City of Night (Google Books ⧉, Amazon ⧉, Bookshop ⧉)

by John Rechy

Contributed by NobleBibliophile506

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Numbers

OTHER WORKS BY JOHN RECHY PUBLISHED BY GROVE PRESS  Numbers Rushes The Sexual Outlaw: A Documentary The Fourth Angel The Coming of the Night

Rushes

OTHER WORKS BY JOHN RECHY PUBLISHED BY GROVE PRESS  Numbers Rushes The Sexual Outlaw: A Documentary The Fourth Angel The Coming of the Night

The Sexual Outlaw: A Documentary

OTHER WORKS BY JOHN RECHY PUBLISHED BY GROVE PRESS  Numbers Rushes The Sexual Outlaw: A Documentary The Fourth Angel The Coming of the Night

The Fourth Angel

OTHER WORKS BY JOHN RECHY PUBLISHED BY GROVE PRESS  Numbers Rushes The Sexual Outlaw: A Documentary The Fourth Angel The Coming of the Night

The Coming of the Night

OTHER WORKS BY JOHN RECHY PUBLISHED BY GROVE PRESS  Numbers Rushes The Sexual Outlaw: A Documentary The Fourth Angel The Coming of the Night

The City of Dreadful Night

“The City is of Night: perchance of Death, But certainly of Night . . .”   —James Thomson, The City of Dreadful Night

Mardi Gras

I rewrote it, trying to shape its disorder. I titled it “Mardi Gras” and sent it out as a short story to the literary quarterly Evergreen Review.

Long Ago

At the age of eight I began writing stories, all titled “Long Ago.”

Time on Wings

At about thirteen, I started a novel called Time on Wings—about the French Revolution, which I researched diligently.

The Bitter Roots

I began an autobiographical novel titled—oh, yes—The Bitter Roots. It was about a half-Mexican, half-Scottish boy, doubly exiled in many ways...

Pablo!

I abandoned both books and went on to finish a short, strange novel titled Pablo! Set in contemporary Mexico and the jungles of the Yucatán...

The Witch of El Paso

At the New School for Social Research, I began another novel, unfinished, The Witch of El Paso, about my dear great-aunt, Tía Ana, who had “deer eyes” and magical powers.

The Fabulous Wedding of Miss Destiny

I rewrote “The Fabulous Wedding of Miss Destiny,” imbuing it with a discovered “meaning.”

Between Two Lions

In “Between Two Lions,” I wanted to create out of the reality of Times Square a modern jungle in which two of its powerful denizens connect momentarily...

Children, Go Where I Send You

Part One “Children, go where I send you—how shall I send you? I’m going to send you one by one. . . .” —Children, Go Where I Send You

Between Two Lions

MR. KING: Between Two LionsÂ

A Funny Story

All right, we’ll go eat," he said. This reminded him of A Funny Story. "I was in this Swank place once," he says, "and at the table next to me is this old woman, see, and she’s with this great big beautiful blond boy, probably she picked him off the docks, he’s uncomfortable as hell in a tie—he says to the waiter, 'I want wiver and onions.' ...

Unknown

As he sat in his apartment studying me, I leafed through a novel by Colette.

The Sunrise on Wall Street

…and the charming golden angel answered: ‘I would like to see the sunrise on Wall Street.’ And that became the title of the writer’s next book: The Sunrise on Wall Street.

Hamlet

Which leads me somehow to the conclusion,' he chuckled, 'that God, like Hamlet, is a woman: She changes Her makeup constantly, She primps, She flirts with us.

Unknown

In the outside room, the malenurse sat reading a thick book. He rose, walking swiftly toward me as if I would escape. He thrust the book at me: 'The Professor wrote this!' he said. 'He's written many great things!' I reached for the book; but before I could even read the title, he withdrew it from me, not allowing me to touch it. 'Heres the check,' he said.

The Book

He asked to interview me, for The Book, but I told him my affairs with the angels are too precious to reduce them to lines on a graph! For example, how could he have indicated on a graph what Joe Jones (it was part of his distinction that he had such a common name—at first)—what Joe Jones meant to me? He was definitely an earthangel—and is there a graph for such a breed? ...

Professor's Book

I saw an album. On top of the album was a book: a thick, important-looking volume—much like the one the malenurse had thrust at me that day, but a different color. I glanced at the author’s name. It was the Professor’s.

Superman

when I was a kid, I asked my father for paperdolls, and he brought me some Superman comicbooks instead—and then, oh! I asked him for Superman paperdolls....

Snow White

with a collar like the wicked queen’s in Snow White.

Terry and the Pirates

long narrow corridors like in the movie-serial when we were kids: And the Dragon Lady put Terry and the Pirates in a narrow hallway and she punched a button and the walls kept coming closer ... threatening to crrrrrrush! everyone to ... death!!

Shakespeare

Then—tell—me: if you read Shakespeare, Who Is Desdemona?” doubting it superiorly, giving me The Supreme Test: Shakespeare and his queenly he-roines who were first, remember, played by men.

Rope Heaven by the Neck

CHUCK : Rope Heaven by the NeckÂ

Dick Tracy

“‘Dick’—like Dick Tracy,” I said with a straight face. He was right: The man did look like a plainclothes detective.

Great Expectations

A woman who looks like Mrs Haversham of Great Expectations sits woodenly like an elaborate stuffed bird with open eyes.

True Confessions

In the Greyhound buses headed South, youngmen with maybe guitars and patched bags if any will eye the young girls reading True Confessions. . . . Quilted jalopies will tackle the highways of many-masked America.

All My Saintly Children

SYLVIA: All My Saintly ChildrenÂ

Alice in Wonderland

Sorceresses! Wizards! Crowds whipped up, exacerbated by each fleeing moment. Alice in Wonderland!—billowing skirt raised obscenely. Tom Sawyer!—pants open at the rear.

Tom Sawyer

Sorceresses! Wizards! Crowds whipped up, exacerbated by each fleeing moment. Alice in Wonderland!—billowing skirt raised obscenely. Tom Sawyer!—pants open at the rear.

The Tin Man from Oz

The Tin Man from Oz! Two youngmen who look like college students have been flirting with two queens in high drag.

Indirect References

First Volume

and when I told him I would help him, he told me, passionately, that he would dedicate his first volume to me. Ive wondered if it came out. . . .

Referenced By

Direct References

Under the Feet of Jesus

A gem of a novel. Beautifully written, as tender as it is tough. Its ending haunts.” —John Rechy, author of City of Night

