NOTE: I messed up…Mr. Maupin’s birth is MAY 13th, not March 13th. Doh! But any (and every) day is a good day to celebrate him in my book.
❤️🧡💛💚💙💜
Last August, one of my favorite writers of all time, Armistead Maupin, and his talented photographer husband, Christopher Turner, joined Substack. Their newsletter-vlog, Barbary Lane Dispatches, quickly became a regular fixture in my feed and in my life.
It still feels a little surreal to hear from one of my literary heroes in real time, still telling great stories about his life and about our community.
For years, I only knew Armistead Maupin through his characters and his books. Now I get to see the storyteller himself, still observing, reflecting, and sharing with readers. It is a reminder that the voice behind the Tales of the City series hasn’t faded with time. If anything, he’s found new ways to delight, educate, and entertain.
Because to me, Mr. Maupin is and will always be a great storyteller. The medium does not really matter. The platform does not really matter. The era does not really matter. Give him a place to publish and an audience to engage with, and he does what he has always done: tell stories about living, breathing human beings, fictional and real-world.
Tales of the City began as a newspaper serial in the San Francisco Chronicle in the 1970s. Day by day, installment by installment, readers were introduced to the unforgettable residents of Barbary Lane. Characters like Michael “Mouse” Tolliver, Mary Ann Singleton, and the magical-mysterious Anna Madrigal felt less like literary inventions and more like people I knew. Or at least people I wished I knew.
For many readers, myself included, those characters and stories were more than entertainment. They were proof of our collective humanity. At a time when queer lives were rarely portrayed with warmth or humor, Mr. Maupin wrote about all kinds of people simply living their messy, funny, loving, and oh-so-human lives.
Over the decades, Mr. Maupin’s stories have moved from the newspaper page to bookstore bookshelves, and have been adapted for four miniseries and a musical. Different media. Different audiences. Same storyteller.
Which is why seeing Mr. Maupin show up on Substack feels less like a surprise and more like a natural continuation of what he’s always done. For me, his storytelling’s come full circle.
The technology may be different, but the rhythm feels familiar. Short dispatches. Personal reflections. Short stories delivered directly to readers who are more than happy to hear them from him.
I have to admit that sharing the same platform with one of my literary idols still brings a smile to my face. I don’t fanboy many people, but I can’t help but be a fan of the man whose writing helped me see a life outside the closet. A life filled with what he so beautifully calls “logical family.”
There is something wonderfully strange and delightful about publishing in the same digital neighborhood as a writer whose books still sit on my nightstand.
In the long tradition of literature, storytelling always finds a way. Newspapers, novels, newsletters. The formats may change and the platforms may evolve. But storytellers keep telling stories.
And few do so with as much warmth, wit, and humanity as Armistead Maupin.
So today, on his birthday (two months early), I want to say thank you:
Thank you for the stories that helped expand the world for so many readers.
Thank you for the characters who felt like friends and neighbors.
And thank you for continuing to show up and tell stories.
Happy (Early) Birthday, Mr. Maupin!
Clint 🌈✌️
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ICYMI = IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
BORN THIS WAY ON THIS DAY
03-13 = Bill Cunningham (1929-2016) = American fashion photographer 🌈
MAN CRUSH OF THE DAY
“Sooner or later, though, no matter where in the world we live, we must join the diaspora, venturing beyond our biological family to find our logical one, the one that actually makes sense for us. We have to, if we are to live without squandering our lives.”
Armistead Maupin, Logical Family: A Memoir
A Southern boy from a conservative family. Hmmm. From my own Raleigh hometown in NC, and my beloved San Francisco. Loved, loved, loved his novels...and the series that came from them. The miracle is I never met him. I'm sure my mother knew his mother and father. Certainly knew of them quite well. So many almost moments. I follow his You Tube blog, and will now subscribe to his substack, thanks to you, Clint. Happy forthcoming birthday, Mr. Maupin!
Clint, So well written and what a tribute to Armistead! I know what you mean about the proximity of all of us "writing in the same place". It is wondeful to see him in person talking about things that matter to himself and to us. I am going to go send him birthday wished now. Thanks. Fondly, Michael