{"title":"Books by Hilton Als","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9780141987293","title":"White Girls","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'I defy you to read this book and come away with a mind unchanged'  John Jeremiah Sullivan\u003cbr\u003e'Als has a serious claim to be regarded as the next James Baldwin' \u003ci\u003eObserver\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e'I see how we are all the same, that none of us are white women or black men; rather, we're a series of mouths, and that every mouth needs filling: with something wet or dry, like love, or unfamiliar and savory, like love'\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eWhite Girls\u003c\/i\u003e is about, among other things, blackness, queerness, movies, Brooklyn, love (and the loss of love), AIDS, fashion, Basquiat, Capote, philosophy, porn, Louise Brooks and Michael Jackson. Freewheeling and dazzling, tender and true, it is one of the most highly acclaimed essay collections in years. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'A voice that's new, that comes as if from a different room. I defy you to read this book and come away with a mind unchanged' John Jeremiah Sullivan, author of \u003ci\u003ePulphead\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Effortless, honest and fearless' Rich Benjamin, \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Als is one of the most consistently unpredictable and surprising essayists out there, an author who confounds our expectations virtually every time he writes' David L. Ulin, \u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e 'A comprehensive and utterly lovely collection of one of the best writers around' Eugenia Williamson, \u003ci\u003eBoston Globe\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43201491796146,"sku":"9780141987293","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780141987293.jpg?v=1786011164"},{"product_id":"9780141999746","title":"The Women","description":"\u003cp\u003eWhat are the forces that shape us? In \u003ci\u003eThe Women\u003c\/i\u003e, Hilton Als explores—with breath taking originality—the role of sexual and racial identity in marginalized lives. With a blend of fact and fiction, Als brings to vivid life a number of extraordinary characters, including: his mother, a singular woman whose West Indian heritage and determination inspired her son to write; Malcolm X's mother, whose mixed-race background and eventual descent into madness contributed to her son's burgeoning misogyny and fear; brilliant, Harvard-educated Dorothy Dean, who deeply empathized with white gay men; and Owen Dodson, teacher and poet, who played an important role in the author's development as a gay man, and thinker.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCombining memoir, cultural history, social theory and storytelling, \u003ci\u003eThe Women\u003c\/i\u003e is a profoundly innovative work which has inspired a generation of writers. Here, Als submits both racial and sexual stereotypes to scrutiny, showing ‘no mercy but every tenderness’. The results are exhilarating. The Women is that rarest of books: a memorable work of self-investigation that creates a form of all its own.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55896392794485,"sku":"9780141999746","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780141999746_b6acb497-b7a8-4d1e-9c90-a666a1eaf304.jpg?v=1786011496"},{"product_id":"9780500298893","title":"Isaac Julien","description":"Catalogues the recent critically acclaimed exhibition of Isaac Julien’s work at the de Young Museum, San Francisco.     Sir Isaac Julien (b 1960), one of the UK’s leading artists working in film and video, is celebrated for his poetic yet astutely political films and video installations that reflect on the intersection of power, politics and personal experience through the lens of identity, race and sexuality. Distinguished by their fusion of fact and fiction, social critique and aesthetic immersion, his video installations offer poetic meditations on catalytic political and cultural events that have shaped the lives of individuals and societies around the world. His work breaks down the barriers between different artistic disciplines, melding references to cinema, art, poetry, performance and music into spellbinding political allegories that challenge our understanding of histories, both past and present.     Isaac Julien: I Dream a World accompanies the first comprehensive retrospective of this renowned artist and filmmaker in the United States. Centering ten of the artist’s key works shot across the Americas, Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and Europe, this volume situates his work within a global context. Provocative essays by a roster of contemporary writers and lavish galleries that feature multiple views of Julien’s work further mark this as an indispensable book on the artist and the subject of art history today.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55897301647733,"sku":"9780500298893","price":60.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}]},{"product_id":"9780811234498","title":"My Pinup","description":"In this brilliant two-part memoir, the Pulitzer Prize–winning writer Hilton Als distills into one cocktail the deep and potent complexities of love and of loss, of Prince and of power, of desire and of race. It’s delicious and it’s got the kick of a mule, especially as Als swirls into his mix the downtown queer nightclub scene, the AIDS crisis, Prince’s ass in his tight little pants, an ill-fated peach pie, Dorothy Parker, and his desire for true love. Always surprising and stealthily—even painfully—moving, Als plumbs longing: “I inched closer to him as he danced to you, Prince. But already he was you, Prince, in my mind. He had the same coloring, and the same loneliness I wanted to fill with my admiration. I couldn’t love him enough. We were colored boys together. There is not enough of that in the world, Prince—but you know that. Still, when other people see that kind of fraternity they want to kill it. But we were so committed to each other, we never could work out what that violence meant. There was so much love between us. Why didn’t anyone want us to share it?”","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56294988120437,"sku":"9780811234498","price":7.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780811234498_2fcfcc5d-048b-465b-a2c3-1fd9324d6950.jpg?v=1786016035"},{"product_id":"9781644231302","title":"At Home: Alice Neel in the Queer World","description":"\u003cb\u003eAlice Neel's unstinting, visionary engagement with the lives of those around her resulted in an inclusive oeuvre. This aspect of queer representation in her work is explored for the first time in this new catalogue.