John Lauritsen (5 March 1939 – 5 March 2022) was a gay rights activist, journalist and author. Lauritsen was born and raised in Nebraska. He received a baccalaureate degree from Harvard College in 1963, and spent most of his life as a market research analyst. Following his retirement, he became a full-time writer and publisher. In 1982, he founded his own imprint, Pagan Press (paganpressbooks.com). With the advent of AIDS in the early 1980s, Lauritsen became a prominent critic of then pharmaceutical treatments. His articles appeared in the

New York Native The ''New York Native'' was a biweekly gay newspaper published by Charles Ortleb in New York City from December 1980 until January 13, 1997. It was the only gay paper in New York City during the early part of the AIDS epidemic, and pioneered repo ...

, Gay Books Bulletin, Gay News (London), Civil Liberties Review, The Freethinker (London),

Journal of Homosexuality The ''Journal of Homosexuality'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal covering research into sexual practices and gender roles in their cultural, historical, interpersonal, and modern social contexts. History The founding editor-in-chief was Ch ...

Christopher Street Christopher Street is a street in the West Village neighborhood of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is the continuation of 9th Street west of Sixth Avenue. It is most notable for the Stonewall Inn, which is located on Christopher St ...

, Gay & Lesbian Humanist, and Gay & Lesbian Review. Lauritsen gained scholarly prominence by his claim, in the book ''The Man Who Wrote Frankenstein'', and academic articles, that the novel ''Frankenstein'' had been underrated and misinterpreted; that its central theme was male love; and that the real author was Percy Bysshe Shelley. The claim was supported by

Camille Paglia Camille Anna Paglia ( ; born April 2, 1947) is an American academic, social critic and Feminism, feminist. Paglia was a professor at the University of the Arts (Philadelphia), University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from 1984 until ...

. He also believed biographers had falsified the lives of

Percy Bysshe Shelley Percy Bysshe Shelley ( ; 4 August 1792 – 8 July 1822) was an English writer who is considered one of the major English Romantic poets. A radical in his poetry as well as in his political and social views, Shelley did not achieve fame durin ...

Lord Byron George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824) was an English poet. He is one of the major figures of the Romantic movement, and is regarded as being among the greatest poets of the United Kingdom. Among his best-kno ...

, and those of their circle (

Thomas Medwin Thomas Medwin (20 March 1788 –2 August 1869) was an early 19th-century English writer, poet and translator. He is known chiefly for his biography of his cousin, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and for published recollections of his friend, Lord Byron. ...

Edward John Trelawny Edward John Trelawny (13 November 179213 August 1881) was a British biographer, novelist and adventurer who is best known for his friendship with the Romantic poets Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron. Trelawny was born to a family of modest ...

and Edward Ellerker Williams); that the group had been drawn together by their sexual affinities, and their homosexuality had been historically suppressed. This theory he outlined in his book ''The Shelley-Byron Men: Lost Angels of a Ruined Paradise.'' Lauritsen died suddenly on his 83rd birthday at his home in Dorchester, Massachusetts.

Bibliography

* ''The Homosexual Rights Movement (1864-1935).'' (1974) * ''The AIDS War: Propaganda, profiteering, and genocide from the medical industrial complex.'' (1993) * Poison By Prescription: The AZT Story. Forward by

Peter Duesberg Peter Heinz Hermann Duesberg (born December 2, 1936) is a German-American molecular biologist and a professor of molecular and cell biology at the University of California, Berkeley. He is known for his early research into the genetic aspects o ...

. (1990) * ''The AIDS Cult: Essays on the gay health crisis.'' Edited with Ian Young. (1997) * ''Death Rush:Poppers & AIDS.'' (1998) * ''A Freethinker's Primer of Male Love.'' (1998) * ''A Freethinker in Alcoholics Anonymous.'' (2014) * ''The Man Who Wrote Frankenstein.'' (2007) * ''Don Leon & Leon to Annabella.'' (2017) * ''The Shelley-Byron Men: Lost Angels of a Ruined Paradise.'' (2017)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lauritsen, John 20th-century American male writers American LGBTQ rights activists 1939 births 2022 deaths Harvard College alumni