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Robert Ferro

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Ferro in 1988
Ferro in 1988

Robert Ferro (October 21, 1941 – July 11, 1988) was an American novelist whose semi-autobiographical fiction explored the uneasy integration of homosexuality and traditional American upper middle class values.

Biography

He was born in Cranford, New Jersey and graduated from Cranford High School.[1] He went to college at Rutgers University and received a Master's Degree from the University of Iowa. In late 1965 Ferro met Andrew Holleran at the Iowa Writer's Workshop.[2] He later lectured at Adelphi University.[3] He was a member of The Violet Quill.[4]

He died of AIDS a few months after his partner, Michael Grumley, in 1988 at his father's home in Ho-Ho-Kus, New Jersey, age 46.[3][5] Grumley and Ferro are buried together under the Ferro-Grumley memorial in Rockland Cemetery, Sparkill, New York.

Following their deaths, the Ferro-Grumley Foundation, which manages their estate, created and endowed the annual Ferro-Grumley Award for LGBT fiction in conjunction with Publishing Triangle.

Discover more about Biography related topics

Cranford, New Jersey

Cranford, New Jersey

Cranford is a township in Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, located 18 miles (29 km) southwest of Manhattan. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 23,847, an increase of 1,222 (+5.4%) from the 2010 census count of 22,625, which in turn reflected an increase of 47 (+0.2%) from the 22,578 counted in the 2000 census.

Cranford High School

Cranford High School

Cranford High School is a four-year public high school serving students in ninth through twelfth grades, located in Cranford, in Union County, New Jersey, United States, and operating as the lone secondary school of the Cranford Township Public Schools. The school has been accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Elementary and Secondary Schools since 1929.

Rutgers University

Rutgers University

Rutgers University, officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and was affiliated with the Dutch Reformed Church. It is the eighth-oldest college in the United States, the second-oldest in New Jersey after Princeton University, and one of nine U.S. colonial colleges that were chartered before the American Revolution.

University of Iowa

University of Iowa

The University of Iowa is a public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized into 12 colleges offering more than 200 areas of study and seven professional degrees.

Andrew Holleran

Andrew Holleran

Andrew Holleran is the pseudonym of Eric Garber, an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer, born on the island of Aruba. Most of his adult life has been spent in New York City, Washington, D.C., and a small town in Florida. He was a member of The Violet Quill, a gay writer's group that met in 1980 and 1981 and also included Robert Ferro, Edmund White and Felice Picano. Following the critical and financial success of his first novel Dancer from the Dance in 1978, he became a prominent author of post-Stonewall gay literature. Historically protective of his privacy, the author continues to use the pseudonym Andrew Holleran as a writer and public speaker.

Adelphi University

Adelphi University

Adelphi University is a private university in Garden City, New York. Adelphi also has centers in Manhattan, Hudson Valley, and Suffolk County. There is also a virtual, online campus for remote students. It is the oldest institution of higher education in suburban Long Island. It enrolls 7,859 undergraduate and graduate students.

The Violet Quill

The Violet Quill

The Violet Quill was a group of seven gay male writers that met in 1980 and 1981 in New York City to read from their writings to each other and to critique them. This group and the writers epitomize the years between the Stonewall Riots and the beginning of the AIDS pandemic.

Michael Grumley

Michael Grumley

Michael Grumley was an American writer and artist.

Sparkill, New York

Sparkill, New York

Sparkill, formerly known as Tappan Sloat, is a suburban hamlet and census-designated place in the Town of Orangetown, Rockland County, New York, United States located north of Palisades; east of Tappan; south of Piermont and west of the Hudson River. As of the 2010 census, the CDP had a population of 1,565. The hamlet is home to St. Thomas Aquinas College and the Dominican Sisters of Sparkill.

Ferro-Grumley Award

Ferro-Grumley Award

The Ferro-Grumley Award is an annual literary award, presented by Publishing Triangle and the Ferro-Grumley Foundation to a book deemed the year's best work of LGBT fiction. The award is presented in memory of writers Robert Ferro and Michael Grumley. It was co-founded in 1988 by Stephen Greco who continues to direct it as of 2022.

Publishing Triangle

Publishing Triangle

The Publishing Triangle, founded in 1988 by Robin Hardy, is an American association of gay men and lesbians in the publishing industry. They sponsor an annual National Lesbian and Gay Book Month, and have sponsored the annual Triangle Awards program of literary awards for LGBT literature since 1989.

Themes

Robert Ferro's works are especially interested in the phenomena of homosexual integration into the traditional family. Love of family is a theme that appears in both The Family of Max Desir, and Second Son and reflects his traditional Italo-American sentiments. [6]

In 1984, Ferro told the "Cranford Chronicle" that the town in his novel The Family of Max Desir was a fictionalized version of his hometown, Cranford, New Jersey. The novel's "Indian River" is meant to be the Rahway River and acts as "the heart of the town and the center of [the main character's] imagination." "Indian Park," host to a revived Victorian water carnival in "Desir," is a fictionalized version of the real-life Nomahegan Park on the Rahway River.[7]

Books

  • The Others. Scribner. 1977. ISBN 0-684-15137-5.
  • The Family of Max Desir. Dutton. 1983. ISBN 0-525-24197-3.
  • The Blue Star. Plume. 1985. ISBN 0-452-25819-7.
  • Second Son. Crown. 1988. ISBN 0-517-56815-2.

Source: "Robert Ferro", Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, (2023, March 17th), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Ferro.

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References
  1. ^ CHS 1957 yearbook http://www.digifind-it.com/cranford/DATA/yearbooks/1957.pdf; 2/23/1984 Cranford Chronicle. Cranford Remembered Fondly in a Novel by Robert Ferro
  2. ^ The violet quill reader : the emergence of gay writing after Stonewall. New York: St. Martin's. 1994. ISBN 0-312-11091-X.
  3. ^ a b "Robert Ferro, 46, Dies". The New York Times. 1988-07-12. Retrieved 2007-08-08.
  4. ^ Consoli, Joseph P. (2002). "Ferro, Robert (1941-1988)". glbtq.com. Archived from the original on 2007-08-14. Retrieved 2007-08-08.
  5. ^ Sun Sentinel, July 13, 1988
  6. ^ Consoli, Joseph P. "GLBTQ". Ferro, Robert (1941-1988). Archived from the original on 2012-03-09. Retrieved February 27, 2012.
  7. ^ 1984 Chronicle interview; Encyclopedia of Contemporary LGBTQ Literature of the United States [2 volumes]
Further reading

Archival sources

External links

Robert Ferro Papers. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.


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