Keynote
A poison-pen, love letter to the end of an era—Manhattan during the decadent, late 1970s—as well as a chronicle of life in the bicoastal fast lane and the corrosive nature of fame and money, from inside Beekman Place penthouses, to the halls of publishing, and ultimately the perils of writing a biting roman à clef about Studio 54.
About the Book
Picking up where he left off at the end of his widely praised debut memoir, Gaines recounts a dual narrative of his attempts to forge a writing career and a successful love life. With the encouragement of his psychiatrist (with whom he undergoes Freudian analysis) to sublimate his desires for men into enduring relationships with women, the author proceeds with limited success until he meets and touchingly falls in love with an older woman dying of cancer. Meanwhile, his unlikely and serendipitous career as a writer begins when he meets a former child evangelist at Max’s Kansas City, the famous Manhattan watering hole, and somehow with naïve chutzpah, manages a to land a book deal that leads to other opportunities: as a biographer, a rock and roll columnist and roman à clef novelist who writes a book with a studio 54 bartender that brings the world down around them. From the entertainment business in New York and L.A. to inside the publishing world, Gaines recounts a life full of escapades and the adventures of looking for love in all the wrong places, to hitting rock bottom and then a phone call that brings an opportunity to write a book that ends up on the New York Times bestseller list, leads to popular esteem and for the author, a feeling of momentary redemption.
Praise for One of These Things First
. . . an absolute treasure.
―New York Times Book Review
An extraordinary book. Incredibly moving and beautifully written.
―Jay McInerney
Humane and generous…. Shocking, funny, and sometimes shockingly funny. A real treasure.
―Boston Globe
Dominick Dunne called Steven Gaines ‘a born storyteller.’ Gaines was meant to write his own powerful, heart- wrenching, and funny life story.
―The Washington Post
By turns comic, honest, and riveting.
―Publishers Weekly
Poignant… beautifully written… in the tradition of Philip Roth… a Woody Allen sense of irony, sarcasm and wry humor.
―Lambda Literary
Gaines’ readers accompany him on a heart wrenching, funny, ultimately triumphant journey.
―Bay Area Reporter, Best LGBTQ nonfiction of 2016
About the Author
Steven Gaines is the twice New York Times best-selling author of Philistines at the Hedgerow: Passion and Property in the Hamptons and The Love You Make. He has also written Marjoe, the biography of evangelist Marjoe Gortner; Me, Alice, the autobiography of rock star Alice Cooper; The Love You Make: An Insider’s Story of the Beatles (with Peter Brown); Heroes and Villain: True Story of the Beach Boys; Simply Halston: The Untold Story; Obsession: The Lives and Times of Calvin Klein; The Sky’s the Limit: Passion and Property in Manhattan; Fool’s Paradise: Players, Poseurs, and the Culture of Excess in South Beach; a memoir One of These Things First; and the novels The Club and Another Runner in the Night. His latest book, All You Need Is Love: The Beatles in Their Own Words, co-authored with Peter Brown was published on April 9, 2024.