Places Referenced

Germany, Europe
"There were other photographs—youngmen in Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Mexico, America . . ."
841 Broadway, New York, NY
"or publishers who would like to obtain permission to include the work in an anthology, should send their inquiries to Grove/Atlantic, Inc., 841 Broadway, New York, NY 10003."
Nashville, Tennessee
"“Heartbreak Hotel,” written by Mae Axton, Tommy Durden, and Elvis Presley, copyright © 1956, Tree Publishing Company, Inc., Nashville, Tennessee;"
666 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY
"“Way Down Yonder in New Orleans,” copyright © MCMXXII by Shapiro, Bernstein and Co., Inc., 666 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10019, used by permission of the publisher."
New Orleans, Louisiana
"“Way Down Yonder in New Orleans,” copyright © MCMXXII by Shapiro, Bernstein and Co., Inc., 666 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10019, used by permission of the publisher."
Canada
"Published simultaneously in Canada"
United States of America
"Printed in the United States of America"
841 Broadway, New York, NY
"Grove Press an imprint of Grove/Atlantic, Inc. 841 Broadway New York, NY 10003"
Evanston, Illinois
"City of Night began as a letter to a friend in Evanston, Illinois."
El Paso, Texas
"It was written in El Paso the day following my return to my hometown in Texas after an eternity in New Orleans."
New Orleans, Louisiana
"…and on to New Orleans where the world collapsed, and back, now, to El Paso grasping for God knows what?"
New York, New York
"I went to New York to enroll in Columbia University. Instead, I discovered the world of Times Square."
Los Angeles, California
"I returned to Los Angeles under the warm colorless sun over ubiquitous palmtrees."
Pershing Square, Los Angeles, California
"…went to Los Angeles and Pershing Square then went to San Diego and La Jolla in the sun…"
San Diego, California
"…then went to San Diego and La Jolla in the sun…"
La Jolla, San Diego, California
"…then went to San Diego and La Jolla in the sun…"
Orange Gate, Los Angeles, California
"…returned to Los Angeles and went back to the Orange Gate and returned to Los Angeles and Pershing Square…"
Phoenix, Arizona
"…stopped in Phoenix one night…"
San Francisco, California
"…went on to San Francisco again, and Monterey and the shadow of James Dean because of the movie…"
Monterey, California
"…and Monterey and the shadow of James Dean because of the movie"
Dallas, Texas
"…then Dallas with Culture…"
Houston, Texas
"…and Houston with A Million Population"
Malibu, California
"we were having breakfast in Malibu, the ocean was azure"
Hope Street, Los Angeles, California
"he drove me back to my rented room on Hope Street, I asked him to wait."
Cristo Rey Mountains, El Paso, Texas
"After classes, I often climbed the nearby Cristo Rey Mountains, bordered by the Rio Grande, usually waterless here."
Rio Grande, Texas
"bordered by the Rio Grande, usually waterless here."
Chicago, Illinois
"When summer was ending, I migrated to Chicago, quickly finding its own Times Square."
Riverdale, New York
"only my publishers knew I was in New York, in Riverdale."
Tanglewood, Lenox, Massachusetts
"attend the American premiere of Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem in Tanglewood."
Fire Island, New York
"I read in a New York gossip column that I was a guest of Mr. So-and-so on Fire Island, a place I have never visited."
Times Square, New York City
"LATER I WOULD THINK OF AMERICA as one vast City of Night stretching gaudily from Times Square to Hollywood Boulevard —jukebox-winking, rock-n-roll-moaning: America at night fusing its darkcities into the unmistakable shape of loneliness."
Central Park, New York City
"Central Park and the frantic shadows."
42nd Street, New York City
"rock-n-roll sexmusic blasting from jukeboxes leering obscenely, blinking manycolored along the streets of America strung like a cheap necklace from 42nd Street to Market Street, San Francisco."
Puerto Rico, United States
"then we went to Puerto Rico, the Caribbean Islands."
Times Square, New York City
"Instead, I discovered the world of Times Square."
Carmel-by-the-Sea, California
"…and Carmel where there’s a house like a bird"
Pershing Square, Los Angeles, California
"Remember Pershing Square and the apathetic palmtrees."
Market Street, San Francisco, California
"rock-n-roll sexmusic blasting from jukeboxes leering obscenely, blinking manycolored along the streets of America strung like a cheap necklace from 42nd Street to Market Street, San Francisco."
Hudson River, New York, United States
"in a fourteenth-storey apartment overlooking the Hudson River"
El Paso, Texas
"But it should begin in El Paso, that journey through the cities of night. Should begin in El Paso, in Texas. And it begins in the Wind."
Camp Breckenridge, Kentucky
"Only a few weeks later, in Camp Breckenridge, Kentucky, I received a telegram that he was very sick."
Chicago, Illinois
"And wounded Chicago streets."
New York, New York
"I was on my way now to Chicago, briefly—from where I would go to freedom: New York!"
Carlsbad Caverns, New Mexico
"Once—without him, because he was working on his music —we were going to take a trip to Carlsbad Caverns, in New Mexico: my mother, my sister and her husband, my older brother and his wife, and I."
Rio Grande, Texas
"Sundays during summer especially I would hike outside the city, along the usually waterless strait of sand called the Rio Grande, up the mountain of Cristo Rey..."
Cristo Rey, El Paso, Texas
"up the mountain of Cristo Rey, dominated at the top by the coarse, weed-surrounded statue of a primitive-faced Christ."
Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico
"And Sundays he would take us to Juarez to dinner, leaving an exorbitant tip for the suddenly attentive waiter."
California, United States
"that strange man who had traveled from Mexico to California spreading his seed."
New Orleans, Louisiana
"I had a dream which still recurs (and later in New Orleans, I will experience it awake)."
Armory, New York City
"…and at one corner was the Armory like an Errol Flynn movie, and on the next Lexington Avenue rushes determinedly past bars and stores and checkertabled Italian restaurants;"
Lexington Avenue, New York City
"and on the next Lexington Avenue rushes determinedly past bars and stores and checkertabled Italian restaurants;"
El Paso, Texas
"From El Paso, I had gone to Evanston outside Chicago—a serene green campus city—where I saw a friend I had met in El Paso when he was in the army."
Evanston, Illinois
"From El Paso, I had gone to Evanston outside Chicago—a serene green campus city—where I saw a friend I had met in El Paso when he was in the army."
Chicago, Illinois
"…is the goodbye Greyhound station, where I arrived from Chicago one weepy day in September, welcomed by banner headlines warning of a female hurricane…"
Dallas, Texas
"On my way to El Paso, I had stopped in Dallas for about a week, to postpone facing my mother with my decision to leave El Paso."
Times Square, New York City
"Tunes Square, New York, is an electric island floating on a larger island of lonesome parks and lonesome apartment houses and knifepointed buildings stretching Up. (I will think dazedly one night: Someday this city will tear its wharf‐lined fringes from the ocean and soar in desperation to the Sky...) Times Square is the magnet for all the lonesome exiles jammed into this city..."
Sloane House YMCA, New York City
"in the incessantly running showers of the Sloane House YMCA the day I arrived in New York, the big hairy man made conversation with me; where am I from and what am I doing and am I working yet ("No? Good. I mean good that you dont have to be anywhere at a set time.")."
Mary's, Greenwich Village, New York City
"He watches me evenly and then says: "You wouldnt be broke if youd been at Mary’s last night—that’s a place in the Village and everything goes."
42nd Street and Broadway, New York City
"I stand on 42nd Street and Broadway looking at the sign flashing the news from the Times Tower like a scoreboard: The World is losing. The hurricane still menaces—the sky ashen with night rainclouds..."
Times Tower, New York City
"looking at the sign flashing the news from the Times Tower like a scoreboard: The World is losing."
New York Public Library, New York City
"“You know where the public library is?” he asked me. “Fifth Avenue and 42nd—here, I’ll write it down so you wont forget. I’ll meet you there on the steps, between the two statues, the two lions—Friday, seven o’clock, if you want to—and dont go fuckin around 42nd Street, you got ten bucks—dont be greedy.”"
34th Street, New York City
"And I moved into that building on 34th Street known as The Casbah for its menagerie of Twilight people, and I added to the shadows in one of those thousands of hallways in New York City in immense apartment houses erected in the large American cities before buildings grew tall and skinny."
Chicago, Illinois
"Unfairly, I’m almost broke—$20.00 when I left Chicago, and one phone number what said nervously we must have lunch sometime."
Los Angeles, California
"…you look like you could be—I was there once, L.A.—too many creeps for me, though: like a nuthouse."
Boston, Massachusetts
"He’s a merchant marine, tanned from a recent Voyage to somefarwhere—on his way now to Boston with I imagine a roll of money big enough to make me greedy."
Mexico City, Mexico
"that strange man who had traveled from Mexico to California spreading his seed."
Apollo Theater, Harlem, New York City, New York, United States
"Two Sexy foreign movies at the Apollo theater: I surrender to the giant cavernous mouth with decaying brown seats for teeth—gobble!"
Pershing Square, Los Angeles, California
"That Pershing Square!—it’s a loony asylum! ... 42nd Street, thats the lowest, though."
El Paso, Texas
"I purposely didnt answer, trying to forget El Paso."
French Quarter, New Orleans, Louisiana
"Horrormovie courtyards in the French Quarter—tawdry Mardi Gras fiats with clowns tossing out glass beads, passing dumbly like life itself."
Greyhound Station, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States
"and everywhere, gray steel buildings stab the sky—and beyond the Armory, past technicolor Kress’s, is the goodbye Greyhound station, where I arrived from Chicago one weepy day in September, welcomed by banner headlines warning of a female hurricane—and I think suddenly for the first time: My Godl Im on an island!"
Times Square, New York City
"At night, on my way to meet Mr. King, I walk through Times Square. And along that street—outside the Italian restaurant featuring squirming spaghetti for 40 a plate; before the racks of magazines with photographs of almost‑naked youngmen…"
Bryant Park, New York City
"…and I walk through Bryant Park behind the library, the fallen leaves crunching beneath my feet like spilled popcorn—I walk past the shadows of staring lonesome men along the ledges, suddenly astonishingly real in the instant flickering light of a struck match—then shadows again, faceless…"
42nd Street, New York City
"I waiked into the library, from 42nd Street, through the echoing halls, toward the Fifth Avenue entrance."
Fifth Avenue, New York City
"I waiked into the library, from 42nd Street, through the echoing halls, toward the Fifth Avenue entrance."
New York subways, New York City, New York, United States
"THE MAZE of the New York subways—the world pours into Times Square."
45th Street, New York City, New York, United States
"that world of Times Square that I inhabited extends from 42nd Street to about 45th Street, from grimy Eighth Avenue to Bryant Park."
Eighth Avenue, New York City, New York, United States
