William J. Mann

William J. Mann is an award-winning, best-selling author and historian, alternating his creative energies between fiction and nonfiction. His forthcoming biography, Edge of Midnight: The Life of John Schlesinger, was written with full access to the late, legendary film director. Mann’s next project will be a consideration of the life and image of Katharine Hepburn, promising to finally separate fact from fiction and to offer insight into the legacy of the Great Kate.

Mann’s book Behind the Screen: How Gays and Lesbians Shaped Hollywood 1910-1969 won acclaim as a thoughtful examination of the gay experience in the American film industry during the studio era. Likewise, his 1998 biography, Wisecracker: The Life and Times of William Haines, won the Lambda Literary Award, and was made into a documentary film directed by Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato (Party Monster, The Eyes of Tammy Faye).

Just as his work in biography and nonfiction chronicles the past, Mann’s novels have been praised for their keen ability to document the present. His first novel, The Men From the Boys was the best-selling gay novel of 1997, and its long-awaited sequel, Where the Boys Are, published in 2003, continues to enjoy an enormous response from readers. He is also the author of another novel, The Biograph Girl, which blends his fiction with his film research, telling the tale of a silent-movie actress who stages a comeback 70 years later.

Born in Connecticut, Mann worked briefly in Washington, DC, as a Capitol Hill aide before receiving his Masters degree at Wesleyan University. Working as a journalist for several publications, both on staff and freelance, led to his tenure (1992-95) at Metroline, a newsmagazine serving Connecticut and Massachusetts. He has continued to work as a journalist, and his fiction and essays have appeared in dozens of anthologies. Mann resides in Provincetown, Massachusetts with his partner, Dr. Timothy Huber.

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