Robert Ferro (October 21, 1941 – July 11, 1988) was an American

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living wage, living writing novels and other fiction, while other ...

whose semi-autobiographical fiction explored the uneasy integration of

homosexuality Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or Human sexual activity, sexual behavior between people of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexu ...

and traditional American upper middle class values.

Biography

He was born in

Cranford, New Jersey Cranford is a Township (New Jersey), township in Union County, New Jersey, Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, located southwest of Manhattan. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 23,847, an increas ...

and graduated from Cranford High School. He went to college at

Rutgers University Rutgers University ( ), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of three campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's C ...

and received a

Master's Degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

from the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (U of I, UIowa, or Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized int ...

. In late 1965 Ferro met

Andrew Holleran Andrew Holleran is the pseudonym of Eric Garber (born 1944), an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer, born on the island of Aruba. Most of his adult life has been spent in New York City, Washington, D.C., and a small town in Florid ...

at the

Iowa Writer's Workshop The Iowa Writers' Workshop, at the University of Iowa, is a graduate-level creative writing program. At 89 years, it is the oldest writing program offering a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree in the United States. Its acceptance rate is between 2 ...

. He later lectured at

Adelphi University Adelphi University is a private university in Garden City, New York, United States. Adelphi also has centers in Downtown Brooklyn, Hudson Valley, and Suffolk County in addition to a virtual, online campus for remote students. As of 2019, it had ...

. He was a member of The Violet Quill. He died of

AIDS The HIV, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that attacks the immune system. Without treatment, it can lead to a spectrum of conditions including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). It is a Preventive healthcare, pr ...

a few months after his partner,

Michael Grumley Michael Grumley (July 6, 1942 – April 28, 1988) was an American writer and artist. Grumley was born in Bettendorf, Iowa. He attended the University of Denver, the City College of New York and the Iowa Writers' Workshop. Grumley received a B.S. D ...

, in 1988 at his father's home in

Ho-Ho-Kus Ho-Ho-Kus () is a borough in Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 4,258, an increase of 180 (+4.4%) from the 2010 census count of 4,078, which in turn reflected an i ...

, New Jersey, age 46. Grumley and Ferro are buried together under the Ferro-Grumley memorial in Rockland Cemetery, Sparkill, New York. Following their deaths, the Ferro-Grumley Foundation, which manages their estate, created and endowed the annual

Ferro-Grumley Award The Ferro-Grumley Award is an annual literary award, presented by Publishing Triangle and the Ferro-Grumley Foundation to a book deemed the year's best work of LGBT fiction. The award is presented in memory of writers Robert Ferro and Michael Gru ...

for LGBT fiction in conjunction with

Publishing Triangle The Publishing Triangle, founded in 1988 by Robin Hardy, is an American association of gay men and lesbians in the publishing industry. They sponsor an annual National Lesbian and Gay Book Month, and have sponsored the annual Triangle Awards prog ...

Themes

Robert Ferro's works are especially interested in the phenomena of homosexual integration into the traditional family. Love of family is a theme that appears in both ''The Family of Max Desir'', and ''Second Son'' and reflects his traditional Italo-American sentiments. In 1984, Ferro told the "Cranford Chronicle" that the town in his novel ''The Family of Max Desir'' was a fictionalized version of his hometown,

. The novel's "Indian River" is meant to be the

Rahway River The Rahway River is a river in Essex County, New Jersey, Essex, Middlesex County, New Jersey, Middlesex, and Union County, New Jersey, Union Counties, New Jersey, United States, The Rahway flows into the Arthur Kill, the tidal channel between ...

and acts as "the heart of the town and the center of he main character'simagination". "Indian Park", host to a revived Victorian water carnival in "Desir", is a fictionalized version of the real-life Nomahegan Park on the

.1984 Chronicle interview; Encyclopedia of Contemporary LGBTQ Literature of the United States volumes/ref>

Books

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References

External links

Robert Ferro Papers. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. 1941 births 1988 deaths 20th-century American novelists American writers of Italian descent American gay writers Cranford High School alumni Rutgers University alumni University of Iowa alumni AIDS-related deaths in New Jersey American LGBTQ novelists LGBTQ people from New Jersey American male novelists People from Cranford, New Jersey 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American LGBTQ people {{US-novelist-1940s-stub

Biography

Themes

Books

References

Further reading

Archival sources

External links