"from grimy Eighth Avenue to Bryant Park—where, nightly, shadows cling to the ledges: malehungry looks hidden by the darkness of the night."
Sutton Place, New York City, New York, United States
"I took down an address on Sutton Place. 'Take a cab,' the voice said, 'and I’ll reimburse you when you get here."
Park Avenue, New York City, New York, United States
"and Raub—a bastard—whose frog-shape and inclinations make me remember him as a 'fraggot'—the fraggot with the enormous black-velvetdraped bed on Park Avenue."
New Jersey, United States
"there was Lenny from New Jersey, whom I saw twice a week, until one night he didn’t show; and I learned later he’d been arrested for selling pornographic pictures."
Times Square, New York City
"THERE WAS A YOUNGMAN I HAD seen often around Times Square."
42nd Street, New York City
"One night I saw him by the subway entrance on 42nd Street talking to an older man dressed in black."
Times Square, New York City
"Pete was a familiar figure in that world of Times Square."
Bickford’s, New York City
"As we sat in Bickford’s in the cold light, he told me without embarrassment that once he’d gone for 75."
34th Street, New York City
"I still lived in that building on 34th Street, its mirrored lobby a ghost of its former elegance."
Bryant Park, New York City
"I saw him in Bryant Park and he was fuming. The manager of a moviehouse one block away had refused to let him in."
Times Square, New York City
"Remembering the man I had walked around Times Square with, wearing a jacket and cap, I began to laugh. “Not that,” Pete says, “we wont be walking around Times Square in leather.”"
Queens, New York City
"“He lives in—hold on—Queens!” Pete laughed."
Queens College, Queens, New York
"“And dig this, spote: I think he teaches at Queens College. They even got a school now,” he says, shaking his head."
Queens Plaza, Queens, New York
"We got off at Queens Plaza, and followed the man to a large apartment house."
Bryant Park, New York City
"When I saw Pete again, one night in Bryant Park, I mentioned the money to him."
Times Square, New York City
"and I decided to put down Times Square again—a pattern of guilt which would recur periodically."
42nd Street, New York City
"At night I would stay home or go to the movies—but not on 42nd Street or The Others."
New Jersey, United States
"I been in the East all my life—New Jersey—New York. . . ."
Washington Square Park, New York City, New York, United States
"“Lets go to Washington Square!” he said abruptly. In a few minutes, by subway, we were there."
Los Angeles, California
"I guess maybe I should split—leave New York—go somewhere else: L.A., maybe."
United States
"There were other photographs—youngmen in Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Mexico, America . . ."
Hollywood, Los Angeles, California
"when I was almost conned, he got a job in Hollywood, and, with apologies, split, giving me $5.00 that night—and a smiling! triumphant! goodbye!"
Times Square, New York City
"I surrendered to the world of Times Square, and like a hype who needs more and more junk to keep going, I haunted that world not only at night now but in the mornings, the afternoons."
Times Square, New York City
"I saw him again, many times—in the movie theaters, in Bryant Park, on Times Square."
East River, New York City
"In a fashionable apartment overlooking the East River, I face an elegant silver-haired man."
Fifth Avenue, New York City
"We move along Fifth Avenue, past a dimlit bar in a hotel."
Broadway, Los Angeles, California
"spilling into 42nd Street and Broadway—a scattered defeated army."
Park Avenue, New York City, New York, United States
"Sometimes—having scored—we would meet afterwards and sit in the automat at 42nd and Park Avenue (this appealed to him as Classier)."
Central Park, New York City
"After midnight walking from the west to the east side, I crossed Central Park, and he was out rousting the bums sleeping in the park."
42nd Street, New York City
"spilling into 42nd Street and Broadway—a scattered defeated army."
Bryant Park, New York City
"from grimy Eighth Avenue to Bryant Park—where, nightly, shadows cling to the ledges."
Bryant Park, New York City
"I saw him again, many times—in the movie theaters, in Bryant Park, on Times Square."
Seventh Avenue, New York, New York
"Sometimes he would rent a room off Seventh Avenue where they knew him."
Park Avenue, New York City, New York, United States
"We’ve reached the 34th Street, the corner of the Armory on Park Avenue."
Times Square, New York City
"CITY OF NIGHT  THE WORLD OF TIMES SQUARE was a world which I was certain I had sought out willingly… Trains grinding along the purgatorial subway tunnels […] expel the crowds—From All Points—at the Times Square stop."
El Paso, Texas
"… whose effects I had felt even in El Paso—the motive which had sent me away from that girl who had climbed Cristo Rey, long ago, with me."
Cristo Rey, El Paso, Texas
"that girl who had climbed Cristo Rey, long ago, with me"
Fifth Avenue, New York City
"Now, at that library on Fifth Avenue, I would try often to shut my ears to the echoes of that world roaring outside, immediately beyond these very walls."
Bryant Park, New York City
"As I cut across Bryant Park, I heard his steps quicken to approach me."
East 20s, New York City
"… a bar with two men from out of town who have come to explore […] I agree to meet them later at their hotel room in the East 20s."
Third Avenue, New York City
"I discovered Third Avenue, the East 50s, in the early morning, where figures camped flagrantly in the streets in a parody stagline;"
East 50s, New York City
"I discovered Third Avenue, the East 50s, in the early morning, where figures camped flagrantly in the streets in a parody stagline;"
8th Street, New York City
"And there was Howard Thomson’s restaurant on 8th Street in the near-dawn hours."
Queens, New York City
"… in the Village; one in Queens—appropriately—where males danced with males, holding each other intimately"
Greenwich Village, New York City
"I discovered the bars: on the west side, the east side, in the Village; one in Queens—appropriately…"
Central Park, New York City
"In Central Park—as a rainstorm approached (the dark clouds crashing in the black sky […] I stood against a tree and in frantic succession…"
Times Square, New York City
"Beside me, in this well-furnished apartment, stands a young malenurse, who has brought me here from Times Square."
Oklahoma, United States
"…I was hit by a nervous, high‐strung, skinny, homely, ineffectual, simpering oldmaid from Oklahoma, vainly trying to compete with our own glorious system of cabs!"
San Diego, California
"I would watch them in San Diego—one summer I spent at La Jolla—as they invaded our streets, descending, all white, as if just arrived from Heaven, scattering themselves among the rest of us, unworthy, mortals!"
New York, New York
"It was here in New York, on a weekend, and the charming golden angel answered: ‘I would like to see the sunrise on Wall Street.’"
Times Square, New York City
"Larry met you on Times Square; that is a world of its own."
Paris, France
"And Paris, that magnificent city of statues, glowed for me as if lighted by heaven itself."
St-Germain-des-Prés, Paris, France
"There was a lovely child, in Paris, a youngman who followed me out of the W.C.—and we played a game, all through St-Germain-des-Prés."
Frankfurt, Germany
"I remember the American heiress stranded by her young lover at the train station in Frankfurt. And all she could say was: ‘God damn!’"
Munich, Germany
"Less than I paid in Munich for that beer mug you see there: That beer mug is me, it has no beauty, no wings—it is ugly, it can break."
California, United States
"I knew a woman in California who practiced witchcraft: Her power was Awesome."
Madison Square Garden, New York City
"who came to the newyork Rodeo (I am not referring to the one in Madison Square Garden: Im referring to the Rodeo of this city itself)"
New York Rodeo, New York City
"who came to the newyork Rodeo (I am not referring to the one in Madison Square Garden: Im referring to the Rodeo of this city itself)"
Oklahoma, United States
"He was an Oklahoma cowboy, discovered on the range—who came to the newyork Rodeo (I am not referring to the one in Madison Square Garden: Im referring to the Rodeo of this city itself)"
Bellas Artes, Mexico City, Mexico
"This is the Mexican child with shoulderblades like sprouting wings: He had never been inside the Bellas Artes. His eyes were more brilliant than the theater!"
Spain, Europe
"There were other photographs—youngmen in Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Mexico, America . . ."
France, Europe
"There were other photographs—youngmen in Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Mexico, America . . ."
Italy, Europe
"There were other photographs—youngmen in Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Mexico, America . . ."
Los Angeles, California
"Smitty, you might say, had risen from the ranks: from gas station attendant, in Los Angeles; that's where he began—right in the station restroom."
La Jolla, San Diego, California
"…one summer I spent at La Jolla—as they invaded our streets, descending, all white, as if just arrived from Heaven…"
Mexico City, Mexico
"I went to Yale. . . . And from there—where?—oh, yes, Mexico!"
Mexico City, Mexico
"At the house of Doña Mercedes, in Mexico (she was a grand Spanish woman, with a bosom which expanded yearly, to house, I told her, her gigantic Heart)—at her house, where I stayed briefly, there was a charming houseboy."
Yale, New Haven, Connecticut
"I went to Yale. . . . And from there—where?—oh, yes, Mexico!"
Broadway, Los Angeles, California
"and off he galloped: to the vaster plains of Broadway—and I heard later he changed his name to Cam Rider"
34th Street, New York City
"We’ve reached the 34th Street, the corner of the Armory on Park Avenue."
Union Square, San Francisco, California
"And then we continue walking—into Union Square now, were we stand listening to a man in a tight suit heatedly hollering about what a blight Union Square is."
Europe
"He wrote me, he was in Europe—stranded briefly. I sent him funds."
South America
"Then it was South America. By then things were much better for me, and I sent him money—a long-distance bond between us..."
Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut
"At the top of the sheet was his name—and then: “RESUMÉ,” was printed beneath it: It listed his years at Yale, his many degrees—including honorary ones."
New York, New York
"CITY OF NIGHT  AND THEN THE DAY CAME IN NEW YORK when, standing on a street or in a park, I would see someone and wonder whether I had been with him—or just talked ..."
Vermont, United States
"And briefly, with the same person, I went to Vermont, to a cool, cool summer interlude in a house set in the midst of the green mountains."
Green Mountains, Vermont, United States
"to a cool, cool summer interlude in a house set in the midst of the green mountains."
Times Square, New York City
"New people would replace me on Times Square and in the park...."
El Paso, Texas
"In a few days, by the beginning of autumn, I was back in El Paso. As I opened the door of my mother’s house, I saw her standing there waiting for me."
South El Paso, El Paso, Texas
"I went to a movie theater in South El Paso—resolved, that night, to slaughter those seducing memories in this way: The man followed. me to the head, propositioned me there."
Cristo Rey, El Paso, Texas
"I called the girl I had climbed Cristo Rey with. Her father answered: She was gone; married; she had a baby...."
San Jacinto Plaza, El Paso, Texas
"As a young boy, crossing San Jacinto Plaza (sleepy crocodiles in a round pond, then, so tired and sleepy they wouldnt even wake up when little kids grabbed them by their tails and flipped them into the water), I had seen the giggling groups of birls camping with the soldiers."
