Armistead Maupin |
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 "From the beginning, I
resolved to create a tapestry large enough to encompass all of humanity." --
Armistead Maupin Maupin grew up in North Carolina. Knowing he was gay while growing up, he embraced conservatism to hide his true self, and to please his family. "I was attempting to curry favor with my family, and the best way to do that was by being an outspoken conservative," Maupin says. "I had a very limited vision of the world." Maupin wrote a conservative column in the campus newspaper at the University of North Carolina, and later worked for Sen. Jesse Helms at WRAL-TV in Raleigh. Maupin left his native North Carolina for San Francisco in 1971, after taking a job with the Associated Press. It was in San Francisco where he felt liberated enough to overcome his own internalized homophobia, and finally came out. He then went on to write for a weekly paper, The Pacific Sun. It was at the Sun where "Tales Of TheCity" was born. Maupin had been assigned to write a piece about the local Safeway, where rumour had it the local heterosexuals were going on Wednesday nights to try and meet dates. Maupin was discouraged when nobody at the Safeway was "willing to fess up" about why they were actually there. He decided instead to write a fiction piece, where the main character, Mary Ann Singleton, goes to the Safeway to find the man of her dreams. She finds him, alright, but the man of her dreams is with the man of his dreams. The piece struck a chord with a lot of people, especially single woman who found the experience very true to life. The editor loved the piece, and asked Maupin to continue writing it as a series, which he did until the paper folded. Maupin then took the idea to the San Francisco Chronicle, who loved it as well. The rest is history. Maupin wrote the daily serial for the Chronicle for fifteen years. He admits that each character is a reflection of different pieces of his own personality. Armistead Maupin has been the subject of a one-hour BBC documentary "Armistead Maupin is a Man I Dreamt Up". The first book "Tales of the City" was adapted by Britain's Channel Four as a six-hour miniseries, and when it aired on PBS in 1994 it received widespread critical acclaim, the prestigious Peabody Award, and the highest ratings ever recorded for a PBS drama series. PBS was poised to air the sequel, "More Tales Of The City", but backed out after the Gay and Lesbian themes and nudity in "Tales" created a controversy, and PBS found itself the victim of a hostile reaction from the religious right, including bomb threats and pressure from legislatures in several Southern States. The sequel was finally produced and then broadcast in June 1998 by Showtime. "I tried from the very beginning to create a canvas that was large enough to involve everyone," Maupin said. "The original series ran in a daily newspaper, so I couldn't just speak to one audience. The story involves people who are gay and straight and young and old and different races and far less perfect as human beings than the people you ordinarily see on television." Maupin is currently working on his latest novel, a psychological thriller, as yet untitled. All he will say is that the main character is very much like himself, and employs none other than Anna Halcyon Day. Maupin still lives, and writes, in San Francisco. Books by Armistead Maupin Tales Of The City More Tales Of The City Further Tales Of The City Babycakes Significant Others Sure Of You Maybe The Moon Related Products
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