Rictor Norton | |
|---|---|
 Norton, at the London Metropolitan Archives conference in 2013. | |
| Born | (1945-06-25)June 25, 1945 (age 79) Friendship, New York, USA |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Florida Southern College,Florida State University |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Years active | 1970–present |
| Known for | LGBT historian |
Rictor Norton (born 1945) is an American writer on literary and cultural history, particularlyqueer history.[1] He is based in London, England.
Norton was born inFriendship, New York, USA, on June 25, 1945.[2] He gained a BA fromFlorida Southern College in 1967, and a PhD from Florida State University in 1972. His doctoral dissertation was on homosexual themes inEnglish Renaissanceliterature. He worked as an instructor atFlorida State University from 1970–72, where he taught a course ongay andlesbian literature in 1971, one of the earliest gay courses in the United States. He was an active member of theGay Liberation Front from 1971–72, and was involved in campaigning for the repeal of Florida's sodomy statute.
In 1973, he moved toLondon, UK, where he has lived since, working as a journalist, publisher, researcher and freelance scholar. He worked as a research editor for the fortnightly London news journal,Gay News, from 1974 to 1978. He wrote articles on gay history and literature for publications such asGay Sunshine andThe Advocate throughout the 1970s, and forGay Times later. In December 2005 he formed a civil partnership with his partner of nearly thirty years.
Norton's first book grew out of his PhD thesis on homosexuality in English Renaissance Literature. It was published asThe Homosexual Literary Tradition (1974).
Norton has published academic articles inRenascence,American Imago,Yearbook of Comparative and General Literature, theLondon Journal, etc. He has also contributed toSex Doctors and Sex Crimes,Who's Who in Gay & Lesbian History (Routledge, 2001) and theOxford Dictionary of National Biography.
His work includesMother Clap's Molly House[3] (1992; 2nd edition 2006), a history of themolly house in England, andThe Myth of the Modern Homosexual, a critique ofsocial constructionism and theFoucaultian model of sexuality. His workMy Dear Boy (1998) contains sixty sets of love letters from men to other men throughout history, from Ancient Rome to twentieth-century America.
Gay London in the 1720s; Ganymede Raped - The Critic as Censor; Reflections on the Gay Movement; The Passions of Michelangelo; Hard Gemlike Flame: Walter Pater and His Circle; The Historical Roots of Homophobia (containing material not previously published). Ed. Winston Leyland, San Francisco: Gay Sunshine Press, Vol. I, 1991; Vol. II, 1993.
Enter Willie Hughes as Juliet; in Ist besser, verdorben auch zu sein ..., 21 Shakespeare Nachdichtungen vonLeander Sukov, Kulturmaschinen Verlag e.K. 2008, Berlin, Kulturmaschinen Verlag der Autoren, 2020, Hamburg
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