Ysleta, El Paso, Texas
"on Holy days, I had seen long processions of people from El Paso, Ysleta, Canutillo, Smeltertown, Juarez, as they marched up chanting devout prayers—kneeling at intervals, shawled ladies gripping rosaries."
Canutillo, Texas
"on Holy days, I had seen long processions of people from El Paso, Ysleta, Canutillo, Smeltertown, Juarez, as they marched up chanting devout prayers—kneeling at intervals, shawled ladies gripping rosaries."
Smeltertown, El Paso, Texas
"on Holy days, I had seen long processions of people from El Paso, Ysleta, Canutillo, Smeltertown, Juarez, as they marched up chanting devout prayers—kneeling at intervals, shawled ladies gripping rosaries."
Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico
"on Holy days, I had seen long processions of people from El Paso, Ysleta, Canutillo, Smeltertown, Juarez, as they marched up chanting devout prayers—kneeling at intervals, shawled ladies gripping rosaries."
Southern California, United States
"CITY OF NIGHT  SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA, WHICH IS SHAPED SOMEWHAT like a coffin, is a giant sanatorium with flowers where people come to be cured of life itself in whatever way...."
Westcoast Times Square, Los Angeles, California
"Now it’s the Greyhound station in the midst of the Westcoast Times Square, the area about Los Angeles Street, Main Street, Spring, Broadway, Hill—between about 4th and 7th streets."
Los Angeles Street, Los Angeles, California
"the area about Los Angeles Street, Main Street, Spring, Broadway, Hill—between about 4th and 7th streets."
Main Street, Los Angeles, California
"I walk along Main Street, Los Angeles, now."
Spring Street, Los Angeles, California
"the area about Los Angeles Street, Main Street, Spring, Broadway, Hill—between about 4th and 7th streets."
Broadway, Los Angeles, California
"the area about Los Angeles Street, Main Street, Spring, Broadway, Hill—between about 4th and 7th streets."
Hill Street, Los Angeles, California
"the area about Los Angeles Street, Main Street, Spring, Broadway, Hill—between about 4th and 7th streets."
4th Street, Los Angeles, California
"between about 4th and 7th streets."
7th Street, Los Angeles, California
"between about 4th and 7th streets."
6th Street, Los Angeles, California
"As I stand on the corner of 6th and Main"
Los Angeles, California
"“dont you look so startled—this is L.A.! -and thank God for that! Even queens like me got certain rights!”"
HARRY’S BAR, Los Angeles, California
"I walk into a bar by the corner, next to the loan shop. HARRY’S BAR...."
Pershing Square, Los Angeles, California
"A few minutes later I was in Pershing Square."
Olive Street, Los Angeles, California
"past an ominous cannon on Olive, aimed defiantly at the slick wide-gleaming-windowed buildings across the streets"
Harbor Freeway, Los Angeles, California
"where cars race madly in swirling semicircles—the Harbor Freeway crashes into the Santa Ana Freeway, into the Hollywood Freeway"
Santa Ana Freeway, Los Angeles, California
"where cars race madly in swirling semicircles—the Harbor Freeway crashes into the Santa Ana Freeway, into the Hollywood Freeway"
Hollywood Freeway, Los Angeles, California
"where cars race madly in swirling semicircles—the Harbor Freeway crashes into the Santa Ana Freeway, into the Hollywood Freeway"
El Paso, Texas
"From El Paso—knowing that my journey had somehow just begun—I had returned to New York."
New York, New York
"From El Paso—knowing that my journey had somehow just begun—I had returned to New York. Again to the sexual anarchy...."
East 16th Street, New York, New York
"I lived on East 16th Street, then 70th Street, finally Riverside Drive, in a once-mansion converted now into rooms-for-rent:"
70th Street, New York, New York
"I lived on East 16th Street, then 70th Street, finally Riverside Drive, in a once-mansion converted now into rooms-for-rent:"
Southampton, United Kingdom
"Briefly, I went to Southampton with someone I had just met. I lay on the beach all day turning brown, trying in idleness to squelch the recurring panic, longing for something still vastly undefined."
34th Street, New York City
"I walked west to the Greyhound station on 34th Street."
Greyhound Station, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States
"Now it’s the Greyhound station in the midst of the Westcoast Times Square, the area about Los Angeles Street, Main Street, Spring, Broadway, Hill—between about 4th and 7th streets."
Riverside Drive, New York, New York
"I lived on East 16th Street, then 70th Street, finally Riverside Drive, in a once-mansion converted now into rooms-for-rent:"
Beaumont, California
"Saint Tex, who got The Word in Beaumont scorched one wined-up morning on the white horizon: BRING THE WORD TO SINNING CALIFORNIA!"
Pershing Square, Los Angeles, California
"THE FIRST TIME I SAW MISS DESTINY was of course in Pershing Square, on the cool, almost cold, moist evening of a warm smoggy day."
5th Street, Los Angeles, California
"Im sitting in the park with Chuck the cowboy on the railing facing 5th Street."
Spring Street, Los Angeles, California
"do you have a place to stay?—I live on Spring Street and there is a 'Welcome!' mat at the door"
Los Angeles, California
"…and let me hasten to tell you before you hear it wrong from othuh sources that I am famous even in Los gay Angeles—why."
Downtown L.A., Los Angeles, California
"making it from day to park to bar to day like all the others in that ratty world of downtown L.A. which I will make my own:"
Los Angeles, California
"Those first days in Los Angeles, I was newly dazzled by the world into which my compulsive journey through submerged lives had led me—newly hypnotized by the life of the streets."
Hope Street, Los Angeles, California
"I had rented a room in a hotel on Hope Street—on the fringes of that world but still outside of it (in order always to have a place where I could be completely alone when I must be)."
Pershing Square, Los Angeles, California
"Thus the daulity of my existence was marked by a definite boundary: Pershing Square: east of there when the desire to be with people churned within me; west of there to the hotel when I had to be alone."
Main Street, Los Angeles, California
"And Main Street in Los Angeles is such an anarchy. This is clip street, hustle street—frenzied-nightactivity street: the moving back and forth against the walls; smoking, peering anxiously to spot the bulls before they spot you; the rushing in and out of Wally’s and Harry’s: long crowded malehustling bars."
Spring Street, Los Angeles, California
"A couple of blocks away from Main Street, on Spring—squashed on either side by gray apartment buildings (walls greasy from days of cheap cooking, cobwebbed lightbulbs feebly hiding in opaque darkness, windowscreens if any smooth as velvet with grime—where queens and hustlers and other exiles hibernate)-just beyond the hobo cafeteria where panhandlers hang dismally outside in the cruel neonlight (fugitives from the owlfaces of the Salvation Army fighting Evil with no help from God or the cops; fugitives from Uplifting mission-words and lambstew)—is the 1-2-3."
Bel Air, Los Angeles, California
"making it from bar to lonesome room, bragging about the $50 score with the fruit from Bel Air who has two swimming pools, jack, and said he’d see you again (but if he didnt show, you dont say that)"
Hollywood, Los Angeles, California
"do you know anyone in Hollywood who has a beautiful home with a beautiful Winding Staircase where she can come down—‘to marry,’ she explains, ‘my new husband and spend my life blissfully (thats very happily, dear) on unemployment with him forever.’"
Washington, D.C., United States
"(So Miss Destiny lones it to Washington D.C. where she makes it with men who think shes Real. And when they reach That Point in the cramped car she must insist on, she will say no honey not that, I have got the rag on—she will of course be welltaped."
Spring Street, Los Angeles, California
"I walk with Chuck along Spring Street, left, across Broadway, then Hill, beyond the tunnel, around the area with all the trees."
Broadway, Los Angeles, California
"I walk with Chuck along Spring Street, left, across Broadway, then Hill, beyond the tunnel, around the area with all the trees."
Hill, Los Angeles, California
"I walk with Chuck along Spring Street, left, across Broadway, then Hill, beyond the tunnel, around the area with all the trees."
Main Street, Los Angeles, California
"We went to Main Street, and I'm feeling an intensified sense of perception—as if suddenly I can see clearly."
Los Angeles, California
"the night was miraculously clear as it rarely is in Los Angeles, and the moon hung sadly in the sky as unconcerned as the world, as we sexhuddled in the car with the three lost girls."
Echo Park, Los Angeles, California
"we drove to Echo Park. And the night was miraculously clear as it rarely is in Los Angeles, and the moon hung sadly in the sky as unconcerned as the world..."
Silverlake, Los Angeles, California
"We left the girls at Silverlake and came back to the 1-2-3."
Bixel Street, Los Angeles, California
"she cooled off right away and said drive her to Bixel Street, where someone (shes playing it mysterious like someone is turning her on free because shes such a gone queen) is laying all kinds of stuff on her."
French Quarter, New Orleans, Louisiana
"I answered (and remember the pills, the liquor, the maryJane): “Desdemona was a swinging queen in the French Quarter who married a spadestud who dug her until a jealous pusher turned him on that his queen was making it with a studsailor, and the spade smothered the queen Desdemona and the heat came for him and he killed himself...."
Main Street, Los Angeles, California
"Sometimes when I'm very high and sitting maybe at the 1-2-3, I imagine that an angel suddenly appears and stands on the balcony where the band is going—or maybe I'm on Main Street or in Pershing Square—and the angel says, 'All right, boys and girls, this is it, the world is ending, and Heaven or Hell will be to spend eternity just as you are now, in the same place among the same people—Forever!"
Pershing Square, Los Angeles, California
"Sometimes when I'm very high and sitting maybe at the 1-2-3, I imagine that an angel suddenly appears and stands on the balcony where the band is going—or maybe I'm on Main Street or in Pershing Square—and the angel says, 'All right, boys and girls, this is it, the world is ending, and Heaven or Hell will be to spend eternity just as you are now, in the same place among the same people—Forever!"
New York, New York
"I was out in the street with the jazzcat from New York wearing dark shades who had somehow turned up later at Destiny’s."
Los Angeles, California
"And Los Angeles was dreary in the earlyhours with the sidewalks wet where theyve just watered them and the purplish haze of the early morning."
San Diego, California
"I left Los Angeles without seeing Miss Destiny after that night. And I went to San Diego, briefly. And I returned to Los Angeles."
Pershing Square, Los Angeles, California
"There is a bar in Los Angeles a block from Pershing Square, on Sixth Street. It’s called the Hodge Podge."
Midwest, United States
"A few of the people I had known were gone—even in that short time—back to the Midwest or to Times Square, or had been busted, or moved to Coffee Andy’s in Hollywood, or gone to Golden Miami."
Hollywood, Los Angeles, California
"…or moved to Coffee Andy’s in Hollywood, or gone to Golden Miami."
Miami, Florida
"…or moved to Coffee Andy’s in Hollywood, or gone to Golden Miami."
Beverly Hills, California
