Writers Read: John D’Emilio reads from Memories of a Gay Catholic Boyhood: Coming of Age in the Sixties

John D’Emilio reads from Memories of a Gay Catholic Boyhood: Coming of Age in the Sixties (Duke University Press, 2022)

Memories of a Gay Catholic Boyhood is a coming-of-age story in which John D’Emilio—a pioneer in the field of gay and lesbian studies—takes readers from his working-class Bronx neighborhood to an elite Jesuit high school in Manhattan to Columbia University and the political and social upheavals of the late 1960s. He shares his personal experiences of growing up in a conservative, tight-knit, multigenerational Italian American family, including how he went from considering the priesthood to losing his faith and coming to terms with same-sex desires. This is not just D’Emilio’s personal story; it opens a window into how the conformist baby boom decade of the 1950s transformed into the tumultuous years of the 1960s.

“Memories of a Gay Catholic Boyhood is a gripping read. It is sure to become a classic in several fields—among them, LGBTQ history, Italian American history, New York history, the history of New York Catholicism, and the history of Jesuit education in the United States.”

— Robert A. Orsi, author of History and Presence

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