Thank goodness for Armistead Maupin. The San Francisco-based author, who turns 76 today, made his career writing a column about life in the city for The San Francisco Chronicle.
That column, Tales of the City served as the basis for one of the seminal sagas of queer life in the 20th century. Maupin grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina, and served in the US Navy before he decided to pursue a career in writing.