"Trudi claims Miss Destiny is living in Beverly Hills (Skipper says oh no, Bel Air, if she really made it Big) with the rich daddy and her stud husband."
Bel Air, Los Angeles, California
"Trudi claims Miss Destiny is living in Beverly Hills (Skipper says oh no, Bel Air, if she really made it Big) with the rich daddy and her stud husband."
Pershing Square, Los Angeles, California
"And now we’re sitting in Pershing Square at the same place where I first met Miss Destiny...."
Los Angeles, California
"Each morning the pale sun rose in the imitation-blue sky of Los Angeles, and the endless resurrection of each new day began."
Pershing Square, Los Angeles, California
"I would stand often in the midst of the masked turbulence of Pershing Square, watching it fascinated."
Hope Street, Los Angeles, California
"Now in panic, I returned to that rented room on Hope Street. I shut the windows, drew the shades, bolted the door."
Pershing Square, Los Angeles, California
"Chuck sat familiarly on the railing at Pershing Square under the statue of a World War I soldier valiantly facing the street."
Los Angeles, California
"I returned to Los Angeles, to that same room on Hope Street, to that same roof at night—to the same maryjane daze whose miracles were slowly diminishing...."
Hope Street, Los Angeles, California
"I returned to Los Angeles, to that same room on Hope Street..."
Hollywood, Los Angeles, California
"It was in this parking lot out in Hollywood. This score I met out here, he got me that job."
La Jolla, San Diego, California
"I had gone to San Diego again: to the beach at La Jolla set like a jewel in a ring of gleaming sand."
San Diego, California
"the keyed-up idleness of the streets in the city—San Diego!—at night swarming with aimless sailors"
Long Beach, California
"And did I ever tell you who I saw at the Long Beach Drag Ball last Halloween?"
Georgia, United States
"“In Georgia?” I couldn’t help saying. “Oh, no, man—thats where I was born...."
Houston, Texas
"“This cat,” he goes on, “he says hes gonna go to Houston or Dallas—some place like that, I forget...."
Dallas, Texas
"“This cat,” he goes on, “he says hes gonna go to Houston or Dallas—some place like that, I forget...."
Los Angeles, California
"An I come on to L.A. an land in this here park.... Sergeant Morgan, hes the one that tole me what goes on."
Downtown Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California
"AMONG THE BANDS OF MALEHUSTLERS that hang out in downtown Los Angeles, there are often a few stray girls:"
Pershing Square, Los Angeles, California
"one of them the squarefaced youngman I had been interrogated with that afternoon in Pershing Square."
San Francisco, California
"I went to clean-aired San Francisco (where I would return—later—and stay much longer)—but soon I was back in Los Angeles."
Los Angeles, California
"but soon I was back in Los Angeles."
Main Street, Los Angeles, California
"And Main Street, though also fuzzhot, is even more crowded now. When the bars close on Main Street, their world spills into the streets."
Los Angeles Street, Los Angeles, California
"And as a reminder of this, beyond Los Angeles Street, in the same area of the world of Main Street but not really a part of it, is Skid Row—and you see prematurely old defeated men, flying on."
Skid Row, Los Angeles, California
"in the same area of the world of Main Street but not really a part of it, is Skid Row—and you see prematurely old defeated men, flying on. Thunderbird or Gallo wine, lost in this sunny rosy haven—"
Madison Avenue, New York City, New York
"Crazily, I imagine him walking along Madison Avenue in New York, mincing in a tight olive-green suit as if his legs were tied at the knees; carrying a pencil-thin umbrella as affectedly as he carries—and he carried it—the cigarette holder;"
Hollywood, Los Angeles, California
"One night, high, he had talked everyone into driving to Hollywood, and then, moodily, had put it down: “Hollywood’s nowhere.”"
Pershing Square, Los Angeles, California
"But I never saw him in Pershing Square."
Silverlake, Los Angeles, California
"Off and on he stayed at Trudi’s near Silverlake—a neat, feminine unit in a flowery court, paid for by Trudi’s “daddy.”"
Los Angeles, California
"I knew this guy in L.A.—see —that I stayed with. . . . See, when I got outta the service, I made this Main Street scene. I met—lots of guys—you know -go with them—hang around here—Main Street—all the time...."
Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles, California
"Then I hung around Schwartz’s, that movie drugstore—Hollywood Boulevard—the beaches: the whole scene...."
Pershing Square, Los Angeles, California
"Then—Christ!—I even got inna mess in fuckin Pershing Square.... Pershing Square!"
Hollywood, Los Angeles, California
"I came back —to Main Street—I didnt even wanna see Hollywood anymore—not even think about it...."
Los Angeles, California
"There is a bar in Los Angeles a block from Pershing Square, on Sixth Street. It’s called the Hodge Podge."
Times Square, New York City
"A few of the people I had known were gone—even in that short time—back to the Midwest or to Times Square, or had been busted, or moved to Coffee Andy’s in Hollywood, or gone to Golden Miami."
Times Square, New York City
"I returned, soon, to Pershing Square, as, before, I had returned to Times Square...."
El Paso, Texas
"as I had lain looking into the El Paso sky when I was a kid, when I had climbed that range of mountains called Cristo Rey, to get closer to that Sky..."
New York, New York
"It could even have been New York. Perhaps I had merely talked to him somewhere—Main Street, the park."
Hollywood, Los Angeles, California
"I just moved into this grand apartment, out in Hollywood, baby."
Beverly Hills, California
"Of course, I wish I could take you out to my new apartment—in Hollywood (though actually it’s closer to Beverly Hills)—but as a matter of fact, I havent really occupied it, yet."
Spring Street, Los Angeles, California
"…and so, in the meantime, Im still living on Spring Street."
Upper Broadway, Los Angeles, California
"We took a cab to a place on upper Broadway. The bar turns out to be mostly a spadebar."
Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles, California
"CITY OF NIGHT  HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD IS THE HEART OF the heartless Hollywood legend."
Crenshaw Boulevard, Los Angeles, California
"The sign on Crenshaw, surrounded by giant roses, said: WE TREAT THE SOLES OF YOUR FEET FOR INNER PEACE"
Melrose Avenue, Los Angeles, California
"and on Melrose you see a happy-faced Christ before a church: His splendid robes uncommonly festive."
Las Palmas, Los Angeles, California
"Off Las Palmas, along—but on the opposite side of—the outdoor newsstand—where professional existentialists with or without sandals leaf through a paperback book"
Pershing Square, Los Angeles, California
"on Saturday nights especially, the oldman graduate of Pershing Square writes Bible inscriptions on the street: in chalk; neat, incredibly beautiful letters."
Selma Street, Los Angeles, California
"and will they make it tonight and if so will it be someone Nice and early please God so they wont have to add to the shadows on Selma. And Selma Street is a dark purgatory"
Hope Street, Los Angeles, California
"and I return alone to, now, another rented room on Hope Street, in another hotel this time; and in that room, I lie in bed aware of myself"
El Paso, Texas
"Longingly, I remember the mountain I had climbed as a boy: the statue of Christ under that most beautiful sky in the world.... And then I would see El Paso racked by the savage wind."
Echo Park, Los Angeles, California
"and it is, because now I'm in Echo Park, where a queen, camping by the head, calls out, 'Hi babe—welcome to Jenny’s tearoom—and, you understand, I'm Jenny, and this is my tearoom"
Aimee Semple McPherson’s Temple of uppropriately Brotherly Love, Los Angeles, California
"indicating the head (across the street from Aimee Semple McPherson’s Temple of uppropriately Brotherly Love); going on: 'I come here, oh, every day,"
Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles, California
"as cars like glowing-eyed bugs curve along Sunset Boulevard as if in general alarm"
Mulholland Drive, Los Angeles, California
"I'm on Mulholland Drive in the parked car of a man just met: cramped in the car by the edge of a cliff overlooking the city"
Westlake, Los Angeles, California
"this time at Westlake, where two anxious fairies cruise me—one coming up saying hurriedly, 'Right here—behind those trees—my ‘sister’ will watch out for us"
Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, California
"sounds of cars rushing along Wilshire—the park so dark, so dark, so dark, under now a starless night"
Highland Avenue, Los Angeles, California
"or outside the sandwich stand toward Highland, which attracts, mainly, young hustlers and the scores hunting them."
Biltmore Hotel, Los Angeles, California
"here to attend a PTA convention at the Biltmore, buys a moviebook"
San Francisco, California
"culminating in violence outside of San Francisco."
Laguna Beach, California
"“Except maybe that time in Laguna,” Jamey said. “Well, you dont know what really happened, and dont pretend you do."
Hollywood, Los Angeles, California
"In Hollywood, Randy is a well-known figure—a still-goodlooking, masculine homosexual who, the whisperers have it, pushes narcotics."
Laguna Beach, California
"“Well, you’re too much. Cant forget Laguna Beach, can you, sweetheart?”"
Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles, California
"…someone told me the other day she got run over by this car crossing Hollywood Boulevard, and all I can say is: If shes still cruising the Boulevard, at her age, well, baby, she couldnt expect otherwise…"
Las Vegas, Nevada
"…I know this cute kid he told he was going to take to Las Vegas and spend all kinds of fabulous sums on him (which he hasnt got)…"
New York, New York
"…Lance was Famous from here to New York!—he'd been Pierce Flint’s lover, and he had affairs with Bruce Storm and Kipp Rugged—all those big Movie Stars…"
Las Vegas, Nevada
"She promised to take him to Las Vegas, spend all kinds of money on him if he’d let her make him—and then she gives the kid a phony phone number—..."
Cahuenga Boulevard, Los Angeles
"I walked down the Boulevard, turned on Cahuenga."
Arrowhead, California
"Where are we?' he asked me. 'Near Arrowhead—I think."
Hollywood, Los Angeles, California
"By then I had already been in Hollywood long enough to be pegged as one of the many Hollywood drifters who fall into this world out of at least announced convenience, not strictly “belonging” to it—yet."
Hollywood, Los Angeles, California
"the gay world of Hollywood finds its head-quarters at the Splendide bar:"
New Orleans, Louisiana
"in a pseudo-New-Orleans decor of grillwork and French posters, draped scarlet velvet, dusty winebottles"
Downtown Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California
"the hints of drag employed by the much more courageous downtown Los Angeles queens"
Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles, California
"Then the motor started uncertainly, the car sped away, around the corner, into Sunset Boulevard, as I entered the Rendezvous Room."
Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles, California
"Suddenly I was on Hollywood Boulevard. The bright early sun crashes on me, colors burst like tiny rockets. It was Saturday."
Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles, California
"Off Hollywood Boulevard—in a pseudo-New-Orleans decor of grillwork and French posters, draped scarlet velvet, dusty winebottles—the gay world of Hollywood finds its head-quarters at the Splendide bar:"
Sixth Street, San Francisco, California
"There is a bar in Los Angeles a block from Pershing Square, on Sixth Street. It’s called the Hodge Podge."
