Michael Denneny, Gay-Publishing Icon, Dies At 80
(Image by Jessica Lehrman) I was sad to read that Michael Denneny, a true icon of gay publishing, died this weekend. He had turned 80 last month.
Denneny, among many achievements, co-founded a magazine called OUT (not that one) in 1973 and Christopher Street Magazine in 1976, worked at Macmillan in the '70s and was for decades a champion of gay publishing at St.
Martin's Press via his Stonewall Inn Editions. I knew Michael personally. I worked for an eccentric female literary agent in Chicago for several years during and just after college, and she had sent me to NYC with her letter of introduction, securing me in-person interviews with a few dozen publishing figures.
Though she knew I was gay, she was not acquainted with Mr. Denneny, so she set me up with an editor named George Witte at St.
