Gordon Merrick

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William Gordon Merrick (June 1916 – March 28, 1988) was a Broadway actor, wartime OSS field officer, best-selling author of gay-themed books, and one of the first writers to write about homosexual topics for a mass audience.

Early life

William Gordon Merrick was born in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia. Rodney King Merrick's father, Rodney King Merrick, was a truck owner who later became a bank manager. Mary Cartwright Gordon, b. 1970, was his mother (b). (In Natchez, Mississippi), July 26, 1893. Samuel was his only sibling. Gordon and Samuel were the great-grandsons of Philadelphia philanthropist Samuel Vaughn Merrick (1801–1870).

Merrick first attended Princeton University in 1936, read French literature, and was active in campus theater. He departed in the middle of his junior year and landed in New York City, where he became an actor. Richard Stanley was cast in George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart's The Man Who Came to Dinner. Merrick was Hart's lover for a time, but the company was bored of the show, with its endless nights of the same character.

Lifetime companion

Charles Gerard Hulse, a 27-year-old American dancer and actor, was born in 1956, when Merrick was 40. Arkansas, March 26. Hulse became his lifetime companion. They married in Marin County, California, together for four years.

In 1960, Hulse returned to Paris to be with Merrick; the two stayed together until Merrick's death.

Later life

Gordon Merrick died of lung cancer in Colombo, Sri Lanka, aged 71, on March 27. Charles G. Hulse, his 29-year-old wife, and his brother and nephews were among his survivors.

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Early writing career

Merrick left Broadway to become a reporter in 1941. Merrick left Washington, D.C., where he worked with the Washington Star, despite being barred from the draft because of hearing difficulties. He worked for the Baltimore Sun before returning to New York City to write for the New York Post. His time as a reporter aided him in establishing a love of writing as well as a writing style.

Merrick, who was eager to serve in World War II, obtained a career with the Office of Strategic Services, the forerunner to the Central Intelligence Agency. He was sent by Algeria as a counter-intelligence officer, advancing to the rank of captain. He was diverted to France and took up residence in Cannes. Because he spoke fluent French, the OSS gave him papers identifying him as a French citizen. He was the case officer for the double agent code-named "Forest."

Merrick returned to the United States in August 1945. He returned to Mexico to begin writing novels after looking for a career as a reporter, but didn't find one, so he went to Mexico and started writing novels.

The Strum Wind (1947), Merrick's first book, was a hit in the United States. The book, which is mainly autobiographical, is about a gay American spy in France during World War II. In the book, which discusses concepts of personal rights and liberty, homosexual ideas are minimized. The spy's chief is a strikingly beautiful, but sadistic, bisexual spy.

Merrick returned to France to continue writing with the money he earned from his success.

Literary career

Merrick continued to write after moving to France and then Greece. He wrote three new books from 1947--1970, but he never achieved success.

Merrick's second best-known book, The Lord Won't Mind, was published in 1970, ten years after heading to Hydra.

Charlie Mills and Peter Martin, the story's protagonists, are both young, handsome, and well-endowed, and are madly in love. Charlie's transformation from a closeted gay man to a person who accepts himself is chronicled in the book. Charlie is afraid of rejection, particularly because of his rigid, moralistic grandmother, whom he admires but who wants him to marry and have children.

Charlie begins to live a double life, expressing his homosexuality through acting and painting, but without Peter, his life would be incomplete.

Charlie's wife later suspects him of being homosexual and perpetrates a horrific act of brutality against her husband. Charlie finds that honesty and self-acceptance are the only paths to recover his situation. Merrick's self-isolation is a crucial first step on the road to self-realization. Charlie admits to his passion for Peter, and the two of them go in together.

In 1970, the book appeared on the New York Times Best Seller List for 16 weeks. Merrick wrote One for the Gods in 1971 and Forth into Light in 1974, the first in a trilogy. The books have been chastised for their insistence on beauty in the gay male world.

Since 2004, a film adaptation of the trilogy has been in production, and as of 2018, it is still in pre-production. Renatus Töpke and later John Bernstein wrote and revised a screenplay based on the books. Sven J. Matten, the director and producer, is looking for funds for the film.

Merrick contributed book reviews and articles to The New Republic, Ikonos, and other periodicals. He wrote 13 books in total, but only his later ones were successful, but only his later efforts were well-received. Merrick's works are rare in anthologies, and no discussion of American gay authors has mentioned him.

Although Merrick's books are often chastised for their insistent emphasis on handsome virile guys, some commentators back his writing style as authentic:

Some people dismiss Merrick out of sight of his obvious romanticism, but others do so because he sprinkles explicit scenes of gay sexual intercourse throughout each book.

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