Laguna Beach, California
"I know! Let's go there now—to Laguna Beach! I haven't been there since that day. We've still got time! I'd like to see it again."
Southern California, United States
"Summer, which in Southern California does not come Magically as it does in the East."
La Jolla, San Diego, California
"to La Jolla, to Malibu, to Long Beach, to Venice West, Laguna—from the canyon beyond Malibu as the morning fog is swept away into the ocean;"
Malibu, California
"to La Jolla, to Malibu, to Long Beach, to Venice West, Laguna—from the canyon beyond Malibu as the morning fog is swept away into the ocean;"
Long Beach, California
"to La Jolla, to Malibu, to Long Beach, to Venice West, Laguna—from the canyon beyond Malibu as the morning fog is swept away into the ocean;"
Laguna Beach, California
"to La Jolla, to Malibu, to Long Beach, to Venice West, Laguna—from the canyon beyond Malibu as the morning fog is swept away into the ocean;"
San Diego, California
"And only a short distance beyond it and the navy base: San Diego, a familiar row of tattoo parlors, loan shops, stores —typical of all the lonely servicemen towns in America: sailors roaming the nightstreets—whiteclouds of drifting uniforms."
Los Angeles, California
"from the hot Los Angeles streets where the heat gathers in steaming pools;"
Santa Monica, California
"And Santa Monica. From a slim green flowered park (a statue of Saint Monica serenely eyeing the long lines of cars turning from Wilshire Boulevard toward the beaches), the sand gleams expansively white—and Pacific Ocean Park gathers itself like a small facsimile pleasure-island: rides, a simulated sea, Neptune holding court over rainbowed fish, make-believe jungles."
Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, California
"(a statue of Saint Monica serenely eyeing the long lines of cars turning from Wilshire Boulevard toward the beaches)"
Muscle Beach, Santa Monica, California
"beyond muscle beach, where the men with balloons for muscles posed for each other with set faces—is “Crystal Beach.”"
Pacific Ocean Park, Santa Monica, California
"—and Pacific Ocean Park gathers itself like a small facsimile pleasure-island: rides, a simulated sea, Neptune holding court over rainbowed fish, make-believe jungles."
Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles, California
"A few days later, in an all‐night coffeehouse on Sunset, he sat next to me."
Arrowhead, California
"‘Maybe you'll want to go to Arrowhead with me tomorrow.’"
Southern California, United States
"…I’m not at all sure he’s a cop—not because of what he said (Southern California is notorious for entrapment—they’ll even offer you money and bust you later)…"
Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, California
"At the restaurant on Wilshire—as we stood waiting to be served (surrounded by tanned faces rejuvenated by the Sun)"
Lake Arrowhead, California
"“Or you want to drive somewhere and have breakfast? ... How about Arrowhead?” I had been there not too long ago with Dave – but it was never him. We drove to Arrowhead, early that morning—to the lake there and the beach, almost like a New England Village: imitation-cottage buildings, small logged shops."
Santa Monica, California
"We returned to Santa Monica that afternoon. Crossing the bridge leading to the amusement park, he said: “I'm glad you decided to hang around with me. My vacation will be over soon—then I have to go back. I hate to think about it…”"
Pacific Ocean Park, Santa Monica, California
"…as we walk toward Venice West, past the tourist “international” restaurants like a small hybrid town—beyond Pacific Ocean Park, past the beach stores and food counters, past the old retired people who sit on the benches dozing throughout the day…"
Venice West, Los Angeles, California
"As we walk toward Venice West, past the tourist “international” restaurants like a small hybrid town—beyond Pacific Ocean Park, past the beach stores and food counters, past the old retired people who sit on the benches dozing throughout the day…"
Venice West, Los Angeles, California
"The Carnival is one of many crackerbox buildings along a row of crumbling stores that make Venice West."
Crystal Beach, California
"We’re on Crystal Beach now. Inside Sally’s bar, there are only about seven people."
Los Angeles, California
"For many, San Francisco is an escape, in that coffin-shaped state, from the restless neon-forest of Los Angeles."
San Francisco, California
"For many, San Francisco is an escape, in that coffin-shaped state, from the restless neon-forest of Los Angeles. Its whitewashed, closely pressed houses cuddle each other as if from the chilly invigorating breeze that invades its streets every day around noon, washing them with rain-specked fog almost nightly."
Market Street, San Francisco, California
"Looking out the window where I worked on Market Street, I saw an older man stop to talk to a boy who had been loitering at the comer obviously trying to score."
Turk Street, San Francisco, California
"but at the end of each of those previous nights, he had driven me to the Y on Turk Street, where I was staying, and he would give me money."
Mission, San Francisco, California
"Even its inevitably shabby streets—around Mission, say, or toward the Embarcadero, into Italiantown—exhale that fresh, fresh bay-air."
Italiantown, San Francisco, California
"Even its inevitably shabby streets—around Mission, say, or toward the Embarcadero, into Italiantown—exhale that fresh, fresh bay-air."
Vine Street, Los Angeles, California
"At the Ranch Market on Vine Street, a cockeyed clock winds its hands swiftly backwards. Longingly I stand before it."
Venice, Italy
"to La Jolla, to Malibu, to Long Beach, to Venice West, Laguna—from the canyon beyond Malibu as the morning fog is swept away into the ocean;"
Russian Hill, San Francisco, California, United States
"We sit now on Russian Hill, in his apartment, which, like him, is impeccable. If I stand by the wide window, I can see the city, fog-covered tonight:"
Hope Street, Los Angeles, California
"as he drove me to the hotel on Hope Street, I felt certain I wouldn’t be there when he came by."
Pacific Ocean Park, Santa Monica, California
"We walk through Pacific Ocean Park—the gay sounds of the many people still on that candy‐colored strip only emphasizing the thundering silence between us."
The Embarcadero, San Francisco, California, United States
"Even its inevitably shabby streets—around Mission, say, or toward the Embarcadero, into Italiantown—exhale that fresh, fresh bay-air."
North Beach, San Francisco, California
"Back in San Francisco, to North Beach, usually to the Raven bar—which, at that time, was the best scoring bar in the city—especially on weekends, when a queen would go through a parody of an opera, playing all the female parts."
Raven bar, North Beach, San Francisco, California
"Back in San Francisco, to North Beach, usually to the Raven bar—which, at that time, was the best scoring bar in the city—especially on weekends, when a queen would go through a parody of an opera, playing all the female parts."
Stirrup Club, Turk Street, San Francisco, California
"Now the fastidiously dressed man next to me at the Stirrup Club on Turk Street has been wordlessly drawing on a piece of notebook paper."
Powell Street, San Francisco, California
"and you stand pretending you're watching the toylike trolley swinging around to begin its weary ascent up Powell."
Aquatic Park, San Francisco, California
"Now in the afternoons I would go to Aquatic Park: a short beach curled along the bay, a section like a truncated stadium — concrete stairs — where you sit and wait."
Carmel-by-the-Sea, California
"With someone met in that journey through other lives, I went to Carmel. To Monterey.... To Big Sur: craggy awesome cliffs outlined by twisted trees."
Monterey, California
"With someone met in that journey through other lives, I went to Carmel. To Monterey.... To Big Sur: craggy awesome cliffs outlined by twisted trees."
Big Sur, California
"With someone met in that journey through other lives, I went to Carmel. To Monterey.... To Big Sur: craggy awesome cliffs outlined by twisted trees."
Oakland, California
"We’re sitting, instead in the early afternoon, in the living-room of a neat house in a lushly treed area in Oakland, across the bay from San Francisco."
San Francisco, California
"across the bay from San Francisco."
Seattle, Washington
"I had a call from a youngman in Seattle the other day."
Los Angeles, California
"I get calls all the time from Los Angeles...."
Oakland, California
"Ive made Enormous strides here in Oakland and in San Francisco."
San Francisco, California
"Ive made Enormous strides here in Oakland and in San Francisco."
Los Angeles, California
"In the middle of summer I usually go to Los Angeles to see how things are going. Ive bought many fine items there."
Seattle, Washington
"I get calls from Los Angeles—as far as Seattle—farther!"
Union Square, San Francisco, California
"Did you know, Neil, that once, when I told you there was a guy who hung out in Union Square in leather and you went and sat there three straight nights in a row waiting for him..."
Market Street, San Francisco, California
"One time, he said, 'I was walking along Market Street—oh, I was really Dressed Up—a cowboy!"
Seventh and Market, San Francisco, California
"Saint Neil of the Leather Jacket sometimes makes his contacts at the famous corner of Seventh and Market by the Greyhound bus station. (Did he meet you there?)"
San Francisco, California
"(I remember that other man in San Francisco: “You will eventually ... if not with me, with some one else.”)"
Chicago, Illinois
"Now it will be Chicago—that savage city like a black fortress erected against the blue of the sky, the blue of the lake."
San Francisco, California
"I fled California. San Francisco, which had lured me spuriously with its promise of renewed life, had withdraw that promise."
Hollywood, Los Angeles, California
"I’ll search again through the labyrinthine world I had found on Times Square, in downtown Los Angeles, Hollywood, Market Street...."
Dearborn Street, Chicago, Illinois
"I stayed in an apartment house on Dearborn next to the YMCA."
YMCA, Chicago, Illinois
"I stayed in an apartment house on Dearborn next to the YMCA."
Gold Coast, Chicago, Illinois
"Behind me, the outline of the wealthy Gold Coast: luxurious apartments glistening goldenly in the sun—resembling, for all their plush elegance, clean hospital wards: rows of giant apartment buildings like monsters ready to march snobbishly into the lake."
Rush Street, Chicago, Illinois
"Back and forth on the streets (Dearborn, Rush)—back to the park, the beach."
Clark Street, Chicago, Illinois
"I will search the park between Dearborn and Clark: Chicago’s Pershing Square... Pursuing ghosts on Clark Street...."
Madison Street, Chicago, Illinois
"Madison Street. The enormous Kemper Insurance Building—a huge gray ugly building a block square along the river."
Kemper Insurance Building, Chicago, Illinois
"The enormous Kemper Insurance Building—a huge gray ugly building a block square along the river. Looming darkly. More than 40 stories high."
West Madison, Chicago, Illinois
"Cross the bridge. And West Madison stretches in shabby tatters for blocks of leprous buildings."
State Street, Chicago, Illinois
"Beyond the tangle of the elevated, to State Street: carnival street: Tattoo joints; novelty shops (horror masks leering among rubber cobra snakes, masks less hideous than the human ones along the Madison doorways); arcades (“Parisian Movies,” “Chauffeur Photos,” “Art Films”)."
63rd and Cottage Grove, Chicago, Illinois
"Under the elevated at 63rd and Cottage Grove: nearby: The Temple of Brotherly Love."
