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=                          Michael_Denneny                           =
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                            Introduction
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Michael Denneny (March 2, 1943April 12 or 15, 2023) was an American
editor and author. He was one of the first openly gay editors at a
major publishing house.


                             Early life
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Denneny was born in Providence, Rhode Island, and grew up in Pawtucket
nearby. His father Leo was a mill worker and later worked for the
Postal Service.  His mother Dorothy (née Wilkinson) also worked in a
mill. He had two brothers, Johnny who died from cancer in 1986 and his
surviving brother, Joey. Joe described Pawtucket as "gloomy" and said
that Michael "retreated into books at an early age".


                        Education and career
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Denneny graduated from the University of Chicago with a bachelor's
degree in history in 1967. He then continued with graduate studies at
the school's Committee on Social Thought under philosopher Hannah
Arendt. On and off, he became the assistant of Arendt and was later an
informal assistant of Michel Foucault as well.

Denneny moved to New York City in 1971 after the Stonewall riots and
was shortly thereafter hired at Macmillan. There he published a book
version of Ntozake Shange’s feminist play 'for colored girls who have
considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf'.

In 1976, he and Chuck Ortleb started the gay literary magazine
'Christopher Street'. According to Denneny, shortly before it started
publishing several top gay men who were not open about their gayness
subtly threatened to end his career if his name appeared in the
magazine. In 1977, Denneny was fired by Macmillan when it was learned
that he was going to publish 'The Homosexuals' by Alan Ebert which
contained interviews with gay men. He was briefly rehired to present
the book at a sales conference because it was subsequently to be
published due to legal obligations, but when his connection to
Christopher Street became apparent he was fired again.

During this time he worked on the gay publication the 'New York
Native' in addition to Christopher Street. After applying for a large
number of jobs at Manhattan publishers while openly admitting to being
gay, in 1977 he was hired at St. Martin's Press, and wrote two books
of his own, 'Lovers' and 'Decent Passions'.

In 1987 Denneny started the LGBT Stonewall Inn Editions paperback
imprint at St. Martin’s, the first time a major publishing house had
done such, and republished many books that had appeared previously in
hard cover.

Denneny worked at St. Martin's until 2002 aside from two years at
Crown Publishing Group, and subsequently left to become a freelance
editor and consultant.

In 2002, Denneny won the Michele Karlsberg Leadership Award.


                               Death
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Denneny's death in April 2023 at his home in Manhattan was unexpected,
which his brother Joe said was most likely due to a heart attack. He
was found on April 15 but the exact day of his death (between the 12th
and 15th) is not known.


                  Major works edited or published
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*Larry Duplechan (1986). 'Blackbird'. St. Martin's Press.
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License
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License URL: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
Original Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Denneny