Patricia Nell Warren and The Front Runner Fifty Years Later

1974: five years after the Stonewall Riots inaugurated gay liberation, one year after the American Psychiatric Association struck homosexuality from its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourteen years before the first openly gay athlete competed at the Olympics, and forty-one years before the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage. That same year, Patricia Nell Warren (1936-2019) published The Front Runner. It made the New York Times bestseller list, sold millions of copies worldwide, and has been translated into a dozen languages. This essay collection commemorates The Front Runner’s fiftieth anniversary, with testimonials by friends, colleagues, activists, artists, writers, and readers, as well as full-length academic chapters. The essays cover most of her works and are divided into nine sections: (1) biography, (2) art, (3) legacy, (4) The Front Runner, (5) The Front Runner and its Sequels: Harlan’s Race and Billy’s Boy, (6) The Front Runners, (7) The Fancy Dancer, (8) The Wild Man, and (9) A Front Runner for Ukraine.