Temple of Brotherly Love, Chicago, Illinois
"Under the elevated at 63rd and Cottage Grove: nearby: The Temple of Brotherly Love. A cross proclaims: GOD’S CORNER."
Maison Blanche, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States
"“Kathy just passed out on the steps of the Maison Blanche!” a queen blurted at Sylvia."
Downtown Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California
"I’ll search again through the labyrinthine world I had found on Times Square, in downtown Los Angeles, Hollywood, Market Street...."
Pershing Square, Los Angeles, California
"I will search the park between Dearborn and Clark: Chicago’s Pershing Square, without the almost-healthy indolence of Los Angeles."
Market Street, San Francisco, California
"I’ll search again through the labyrinthine world I had found on Times Square, in downtown Los Angeles, Hollywood, Market Street...."
Griffith Park, Los Angeles, California
"I’ve heard there’s a man near Griffith Park in Los Angeles who has a pretty good collection"
Evanston, Illinois
"The face of the man who took me to his house in Evanston (and it was here that I had stopped on my way to New York, here that I had felt the restless compulsive anarchy those afternoons walking by the lake with my friend, now gone)."
New York, New York
"the man who took me to his house in Evanston (and it was here that I had stopped on my way to New York, here that I had felt the restless compulsive anarchy those afternoons walking by the lake with my friend, now gone)."
Wells Street, Chicago, Illinois
"Wells. Oak. Franklin. Thirty-fifth. Negro streets at night."
Oak Street, Chicago, Illinois
"Wells. Oak. Franklin. Thirty-fifth. Negro streets at night."
35th Street, Chicago, Illinois
"Wells. Oak. Franklin. Thirty-fifth. Negro streets at night."
New Orleans, Louisiana
"—’Way Down Yonder in New Orleans"
Times Square, New York City
"Along Times Square, in the midst of the dogged winter, when the wind lashes at the concrete City like an icy scythe, the tattered army of young vagrants will raise their collars shelteringly and receive the calling...."
Los Angeles, California
"In the warm palm-treed Los Angeles nights, restlessly they will feel the secret excitement. In Harry’s, Wally’a Along the Main-Street-blocks-long arcade. In Pershing Square. Along winking Hollywood Boulevard. At Hooper’s in the stale greasy light...."
Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles, California
"Along winking Hollywood Boulevard."
Market Street, San Francisco, California
"On Market Street in dewy San Francisco, from Seventh Street to the magazine store at Powell, as they stand perhaps in the drizzle, fugitive spirits will respond to that now-faint message soon to become drummingly insistent ..."
Powell Street, San Francisco, California
"to the magazine store at Powell"
Chicago, Illinois
"In Chicago, along Clark Street. In the Square—as they huddle indolently in the frozen night for a car to stop and someone to ask if you want a Ride—that call will whisper to the outcasts like wind from the deserted concrete lake. Along Division Street."
Clark Street, Chicago, Illinois
"along Clark Street."
Division Street, Chicago, Illinois
"Along Division Street."
New Orleans, Louisiana
"lean young faces will dot the white-winter highways, fingers will point in the direction of Away, New Orleans."
Canal Street, New Orleans, Louisiana
"Canal Street lengthens before me—perhaps the widest street I have ever seen."
Jackson Square, New Orleans, Louisiana
"About Jackson Square, portrait artists line the walks into Pirates Alley, imprisoning on paper the pastel smiles of tourists."
Pirates Alley, New Orleans, Louisiana
"About Jackson Square, portrait artists line the walks into Pirates Alley, imprisoning on paper the pastel smiles of tourists."
French Market, New Orleans, Louisiana
"I walked instead through the blocks of fish-redolent, color-splashed French Market nearby; along the docks—wondering exactly why I have come to this city."
St Louis Cathedral, New Orleans, Louisiana
"I stare at St Louis Cathedral, which looms like a gray fortress barricaded for War—"
Esplanade, New Orleans, Louisiana
"I went with him to a house on Esplanade."
French Quarter, New Orleans, Louisiana
"IN THE MIDST OF THE FRENCH QUARTER, and above the trees of Jackson Square, the steeples of St Louis Cathedral, threatening Escape into Heaven, thrust crosses bravely into the sky, the highest a vague icy outline, the frozen ghosts of a cross from the distance—but slenderly erect overlooking with heavenly indifference—from that summery winter sky etched delicately with spider-grilled outlines from the city’s balconies —the sprawling casbah world of the French Quarter."
Jackson Square, New Orleans, Louisiana
"IN THE MIDST OF THE FRENCH QUARTER, and above the trees of Jackson Square, the steeples of St Louis Cathedral, threatening Escape into Heaven, thrust crosses bravely into the sky, the highest a vague icy outline, the frozen ghosts of a cross from the distance—but slenderly erect overlooking with heavenly indifference—..."
St Louis Cathedral, New Orleans, Louisiana
"the steeples of St Louis Cathedral, threatening Escape into Heaven, thrust crosses bravely into the sky, the highest a vague icy outline, the frozen ghosts of a cross from the distance—but slenderly erect overlooking with heavenly indifference—"
Canal Street, New Orleans, Louisiana
"Even those of us who have just arrived sense it immediately—that invisible boundary enclosing a square area bordered, arbitrarily, by Canal and Esplanade on parallel sides, Burgundy and Decatur perpendicular to them."
Esplanade Avenue, New Orleans, Louisiana
"Even those of us who have just arrived sense it immediately—that invisible boundary enclosing a square area bordered, arbitrarily, by Canal and Esplanade on parallel sides, Burgundy and Decatur perpendicular to them."
Burgundy, New Orleans, Louisiana
"Even those of us who have just arrived sense it immediately—that invisible boundary enclosing a square area bordered, arbitrarily, by Canal and Esplanade on parallel sides, Burgundy and Decatur perpendicular to them."
Decatur Street, New Orleans, Louisiana
"Even those of us who have just arrived sense it immediately—that invisible boundary enclosing a square area bordered, arbitrarily, by Canal and Esplanade on parallel sides, Burgundy and Decatur perpendicular to them."
Royal Street, New Orleans, Louisiana
"we turn into Royal, where the man who has asked us to follow him has already called a cab."
French Quarter, New Orleans, Louisiana
"Somewhere beyond the Quarter, the taxi stopped before what looks like a boarded-up store."
Santa Monica, California
"I remember the man on the beach, that afternoon in Santa Monica, with whom I had sat on the sand watching that bird Escape into the sky."
Los Angeles, California
"And I think of Barbara, perhaps still somewhere in the maze of downtown Los Angeles...."
New Orleans, Louisiana
"Why the hell did you come to New Orleans?"
New York, New York
"I came directly from New York—right after my last divorce"
Franklin Street, Los Angeles, California
"Wells. Oak. Franklin. Thirty-fifth. Negro streets at night."
Seventh Street, Los Angeles, California, United States
"from Seventh Street to the magazine store at Powell"
Jackson Square, New Orleans, Louisiana
"I left the bar quickly, infinitely depressed. But in the other crowded bars, or on the streets, or walking through Jackson Square, I was obsessed by Sylvia’s face."
New Orleans, Louisiana
"“Gonna sell this bar!” she shouted. “Leave New Orleans—never, never, never come back.”"
Atlanta, Georgia, United States
"Vicki and Salli (Victor and Steve, respectively, in Atlanta"
Nebraska, United States
"Betti (who was Benny in Nebraska) said I was her new husband"
Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States
"the cemetery in back of the Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe"
Lee Circle, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States
"saw the statue of General Lee surveying Lee Circle, arms crossed, disapproving"
Jackson Square, New Orleans, Louisiana
"Bodies are passed out in Jackson Square as if on a battlefield before the mop-up, empty hurricane glasses like mock tombs beside them."
New Orleans, Louisiana
"A queen in wilting drag, in withering eye makeup, was singing raucously: “Howre you gonna keep them down on the fawm—after theyve seen a New Wor-lee-eens queen?”"
Santa Monica, California
"…and I recognize that crewcut man: the man on the beach who had fled from me that lonely night in Santa Monica—and suddenly I feel like crying because it’s true that people dont have wings...."
New Orleans, Louisiana
"And with her is Pauline, whos already spotted me. “Baby!” she gushes at me. “How good to see a familiar face —From Home! Oh, I just knew youd be in New Orleans. Why did you desert mel”"
Los Angeles, California
"“Here we are! Just in from Los gay Angeles!” Arms eagle-spread, there stands Lola, Miss Destiny’s ugly queenfriend from downtown Los Angeles."
Gretna, Louisiana
"At The Rocking Times a youngman I know wants me to help him “finish a rumble with some bad cats from Gretna.”"
Paris, France
"“Shit, man, Im going to Paris,” I heard Sonny say to him, turning for affirmation to the two scores hes been with."
Royal Street, New Orleans, Louisiana
"Outside, beyond the draped and shuttered windows of this balconied room on Royal (it’s still not time for the Parade, I notice, looking urgently at my watch)"
French Quarter, New Orleans, Louisiana
"This room, just around the corner from the bar where I met him, is obviously one of those expensive rooms reserved months in advance of the carnival: their prices determined almost exclusively by their location in the French Quarter, the balcony from which the carnival rites can be viewed."
French Market, New Orleans, Louisiana
"I saw you several times before—the first time was near the French Market. I saw you staring at the cooped-up roosters there, I saw your reaction when they seemed to want to claw their way out of their cage."
New Orleans, Louisiana
"the man on the beach in Santa Monica (and I remember him, instead, as I had seen him earlier here in New Orleans)"
Santa Monica, California
"the man on the beach in Santa Monica (and I remember him, instead, as I had seen him earlier here in New Orleans)"
Chicago, Illinois
"That night in Chicago, walking along the lake, when I felt myself exploding with love—but it was something else, something that was closer to pity..."
Los Angeles, California
"I remembered the man in Los Angeles who had almost begged me to rob him."
Houston, Texas
"The jaded man from Houston in the tawdry pink Cadillac"
Boston, Massachusetts
"When did you get back into town? How was Boston, baby?"
St. Louis, Missouri, United States
"“I been in St Louis.”"
Miami, Florida
"“How was Miami?” “I didnt stay there long. I had to split,” he said."
New Orleans, Louisiana
"Those New Orleans carnival days, divided for me not by clock-hours but by the many, many faces."
Downtown Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California
"Well, it's closed now, you know—so is Ji-Ji's—the heat is on in downtown L.A. something fierce."
El Paso, Texas
"I’ll remember the processions in El Paso when the people marched chanting to the top of the mountain where the statue of Christ looked down, pityingly, arms outstretched"
Roosevelt Hotel, Los Angeles, California, United States
"I was sitting in a car the other day with a daddy whod left his ole tired wife at the Roosevelt Hotel to be With Me—and we were necking up a storm—and a vice cop saw us"
42nd Street, New York City
"After I had finished pissing, I remained standing there with my pants still open, and the man near me approached me. It had been on 42nd Street, in one of the all-night moviehouses."
