Secret Historian: The Life and Times of Samuel Steward, Professor, Tattoo Artist, and Sexual Renegade by Justin Spring

Secret Historian by Justin Spring is not a book about tattoos, but it is a book about the life of a very interesting tattoo artist in the twentieth century. The book recounts the secret life of Samuel Steward who is more popularly known as Phil Sparrow in the ink world. Sparrow was once considered the official tattoo artist of the Hell’s Angels in Oakland, California. Interestingly enough, Steward was a University Professor before he decided to give up teaching and start tattooing full time.

Here’s a brief description of the book from the publisher:

“Drawn from the secret, never-before-seen diaries, journals, and sexual records of the novelist, poet, and university professor Samuel M. Steward, Secret Historian is a sensational reconstruction of one of the more extraordinary hidden lives of the twentieth century. An intimate friend of Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas, and Thornton Wilder, Steward maintained a secret sex life from childhood on, and documented these experiences in brilliantly vivid (and often very funny) detail.

After leaving the world of academe to become Phil Sparrow, a tattoo artist on Chicago’s notorious South State Street, Steward worked closely with Alfred Kinsey on his landmark sex research. During the early 1960s, Steward changed his name and identity once again, this time to write exceptionally literate, upbeat pro-homosexual pornography under the name of Phil Andros.

Until today he has been known only as Phil Sparrow–but an extraordinary archive of his papers, lost since his death in 1993, has provided Justin Spring with the material for an exceptionally compassionate and brilliantly illuminating life-and-times biography. More than merely the story of one remarkable man, Secret Historian is a moving portrait of homosexual life long before Stonewall and gay liberation.”

When Steward died in 1993, he left all of his belongings including his writings and photographs to a GLBT library which was what most other gay men were doing at the time. Since the death toll during the AIDS epidemic was high, the library had no room to put Steward’s belongings. When Justin Spring (the author) started researching on Steward he found all his belongings in a dusty old attic, its colorful story almost lost in time.

Let me assure you, that ‘Secret Historian: The Life and Times of Samuel Steward, Professor, Tattoo Artist, and Sexual Renegade by Justin Spring’ is just as intriguing and astonishing as its title. The book reads like a novel and is sure to keep you glued to it!