Fire Island

Fire Island: a narrow, sandy strip of land along the coast from New York that, since the early twentieth century, has been a place of hedonism, reinvention, liberation. From Walt Whitman's rustic sojourns to W. H. Auden's ambivalent presence; from the 'chosen family' gatherings of the interwar avant garde to the wild parties of the post-Stonewall disco era; from Frank O'Hara and James Baldwin to Patricia Highsmith and Carson McCullers, and on to today's denizens: Parlett charts the fascinating history of this queer enclave - and his own forays into its culture - through the writers, artists and activists who have found release and revolution on its shores.