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCurated by Hilton Als and organized in collaboration with the Estate of Alice Neel, \u003ci\u003eAt Home: Alice Neel in the Queer World\u003c\/i\u003e highlights the artist’s vibrant involvement with the human condition. Within a lifetime of work, Neel painted many people from many walks of life––this catalogue is the first to focus on queer communities, those who were part of their circle, as well as allies and others with whom the artist was in broader conversation—together forming a collective portrait that both embodies and complicates an understanding of the queer world of Neel’s moment and the artist’s place within it. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eThis collection of paintings includes rarely seen works depicting individuals including Frank O’Hara, Allen Ginsberg, and Adrienne Rich, as well as writers, artists, friends, and advocates. As Als notes, this book includes “not just portraits of gay people but those of theorists, activists, politicians, and so on who would qualify as queer by virtue of their different take in their given field and thus the world. So doing, they reflect Alice’s own interest in and commitment to difference.”\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eThe catalogue accompanies Neel’s first significant exhibition in Los Angeles, at David Zwirner in 2024. Edited and with a text by Als, the volume includes newly commissioned contributions by Alex Fialho, Evan Garza, and Wayne Koestenbaum.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56302843593077,"sku":"9781644231302","price":45.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781644231302_ea7c0462-f1a9-43dc-890e-b1e2a8faf853.jpg?v=1786024398"},{"product_id":"9781838662189","title":"Catherine Opie","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLong awaited, the first survey of the work of one of America's foremost contemporary fine art photographers\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor almost 40 years, Catherine Opie has been documenting with psychological acuity the cultural and geographic identity of contemporary America. This unique artist monograph presents a compelling visual narrative of Opie's work since the early 1980s, pairing images across bodies of work to form a full picture of her artistic vision. With more than 300 beautiful illustrations and made in close collaboration with Opie, the book marks a turning point in the consideration of this artist's work to date.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56307884556661,"sku":"9781838662189","price":100.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781838662189_199b9704-3358-428b-bbcc-85658347b4f9.jpg?v=1786028049"},{"product_id":"9780241342640","title":"I Don't Remember","description":"\u003cp\u003eHilton Als grew up in a corner of Brooklyn scarred by riots, racial segregation and sexual prejudice. As a young teenager, he began to glimpse possibility in the different cultures and ways of being he encountered through high school; in the black men and white men who found ways to be together. As a burgeoning writer in a Manhattan pulsing with new culture - with hip hop, Basquiat, nightclubs and new wave - Hilton at last came together with the gay family he had longed for. The timing was not opportune: reports of a 'rare cancer' were beginning to trickle through the press. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePart autobiography, part reportage, part cultural criticism, \u003ci\u003eI Don't Remember \u003c\/i\u003eweaves the impossible story of queer America in the age of the AIDs crisis. It is an elegy like no other for an unsung generation of gay men: of heroic lovers and friends, visionary makers, artists and creators. By turns lyrical, wry, and exquisite in its poetic, rapid-fire storytelling, it sings a song of the necessity of connection, and the grandness of human endeavor, especially when it comes to loving, and being loved, in the face of social limitations, stigma, and unspeakable tragedy.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56367856419189,"sku":"9780241342640","price":20.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780241342640.jpg?v=1786033007"},{"product_id":"a-different-person","title":"A Different Person","description":"\u003cb\u003eThe son of extreme privilege who became a great American poet—winner of every major poetry prize, from the Pulitzer to the Bollingen—looks back on his coming of age as a gay man before Stonewall in a charming, searching memoir that was nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award, featuring a new introduction by Hilton Als.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\"Stands with Merrill's finest work.\" —\u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJames Merrill, the son of Charles Merrill, a founder of Merrill Lynch, sailed for Europe in 1950—in part for the immersion in high culture and the art, in part to escape his divorced parents and their prying eyes, as well as the stifling round of their South Hampton-NYC society. Jimmy flings himself on this European adventure, setting up house with a lover in Rome, meeting Alice B. Toklas, and navigating his crucial, sometimes comic sessions with the ex-pat psychoanalyst Dr. Detre, a wonderfully measured presence who helped the young man on the couch strive toward shaping the \"different\" person he hoped to become.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe sixty-something Merrill who wrote this iconic memoir allowed his young self to take center stage, not hiding his foibles, but entering with his elder voice in italicized paragraphs here and there, to provide revealing commentary that revises his callow judgments. A book about the rocky and tender journey to (gay) adulthood, all the more lasting because it is not narrowly conceived as a book about a poet; it is the tale of a questing young man who seemingly has everything but knows it isn't much at all without enlightenment, belonging, and self-understanding.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57495322034549,"sku":"9798217007677","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9798217007677.jpg?v=1786618005"},{"product_id":"glenn-ligon","title":"Glenn Ligon","description":null,"brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57510121767285,"sku":"9781838666590","price":39.95,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}]}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-hilton-als.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}