Stambolian, George

George Stambolian, writer, editor and college professor, was best known as the editor of the Men on Men anthologies of gay fiction. Stambolian was born in 1938, the son of Armenian immigrants. He graduated from Dartmouth College and received a Ph. D. from the University of Wisconsin in 1969. From 1966 until his retirement in 1991, Stambolian was a professor in the Department of French at Wellesley College. He taught courses in French literature, and wrote and edited three academic works: Marcel Proust and the Creative Encounter (1972); Twentieth Century French Fiction: Essays for Germaine Brée (1975); and, with Elaine Marks, Homosexualities and French Literature (1979).

As an early proponent of gay literature and gay studies, Stambolian also taught such interdisciplinary courses as "The Art and Politics of the Nude" and "New Literatures: Lesbian and Gay Fiction in America."

Stambolian's first writing venture outside of the academy was "We are History: An Interview with Eric Bentley" which was published in Christopher Street magazine in 1977. By 1980 Stambolian's interviews appeared frequently in Christopher Street and in 1983, "First Person," his autobiographical column on gay life, became a regular feature in the New York Native . Several of the interviews initially published in Christopher Street, became the basis of Stambolian's Male Fantasies/Gay Realities (1984), a collection of interviews with ten gay men on topics ranging from masochism and masturbation to fatherhood.

Men on Men: Best New Fiction, edited and including an introduction by Stambolian, was published by NAL (Plume) in 1986. The anthology featured the work of some of the most prominent gay authors as well as those less established. The critical and popular success of the initial volume led to three other editions which Stambolian also edited and introduced; the fourth anthology was released after his death.

Stambolian died late in 1991 from complications related to AIDS.

From the guide to the George Stambolian papers, 1955-1992, (The New York Public Library. Manuscripts and Archives Division.)