Open Secret - The Family Story of Robert and John Gregg Allerton

"An Open Secret traces the history of philanthropist Robert Allerton and his companion, John Wyatt Gregg, whom Allerton formally adopted as his son in 1960, after decades of living together. Yet why did these two men, who appear to be a gay couple from our view today, choose to project a father/son relationship? Syrett argues that in a period of both rising homosexual openness and social disapproval, the men had to find an alternative public logic for their situation. Whether or not Allerton and Gregg had sex with each other, they were undoubtedly a queer union: two high-society men who did not affirm traditional notions of partnership or couplehood"--

About the author

Nicholas L. Syrett is professor of women, gender, and sexuality studies at the University of Kansas. He is the author of The Company He Keeps: A History of White College Fraternities and American Child Bride: A History of Minors and Marriage in the United States, coeditor of Age in America: The Colonial Era to the Present, and a contributor to the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, and Daily Beast.

Summary

The Family Story of Robert and John Gregg Allerton. An Open Secret tells the unusual story of Robert and John Gregg Allerton, whose early twentieth-century same-sex relationship made legal history and defied societal norms, then and now.

Product details

• Authors: Nicholas L Syrett, Nicholas L. Syrett, Syrett Nicholas L.
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 31.03.2021
• EAN: 9780226638744
• ISBN: 978-0-226-63874-4
• No. of pages: 224
• Subjects: Fiction > Narrative literature > Letters, diaries; Guides > Health; Non-fiction book > Politics, society, business > Biographies, autobiographies; USA, Biography: general, 20th Century, 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000, HISTORY / United States / 20th Century, Of specific Gay & Lesbian interest, 20th century, c 1900 to c 1999, Local History, United States of America, USA, Gay & Lesbian studies, History of the Americas, Relating to LGBTQ+ people, SOCIAL SCIENCE / LGBTQ+ Studies / General, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / LGBTQ+, SOCIAL SCIENCE / LGBTQ+ Studies / Transgender Studies, US Midwest, North Central & Mid-West States, HISTORY / LGBTQ+, LGBTQ+ Studies / topics, Gender studies: transgender & intersex