Armistead Maupin
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Armistead Maupin (born May 13, 1944 in Washington D.C.) is an American novelist.
Maupin grew up in North Carolina, where he was raised by a conservative family. He attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he got into journalism through writing for the Daily Tar Heel. After earning his undergraduate degree, Maupin enrolled in law school, but later dropped out. He is a veteran of the U.S. Navy (where he served several tours of duty including one in Vietnam), and once worked at a television station in Raleigh managed by conservative television personality and later U.S. Senator Jesse Helms. His work on a Charleston newspaper prompted Maupin's move to California, where he later went on to write for the San Francisco Chronicle.
His former partner, Terry Anderson, is a former gay rights activist, and is the co-author of the screenplay for The Night Listener, based on Maupin's novel of the same name. His current partner is Chris Turner, a website producer and photographer.
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[edit] Written works
His most noted work to date is his six-book series collectively titled Tales of the City, the first portions of which were initially published as a newspaper serial starting in 1974 in a Marin County newspaper, followed by the San Francisco Chronicle and later compiled into a series of books published by HarperCollins (then Harper & Row). In 1978, Maupin produced a collection of his columns entitled Tales of the City at the urging of a friend at Harper & Row. Five more compilations followed in the 80s, ending with the last book, Sure of You in 1989. The Tales of the City books have been translated into ten languages and there are more than two million copies in print. The first three books in the series have also been converted into three television miniseries, the first airing on the American television network PBS and the latter two on the American premium cable television channel Showtime.
Later works by Maupin, not part of the Tales series, include The Night Listener and Maybe The Moon[1]. Maupin's 2000 novel The Night Listener has been adapted into a movie that was screened at the Sundance Film Festival in late January 2006. The Night Listener's plot bears resemblance to a controversial book allegedly written by Anthony Godby Johnson.
Maupin has stated on his website that another Tales of the City novel is unlikely. "I never say never about anything, so it's not inconceivable that at some point in the future I may get really desperate and write a stocking stuffer called Christmas at Barbary Lane. But don't bank on it." However, he has written "Michael Tolliver Lives", which "is not a sequel to 'Tales' and it's certainly not Book 7 in the series"[2]. Although the book may have brief appearances by a "Tales" character or two, it focuses on "Mouse" and how his life is at 55, living with HIV. The book is slated to be released in the summer of 2007[3].
[edit] Bibliography
- Tales of the City
- More Tales of the City
- Further Tales of the City
- Babycakes
- Significant Others
- Sure of You
- Maybe the Moon
- The Night Listener
- Michael Tolliver Lives!
