Research Catalog

Title

Brad Johnson papers, approximately 1970-2011.

Author

Johnson, Brad, 1952-2011.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

3.4 linear feet (5 archival boxes, 1 flat box)

Summary

The Brad Johnson Papers, 1952-2011, are arranged into three series: Biographical, Writings, and Correspondence. The Biographical file documents the major events in his life: education, Navy career, work history, involvement in gay organizations, publishing history, and diaries. The Writings series forms the bulk of the collection, especially his poems, both published and unpublished. The Correspondence series contains a significant amount of letters from a former lover, the musician and conductor, Charles Darden, and others. Of note is a long "coming-out" letter to his parents expressing the anger and loneliness of the gay Black man in America.

Subjects

• Racism > Poetry
• African Americans > Intellectual life > 20th century
• American poetry > African American authors
• Johnson, Brad, 1952-2011
• Authors > 20th century
• United States > Intellectual life > 20th century
• Gay and lesbian studies
• Darden, Charles
• African American authors > 20th century
• AIDS (Disease) > United States
• Yale University > Black Orchid Association, Inc
• African American poets
• Black author
• Gay, lesbian, and queer studies
• Homosexuality > Poetry

Note

• Photographs transferred to Photographs and Prints Division.

Source (note)

• Brad Johnson

Biography (note)

• Brad Johnson was a gay African-American poet and writer. Born in California in 1952, and raised in Philadelphia, he graduated from Yale University after spending his junior year in France. His early poems were in French, but his publishing career as a poet began in 1985 and continued through the 1990s, chiefly in anthologies including "In the Life: A Black Gay Anthology," edited by Joseph Beam, and Black, gay-oriented periodicals such as "The Pyramid Periodical." Major themes of his poems include love, romance, sex, homophobia, and loneliness. After the 1990s, he described his writing output as "scant" and eventually he became "reclusive and stopped writing." Johnson died in 2011 from complications due to AIDS.

Call Number

Sc MG 844

OCLC

907559002

Author

Johnson, Brad, 1952-2011.

Title

Brad Johnson papers, approximately 1970-2011.

Biography

Brad Johnson was a gay African-American poet and writer. Born in California in 1952, and raised in Philadelphia, he graduated from Yale University after spending his junior year in France. His early poems were in French, but his publishing career as a poet began in 1985 and continued through the 1990s, chiefly in anthologies including "In the Life: A Black Gay Anthology," edited by Joseph Beam, and Black, gay-oriented periodicals such as "The Pyramid Periodical." Major themes of his poems include love, romance, sex, homophobia, and loneliness. After the 1990s, he described his writing output as "scant" and eventually he became "reclusive and stopped writing." Johnson died in 2011 from complications due to AIDS.

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Finding Aid

Local Subject

Black author.

Research Call Number

Sc MG 844