He passed away Wednesday in Los Angeles, a 1970s and 1980s, as an author of groundbreaking novels and memoirs, and as a publisher of dozens of books by gay writers. He was 81 years old.
The reason for his death at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center was a complication of lymphoma, said his best friend Jenifer Levin.
Picano, who published 17 novels and eight-volume memoirs, was a group of seven gay male writers whom he regularly met in Manhattan and Fire Island in the early 1980s, discussing ongoing work in an era when gay literature had just entered the mainstream.
Two bestselling authors, Violet Quill members survive him: Andrew Hollelan (“Dancer from the Dance”) and Edmund White (“The Boy's Tale”). Other participants – Christopher Cox, Robert Ferro, Michael Gramley and George Whitmore are less well known, which may be because by 1990 all four had died of AIDS.
Picano often writes about difficult subjects, including his own childhood. His 1985 memoir, Ambidextrous: The Secret Lives of Children, described the teacher who crueled him by writing with both hands. Also, Mr. Picano's sexual encounters with both boys and girls began at the age of 11. When the young Mr. Picano wrote a story about his experience, hiding his identity and removing the most crazy details, his teacher claimed he created it.
When he released “Ambidextrous” almost 30 years later, some reviewers responded the same. The child is not having sex. Picano introduced them to the definition of “memoirs.”
He was the author of Charles Silverstein, “The New Joy of Gay Sex” (1992) and “The Joy of Gay Sex: A Completely Revised and Extended Third Edition” (2003). Dr. Silverstein, who wrote the original “The Joy of Gay Sex” with Edmund White in 1977, asked Picano to help create a second edition that could convince gay men to have sex safely. Less than a decade later, social changes, including the emergence of effective AIDS treatments, and the rise of internet dating and hookup sites, led to a third edition, which includes entries on old, bisexuality and homophobia with children. Like the other two volumes, they were arranged in alphabetical order. For example, the B section began with barebacks, bars, basses and bears.
But most of him was a novelist. His first three books, including the thriller Eyes (1975), had no gay themes or characters. He then had the idea of a story about a straight man who had to sneak into the gay world to solve the murder. It became the “Lure” that was released in 1979. Writing about it in a New York Times book review, crime novelist Evan Hunter said, “The suspense here is just like male hustler jeans, and psychology is from five dime stores.” This book has created a list of several bestsellers. “No more because of bad reviews,” Picano said in a 2019 interview.
Encouraged by the success of “Lure,” he began an epic novel that follows two cousins from childhood to middle age, one gay and one bisexual. It was published in 1995 under the title “Like People in History.” He said in a 2019 interview that although the book was classified as fiction, it was “100% true and 90% autobiographical.”
At the time, he said, “No one was writing about gay life. I thought I had to print this, or it would go away.” It helped Picano maintain his journal every day since 1968. He also said it means that it means remembering not only what he saw, but also what he heard, tasted, or touched. “Like People in History” was his second bestseller and perhaps his most famous novel.
He founded Seahorse Press in 1977 and published works by other gay writers. In 1981 he worked with two other publishers to form the New York Gay Press. He said together, the press lasted for 18 years, publishing 78 books (including three of his own). Those that stood the test of time include Harvey Fierstein's “Torch Song Trilogy,” Dennis Cooper's books “Safe” and “Closeer,” Brad Gooch's collection “Jailbait and Other Stories,” and Boyd McDonald's straight-forward hellish magazine-based books. The company has also republished important old works. As a publisher, novelist Katherine Texa wrote in her 2007 Times Book Review, Picano was “famous and foresightful.” She added, “At that time, promoting those new gay voices was nothing but revolution.”
“He was a life changer for many of us,” recalls Gooch. “He was a literary matchmaker who helped create an audience for our work.”
Ferris Anthony Picano was born on February 22, 1944 in Queens. He is the third of four children called the “middle class Italian-American family.” His father, Philip Picano, runs a wholesale produce business, and his mother, Anne (del Santo) Picano, was a department store manager. Precociously, he surprised his teacher at the age of 11 with a knowledgeable essay on the “Iliad.”
After graduating from Queen's College in 1964, he made money as a social worker, magazine editor and astrologer. He marched in Washington to protest the Vietnam War and publicly burned draft cards. He lives in several communes and wrote in his memoirs, “Night at Rizzoli” “It became my personal mantra. If it feels good, it's illegal and the elderly are flinching, do it twice, and if possible, in public.” He also wrote, “I consumed recreational medicines containing LSD-25 – a way for most people to breathe.”
He eventually got a job at Rizzoli, a luxury bookstore on 5th and 56th Avenues. His clients included Salvadordari, Jerome Robbins, Jacqueline Kennedionasis, Gregory Peck, Elton John, Mick Jagger and SJ Perelman. After quitting his job, he often writes all night. In addition to his books, he has produced articles and reviews for his supporters, Blue Boy, Mandate, Gays Week, Christopher Street from New York, Harvard Gay & Lesbian Reviews, and Lambda Book Reports. His criticism also appeared in many publicly interested publications.
In various memoirs, he described his encounters with authors Gore Vidal and Edward Gorey, poet Auden, photographer Robert Maplettopo and actor Anthony Perkins. His partner, lawyer Robert Allen Lowe, succumbed to an AIDS-related illness in 1991.
Picano spent a long time abroad, but he lived in New York City and Fire Island before moving to Los Angeles in 1995.
Information about the survivors was not immediately available.
Among his fellow Violet Quill members, Picano wrote in an email last month: Our dreams have come true! ”
