Born On This Day- February 22nd... Writer Christopher Bram

Christopher Bram was born on this day in 1952. He grew up in Virginia. After graduating from the College of William & Mary in 1974 , & then moved to NYC, where he met his lifelong partner, documentary filmmaker Draper Shreeve.

Bram's novel Father of Frankenstein, a fictional account of the last days of film director James Whale, was made into one of my Top 10 films of all time- Gods & Monsters starring Ian McKellen & Brendan Fraser. Openly gay- Bill Condon adapted the screenplay & directed. Condon won an Oscar for his adaptation.

In 2010, his book of essays- Mapping the Territory was one of my favorites of the year. Most of the essays deal with gay issues: gay books that changed his life, how his novel Father of Frankenstein became the movie Gods & Monsters, & whether or not Henry James was gay. One essay is provocatively titled, “Can Straight Men Still Write?”

The pieces are wise, warm, witty, & well-written. Bram is a terrifically clear writer, which is why I like him so much. The book is a fascinating snapshot of issues large & small that have affected our gay lives over the past 4 decades. His ramblings about his own life were my favorites, of course & but I was drawn into his takes on Henry James, adolescent problems of sexuality, the effect of AIDS on literature, & gossip novels. They are all rich in anecdotes, amusements, & attitude.

Much of the Mapping The Territory is memoir: Slow Learners, the longest piece, charts Bram's high school, college, & grad school days & how they shaped his preference for friends & lovers. It is a tender tale, with priceless, playful parts as the author is figuring out life as a young man. Bram also offers a rich essay on the books that influenced his own writing, & he shares his views of life in Greenwich Village, revisits Larry Kramer's notorious novel Faggots, & takes on Oscar Wilde with clever, concrete criticism.


Woven throughout this endlessly entertaining book is Bram's elegant use of language, & he still seems like someone I would like to have a cocktail with!