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

Interesting for its historical perspective on the life of a gay man in America from the 1920s through the 1980s. Steward spent 20 years as a professor at Loyola, then De Paul, universities. He left academia in his late forties to pursue a second career as a tattoo artist. Steward was a compulsive record keeper and diarist. His first-hand accounts of same sex interactions in the markedly diverse socio-economic worlds in which he moved, all of which were pre-Stonewall, were intriguing to read. Beyond the history, however, it's the story of a man with potential for literary brilliance, or at least achievement, who instead frivoled away his life first on alcohol, then on sex and then with barbiturates.

I was reminded of those old experiments conducted on rats in the 1950s where the rodents preferred to continually stimulate the limbic area of their brains rather than engage in any other activity. The rats' health suffered and they eventually died from lack of food or water. Steward made similar choices. Reading the life of a man who repeatedly chose sensory pleasure as a diversion from intellectual application inspired mostly pity and some contempt as I trudged through the book. The repetitiveness of his actions, the reader's ability to see the slow erosion of his quality of life and the recurrence of poor choices whenever a new opportunity presented itself made for depressing reading. It also cast Steward as a one dimensional and uninteresting man, yet I can't help thinking that that impression is in part the fault of the book's author, Justin Spring.

After the publication of Steward's first (and only) novel in the 1930s, he was befriended by Gertrude Stein and Alice Toklas. The two encouraged him throughout their lives to continue writing. They also introduced him to many of their friends who in turn introduced Steward to theirs. Throughout his life, Steward remained friends and was a prolific correspondent with some of the great literary and artistic figures of the mid-20th century. He received letters from former students as late as the 1980s relating the significant and long-lasting impact he had had on their lives. I can only believe that he was actually an engaging teacher and erudite correspondent to hold the admiration and friendship of so many for so long. But because so little of this sort of perspective on Steward's life was offered, and much of it towards the end of the book, I was left with the impression of a man who was often dull and desperate.

Uncomfortably, I have to ask myself how often I, like many of us, have made similar choices to Steward though perhaps not in the same addictive manner? How many of us slump in front of a TV after a long office day or choose even to engage in sports or social activities, rather than embark on a creative or intellectual pursuit, one which would require mental effort and patience to reach perfection? I am reminded not to waste the opportunities offered to me daily. It is possible to procrastinate a life away.