Fire Island: A Century in the Life of an American Paradise

*A Town and Country Must-Read Book of Summer?**A BUZZFEED BEST BOOK OF JUNE**A Washington Post "Book to Read This Summer"**AN ADVOCATE BEST LGBTQ+ BOOK OF 2022**A USA Today "Book to Celebrate Pride Month"**A New York Times "Editor's Pick"**A Kirkus Reviews Hottest Book of Summer*A groundbreaking account of New York's Fire Island, chronicling its influence on art, literature, culture and queer liberation over the past centuryFire Island, a thin strip of beach off the Long Island coast, has long been a vital space in the queer history of America. Both utopian and exclusionary, healing and destructive, the island is a locus of contradictions, all of which coalesce against a stunning ocean backdrop.Now, poet and scholar Jack Parlett tells the story of this iconic destination--its history, its meaning and its cultural significance--told through the lens of the artists and creators who sought refuge on its shores. Together, figures as divergent as Walt Whitman, Oscar Wilde, James Baldwin, Ca