Katz, Jonathan

Jonathan Ned Katz (1938 - ), author, playwright, historian, teacher, gay rights advocate, and textile designer, was born in New York City, the son of Bernard Katz (1902-1970), an advertising executive, and Phyllis Brownstone Katz, a magazine editor. His grandfather on his mother's side, Abraham Brownstone, had emigrated to Canada in 1888 at age fifteen from his native Bessarabia (Russia).

Raised in New York City in Lower Manhattan at his parents' residence on 81 Jane Street, Jonathan Katz was graduated in 1956 from the High School of Music and Art. During his senior year he directed a musical revue and variety show ("Going...Going...Gone") which was staged by members of the graduating class. After high school Katz attended Antioch College (1956-1957), the College of the City of New York (1957-1960) and the New School (1961-1962) although without taking an academic degree.

During the 1960s Katz was employed in New York City as a free-lance textile designer at the Prince Studio (1960-1965), New Group, Inc. (1965-1970) and at Henry Glass, Inc. (1970-1972, 1976). In later years he has held positions in development and publications at Scholastic, Inc. (1982-1984), the Center for Constitutional Rights (1984-1986), and the American Civil Liberties Union (1989-1990).

His writing career began in earnest in 1967 with the production of two documentary plays about fugitive slaves (Inquest at Christiana; and The Dispute over the Ownership of Anthony Burns) both of which were broadcast over radio station WBAI-FM (N.Y.). This initial preoccupation with Black history was most likely due to the influence of his father who was a noted authority on Negro jazz, and a devoted collector of jazz recordings. Continuing the documentary approach to historical writing which he was to employ throughout most of his writing career, Katz published two additional works in the field of Black studies: Black Woman: A Fictionalized Biography of Lucy Terry Prince (Pantheon, 1973) which he co-authored with his father although it was published after the latter's death; and Resistance at Christiana: The Fugitive Slave Rebellion, Christiana, Pennsylvania, 1851 (T.Y. Crowell, 1974).

A staunch advocate of gay rights, Katz turned his attention in the mid-1970s to the plight of another beleaguered minority, that of gay men and lesbians. Taking up the cause he became a founding member of the Gay Academic Union and with the publication in rapid succession of three books of historical documentation and analysis, he brought to the issue of gay and lesbian rights an historical depth, perspective, and understanding which had heretofore been lacking. His books Coming Out! A Documentary Play About Gay Life and Liberation (Arno Press, 1975), Gay American History: Lesbians and Gay Men in the U.S.A. (T. Y. Crowell, 1976), and Gay/Lesbian Almanac: A New Documentary (Harper & Row, 1983) also established his reputation as one of America's leading authorities on homosexuality and on gay and lesbian history. Katz is also the author of The Invention of Heterosexuality (Dutton, 1995) and Love Stories: Sex Between Men Before Homosexuality (University of Chicago Press, 2001).

In addition to his major publications Katz has contributed papers at conferences and published articles, reviews and essays on the subject of homosexuality, heterosexuality, and gay and lesbian issues. In 1975 he was general editor of the Arno Press-New York Times reprint series on homosexuality. He has also been guest lecturer on gay American history at several colleges and universities including Yale, Princeton, and the University of Chicago, and has taught courses on the gay and lesbian history at New York University and at the New School for Social Research (1991).

During his writing career Katz has been the recipient of several grants from philanthropic foundations including the Writer-in-Residence Grant from the New York State Council on the Arts (1984 and 1985), the Louis M. Rabinowitz Foundation, and from the Pennsylvania Humanities Council for the purpose of producing, in collaboration with the Philadelphia Lesbian and Gay Task Force, an educational documentary entitled "Words" which explored the changing terminology's and concepts in the field of gay and lesbian history.

From the guide to the Jonathan Ned Katz papers, 1947-2004, (The New York Public Library. Manuscripts and Archives Division.)