changing experiences with humor and unflinching honesty, and brings to life flesh-and-blood characters as endearing and unforgettable as the vivid, fraught men and women who populate his enchanting novels. What emerges is an illuminating portrait of the man who depicted the liberation and evolution of America's queer community over the last four decades with honesty and compassion--and inspired millions to claim their own lives. Logical Family includes black-and-white photographs.

In this funny, poignant and unflinchingly honest memoir, one of the worldâ??s best-loved storytellers explains how he evolved from a conservative son of the Old South into a gay rights pioneer whose novels inspired millions to claim their own lives.

"These final days of his San Francisco friends and lovers, gay and straight, are seriously moving. . . . Maupin deftly illustrates how far America and the pioneering Anna have come, and nearly forty years into the series, his writing remains wildly addictive but is deeper and richer."--PeopleBy turns hilarious and heartbreaking, Armistead Maupin's bestselling Tales of the City novels--books 7, 8 and 9 collected in this third omnibus volume--stand as an incomparable blend of great storytelling and incisive social commentary on American culture from the seventies through the first two decades of the new millennium. Maupin's bestselling epic series spans the decade before the AIDS crisis through the era of marriage equality, and follows an unforgettable cast of characters whose diverse sexual identities helped set the social stage for the ongoing sexual revolution. Goodbye Barbary Lane--comprised of Michael Tolliver Lives, Mary Ann in Autumn, and The Days of Anna Madrigal--joins two companion omnibus volumes, 28 Barbary Lane and Back to Barbary Lane, and is a must-have for fans of Maupin and the beloved series.

Armistead Maupin's uproarious and moving Tales of the City novels--the first three of which are collected in this omnibus volume--have earned a unique niche in American literature and are considered indelible documents of cultural change from the seventies through the first two decades of the new millennium." These novels are as difficult to put down as a dish of pistachios. The reader starts playing the old childhood game of 'Just one more chapter and I'll turn out the lights, ' only to look up and discover it's after midnight."--Los Angeles Times Book Review Originally serialized in the San Francisco Chronicle, Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City (1978), More Tales of the City (1980), and Further Tales of the City (1982) afforded a mainstream audience of millions its first exposure to straight and gay characters experiencing on equal terms the follies of urban life. Among the cast of this groundbreaking saga are the lovelorn residents of 28 Barbary Lane: the bewildered but aspiring Mary Ann Singleton, the libidinous Brian Hawkins; Mona Ramsey, still in a sixties trance, Michael "Mouse" Tolliver, forever in bright-eyed pursuit of Mr. Right; and their marijuana-growing landlady, the indefatigable Mrs. Madrigal. Hurdling barriers both social and sexual, Maupin leads them through heartbreak and triumph, through nail-biting terrors and gleeful coincidences. The result is a glittering and addictive comedy of manners that continues to beguile new generations of readers.

By turns hilarious and heartbreaking, Armistead Maupin's bestselling Tales of the City novels--the fourth, fifth and sixth of which are collected in this second omnibus volume--stand as an incomparable blend of great storytelling and incisive social commentary on American culture from the seventies through the first two decades of the new millennium." Tearing through the tales] one after the other, as I did, allows instant gratification; it also lets you appreciate how masterfully they're constructed. No matter what Maupin writes next, he can look back on the rare achievement of having built a little world and made it run."-- Walter Kendrick, Village Voice Literary Supplement Armistead Maupin's uproarious and moving Tales of the City novels have earned a unique niche in American literature and are considered indelible documents of cultural change from the seventies through the first two decades of the new millennium. The nine classic comedies, some of which originally appeared as serials in San Francisco newspapers, won Maupin critical acclaim around the world and enthralled legions of devoted fans. Back to Barbary Lane comprises the second omnibus of the series--Babycakes (1984), Significant Others (1987), and Sure of You (1989)--continuing the saga of the tenants, past and present, of Mrs. Madrigal's beloved apartment house on Russian Hill. While the first trilogy celebrated the carefree excesses of the seventies, this volume tracks its hapless, all-too-human cast across the eighties--a decade troubled by plague, deceit, and overweening ambition. Like its companion volumes, 28 Barbary Lane and Goodbye, Barbary Lane, Back to Barbary Lane is distinguished by what The Guardian of London has called "some of the sharpest and most speakable dialogue you are ever likely to read."

In 1998, TASCHEN introduced the world to the masterful art of Touko Laaksonen with The Art of Pleasure. Prior to that, Laaksonen, better known as Tom of Finland, enjoyed an intense cult following in the international gay community but was largely unknown to a broader audience. In 2009, TASCHEN followed up with the ultimate Tom overview: Tom of Finland XXL, a beautiful big collector’s edition with over 1,000 images, covering six decades of the artist’s career. The work was gathered from collections across the United States and Europe with the help of the Tom of Finland Foundation, featuring many drawings, paintings, and sketches never previously reproduced. Other images had only been seen out of context and were finally presented in the sequential order Tom intended for full artistic appreciation and erotic impact. The elegant oversized volume showed the full range of Tom’s talent, from sensitive portraits to frank sexual pleasure to tender expressions of love and haunting tributes to young men struck down by AIDS, and was completed by eight commissioned essays on Tom’s social and personal impact by Camille Paglia, John Waters, Armistead Maupin, Todd Oldham, and others, plus a scholarly analysis of individual drawings by art historian Edward Lucie-Smith. The only thing missing from Tom of Finland XXL was a widely affordable price tag—until now. The new Tom of Finland XXL is still big enough to work your biceps, and includes all of the original content, but costs a fraction of the original price. You’re welcome.