Harvey Milk: His Lives and Death

Lillian Faderman

May 2018 · Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by Joel Froomkin

About this audiobook

Harvey Milk-eloquent, charismatic, and a smart-aleck-was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977, but he had not even served a full year in office when he was shot by a homophobic fellow supervisor. Milk's assassination at the age of forty-eight made him the most famous gay man in modern history; twenty years later Time magazine included him on its list of the hundred most influential individuals of the twentieth century. Before finding his calling as a liberal politician, however, Harvey variously tried being a schoolteacher, a securities analyst on Wall Street, a supporter of Barry Goldwater, a Broadway theater assistant, a bead-wearing hippie, the operator of a camera store and organizer of the business community in San Francisco's Castro District. He rejected Judaism as a religion, but he was deeply influenced by the cultural values of his Jewish upbringing and his understanding of anti-Semitism and the Holocaust. His early influences and his many personal and professional experiences finally came together when he decided to run for elective office as the forceful champion of gays, racial minorities, women, working people, the disabled, and senior citizens. In his last five years, he focused all of his tremendous energy on becoming a successful public figure.

About the author

Lillian Faderman is an internationally known scholar of lesbian history and literature, as well as ethnic history and literature. Among her many honors are six Lambda Literary Awards, two American Library Association Awards, and several lifetime achievement awards for scholarship.

Two-time AudioFile Earphones Award winner Joel Froomkin is a classically trained narrator known for rich characterizations. A U.K. transplant with American parents, he delivers authentic British and American narration. An accent specialist, Joel taught dialects at NYU and has coached Broadway stars and celebrities.