French Quarter, New Orleans, Louisiana
"during those teeming French Quarter days, like a startlingly recalled dream of long ago"
French Quarter, New Orleans, Louisiana
"but toning down the incredulity, she welcomed her to the queen sorority of the French Quarter."
Canal Street, New Orleans, Louisiana
"reflecting the choked lights along Canal Straeet under the winter stars"
Jackson Square, New Orleans, Louisiana
"“We are! Any size! From Jackson Square, the steeples of the Cathedral are luminous, uncovered of the night. The Cathedral seems to be expanding as if in preparation for siege....”"
French Market, New Orleans, Louisiana
"sitting in the Coffee House at the French Market"
Royal Street, New Orleans, Louisiana
"dragging their husbands depressingly along Royal Street (Roo Rowyall)"
Texas, United States
"And then suddenly I remembered: the white sheets which my mother would hang up to dry in the Texas sun. And, drying, they flapped cleanly in the wind under the vast miles of equally clean sky."
French Market, New Orleans, Louisiana
"…the only sound was the desperate flaying of those wings (just as the wings of that rooster had fluttered earlier when I had stood by the French Market mysteriously intrigued: that rooster’s wings lashing as if in protest against the impending slaughter)…"
New Orleans, Louisiana
"“I’ll be leaving New Orleans, right after Mardi Gras.... Back to New York. If you want, you can come with me. We can even leave now, before the Carnival is over.”"
New York, New York
"“I’ll be leaving New Orleans, right after Mardi Gras.... Back to New York. If you want, you can come with me. We can even leave now, before the Carnival is over.”"
St Charles Avenue, New Orleans
"CITY OF NIGHT  FROM ST CHARLES AVENUE, THE PARADE of Rex passed in front of the Mayor, who drank champagne, standing on a platform attended by a Negro in white gloves, while the King of the parade smashed his own wine glass into the street and the people screamed with joy, and someone sang, “If I ever cease to love....”"
New Orleans, Louisiana
"…The City That Care Forgot: New Orleans. The Parade of Comus.... The last parade of Mardi Gras —a gaudy funeral...."
Bourbon Street, New Orleans
"Past the giant burlesque picture of Holly Sand on Bourbon. And I imagine her making quite a breeze, creating quite a storm, fanning waves of flesh-desire (to go all the way)…"
Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles, California
"Or if I hitchhike on this street, I’ll be on Hollywood Boulevard, which will be lighted like a huge electric snake—and there, I’ll meet—..."
Los Angeles, California
"I remember living next to the Y in Los Angeles, where I sunbathed on the roof of that apartment building, and by signals from the residents of the Y, I would meet them later on the street...."
Griffith Park, Los Angeles, California
"I remember Griffith Park—the hill where you could make it hidden by trees...."
Laguna Beach, California
"And I remember the police, the many roustings, finger‐printings, interrogations: the cops, the rival gang—the enemy: the world.... Laguna Beach, the sand drifting into the bar."
Chicago, Illinois
"Or in the park in Chicago, also waiting...."
Dallas, Texas
"I remember a party where three of us turned on with marijuana in the locked head, and I remember: In Dallas—remembering—the doors of rooms left open at the Y and the steamy intimacy in the showers...."
San Francisco, California
"I remembered someone in San Francisco who had followed me and someone else to an apartment, and later I looked out the window and saw the man who had followed us still waiting, looking up forlornly to where we were, his hands in his pockets...."
St Louis Cemetery, New Orleans
"I think of St Louis Cemetery in this city, the stark graves above the Waiting ground...."
St Patrick’s, New Orleans
"The first church I telephoned was St Patrick’s. “I cant see you,” said the priest, “not until morning, we’re closed now.” And he hung up."
Church of Eternal Succor, New Orleans
"I called The Church of Eternal Succor, and I called other churches—and they all said: “No.” “Go to sleep.” “Come tomorrow to the confessional.” (Where life doesnt roar so loudly—in whispers, it can be listened to....)"
St Vincent de Paul, New Orleans
"I called one more church. St Vincent de Paul. And a priest who sounded very young answered, and he didnt hang up and he was the one I had tried to reach, I knew, and he spoke to me and spoke—and I can remember only one thing he said: “I know,” he said. “Yes, I know.”"
42nd Street, New York City
"If I take the subway, I’ll be on 42nd Street. Or in Bryant Park, or on the steps of the library, waiting for Mr King...."
Bryant Park, New York City
"If I take the subway, I’ll be on 42nd Street. Or in Bryant Park, or on the steps of the library, waiting for Mr King...."
Jackson Square, New Orleans, Louisiana
"…youngmen prowl Jackson Square restlessly watching the tourists anxious to wait anxiously in line to have coffee and donuts at the French Market, while Marie Antoinette and Robin Hood are being chased into the Cathedral by a band of cannibals…"
Pirates Alley, New Orleans, Louisiana
"…and dejectedly at Pirates Alley (the saddest single sight I saw), Scarlett O’Hara, Miss Ange, her hooped skirt high up revealing hairy man’s legs—drunk, dead drunk—and frantic and lost and lonesome and sad and desperate—wailed to no one: “Tara burned! And I aint got the money to pay the taxes!”"
French Market, New Orleans, Louisiana
"…watching the tourists anxious to wait anxiously in line to have coffee and donuts at the French Market, while Marie Antoinette and Robin Hood are being chased into the Cathedral by a band of cannibals that later caught on fire…"
St Louis Cathedral, New Orleans, Louisiana
"I called St Louis Cathedral. “I cant see you —of course not—I get these calls all the time.”"
New York, New York
"“Children, Go Where I Send You,” special permission through arrangement with Unicorn Music Company, New York City;"
New York, New York
"This is only by way of saying that when I reached New York, that world was waiting for me. I required no slow initiation."
New York, New York
"…and I added to the shadows in one of those thousands of hallways in New York City in immense apartment houses erected in the large American cities before buildings grew tall and skinny."
New York, New York
"One sharply cold windy Sunday afternoon—the clouds sweeping the newyork sky like sheets—I saw him coming toward me where I was standing."
New York, New York
"Summer had come angrily into New York with the impact of a panting animal."
New York, New York
"“Don't pay attention to her, sonny,” the fatman says to me. “She's just in from New York,” he explains, indicating the skinny man, “and I told her she’d have to see Main Street.”"
New York, New York
"…all gorgeous modern furniture, original paintings (all the way from New York—drapes like in the Movies—everything!"
New York, New York
"“Have you been to New York?” “Twice,” I answered, still thinking of the electric island. “I never learned how to swim, though,” I said jokingly."
New York, New York
"By now winter was approaching in New York. Hurricanes and threats of hurricanes had stopped, and the air was clear."
New York, New York
"That was during another one of my periods in New York. Things were not going too well—uh—financially."
New York, New York
"“Even in New York,” said the skinny one, “everyone knows about him. I heard hes got this great pool—boys there all the time. I heard—”"
New York, New York
"“Well,” said the blond one, propping an elbow on the bar, hand dangling loosely from the wrist like a tulip, “he did go to New York. He was going to do a Show—but—”"
New York, New York
"…the threat of meeting someone who looks perfectly “normal” and who turns out to be psycho—like the man in the raincoat in New York who had pulled a knife on me…"
New York, New York
"Now the nights began to warm up. It’s that magnificent interlude in New York between winter and spring, when you feel the warmth stirring, and you remember that the dreadful naked trees will inevitably sprout tiny green buds, soon."
Los Angeles, California
"I have heard hes now in Los Angeles—Im not sure—Ive heard he works in a bar—... Its been so many years.... Maybe he has soared to Heaven to bring Beauty to that drab place...."
Los Angeles, California
"Yet Skipper (drunk somewhere in downtown Los Angeles ... remembering the deceptive past) had discovered that it was the scores who had swallowed him."
United States
"…The ones who drained me—who never knew Me!—never respected Me. Love? Bought! Bought for the prospect of a trip to America, a wedding ring which I would never wear, pairs of shoes and bottles of wine—bought!…"
Mexico City, Mexico
"There were other photographs—youngmen in Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Mexico, America . . ."
Times Square, New York City
"I’ll search again through the labyrinthine world I had found on Times Square, in downtown Los Angeles, Hollywood, Market Street...."
Times Square, New York City
"I remember the man on Times Square. But I know that this time I will not be expected to walk around the streets in this man’s clothes."
New Orleans, Louisiana
"After Mardi Gras, this city clamps up. It dies, as if it’s seen too much during the Carnival, and then you can almost feel Lent in the air. You breathe it. It takes over the city. New Orleans goes into mourning."
New Orleans, Louisiana
"Now, during Mardi Gras, when the barcrowds flow from one place to another—a mob thirsty for the momentary liquid gayety of the carnival—from the blue-shifting, pink lights of the burlesque halls to the offbeat, side‐street bars—there will be, too, in overwhelming abundance, the curious and the largely unaware, both men and women. For this one day, those two worlds will collide—the nightworld and the touristwodd—on the twisting, grinding, clamoring stage of Carnival, New Orleans."
New Orleans, Louisiana
"And is that why I—and others—have come to New Orleans, sensing the masked ritual of Shrove Tuesday?"
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
"goes back to Philadelphia to place a Wreath on Duke’s grave, and comes to Los Angeles with a Southern Accent...."
Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles, California
"LATER I WOULD THINK OF AMERICA as one vast City of Night stretching gaudily from Times Square to Hollywood Boulevard —jukebox-winking, rock-n-roll-moaning: America at night fusing its darkcities into the unmistakable shape of loneliness."
French Quarter, New Orleans, Louisiana
"…where the burgeoning Parade-crowds, released for the afternoon, have been heaved into the Quarter; and youngmen prowl Jackson Square restlessly watching the tourists anxious to wait anxiously in line to have coffee and donuts at the French Market, while Marie Antoinette and Robin Hood are being chased into the Cathedral by a band of cannibals…"
French Quarter, New Orleans, Louisiana
"There are of course other bars in the French Quarter where the hunted and the hunting of that world gather."
34th Street, New York City
"34TH STREET IN New York City hurries urgently from river to river, and on that street, east, is the soul-squashing building where a few days later (not yet) I will add to the shadows in that cavern of halls, rooms, community kitchens, yellow-mirrored bathrooms (and whatever light entered the maze from outside squeezed in reluctantly through grimecoated windows at the ends of each hall)"
Greyhound Station, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States
"Now at last in New Orleans, in the bright sun of this winter-warm city, I stand outside the Greyhound station where Ive left my bag, and I wonder where to go."