The Emphatically Queer Career of Perkins Harnly is the story of a Nebraska-born artist (1901-1986) who over the course of his long-life crossed paths with a staggering array of famous and infamous personalities. He went to parties with Sarah Bernhardt. Was friends with Paul Swan, a.k.a. "The Most Beautiful Man in the World," (who made women swoon when he danced in his tiny leopard-skin tunic). Was the frequent houseguest of Rose O'Neill, the free-living artist who invented the Kewpie. And exchanged letters with William Seabrook, author and occasional cannibal who--for better or worse--introduced Americans to the zombie.
The story follows Harnly's steps from Nebraska's remote farmlands through silent-era Hollywood, post-revolutionary Mexico, Depression-era New York, wartime Tinsel Town, queer Los Angeles the repressive 1950s, and the rest of his life. He traveled extensively in Europe and South America, where Harnly indulged in his hobby of visiting the famous and infamous graves from Vladimir Lenin to Oscar Wilde, Queen Victoria, and Eva Peron.
Sarah Burns uses archives of letters and interviews to bring the lives of Harnly and his circle of creative friends whose antics rival the infamous "bright young things" of England. Once you meet Harnly, you will never forget him.