{{Short description|American novelist}} '''Richard Amory''' (October 18, 1927 – August 1, 1981), born '''Richard Wallace Love''', was an American writer from Halfway, Oregon. He obtained a bachelor's degree in sociology from Ohio State University, a M.A. in Spanish from San Francisco State University, and began an uncompleted Ph.D. in Spanish at University of California, Berkeley.<ref>Cesar Love, "Biography of Richard Love," ''Song of the Loon'' (Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2005), 215-17.</ref> A high school teacher by profession, he achieved success as a novelist in the late 1960s while still a graduate student and before coming out.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VTtqkj0pP10C&q=richard+amory+gay+writer&pg=PA109|title=''Recruiting Young Love: How Christians Talk about Homosexuality''|last=Jordan|first=Mark|date=2011|publisher=University of Chicago Press|page=109|isbn=9780226410449|accessdate=2014-10-01}}</ref>
Amory is best known for his 1966 novel ''Song of the Loon: A Gay Pastoral in Five Books and an Interlude'' and its sequels, including ''Song of Aaron'' and ''Listen, the Loon Sings''.<ref>See Drewey Wayne Gunn, ''Gay American Novels, 1870-1970: A Reader's Guide'' (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2016), 152-54.</ref> Variously described as "a gay American version of famous sixteenth-century Spanish pastoral novels"<ref>Beth M. Bouloukos, "Shepherds Redressed: Richard Amory's ''Song of the Loon'' and the Reinvigoration of the Spanish Pastoral Novel," ''1960s Gay Pulp Fiction: The Misplaced Heritage,'' ed. Drewey Wayne Gunn and Jaime Harker (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2013), 212-28.</ref> and "a gay version of ''The Last of the Mohicans'',"<ref>Angelo d'Arcangelo, ''The Homosexual Handbook,'' 2nd ed. (Ophelia Press, 1969), 235. See also Susan Stryker, ''Queer Pulp: Perverted Passions from the Golden Age of the Paperback'' (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2001), 117; Neil DeWitte, "The Gay Western: Trailblazing Heroes Stake Their Claim," ''The Golden Age of Gay Fiction,'' ed. Drewey Wayne Gunn (Albion, NY: MLR Press, 2009), 224-27.</ref> ''Song of the Loon'' has been called "one of the most important gay books of the 20th century."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bilerico.com/2010/01/jesses_journal_gay_pulp_fiction.php|title=Jesse's Journal: Gay Pulp Fiction|last=Monteagudo|first=Jesse|work=Bilerico Report / LGBTQ Nation |date=January 24, 2010|publisher=The Bilerico Project|accessdate=2014-10-01}}</ref> In 1994 one bibliographer estimated that one third of American gay men had read the novel.<ref>Tom Norman, ''American Gay Erotic Paperbacks: A Bibliography'' (Burbank, CA, 1994), 3.</ref>
''Song of the Loon'' was adapted as an erotic film in 1970 without Amory's involvement and much to his disgust.<ref name="vanden">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Hoea5QuyTf8C&q=dirk+vanden+gay&pg=PA156|title=''It Was Too Soon Before…: The Unlikely Life, Untimely Death, and Unexpected Rebirth of Gay Pioneer, Dirk Vanden''|last=Vanden|first=Dirk|date=2012|publisher=Lethe Press|page=154|isbn=9781590213544|accessdate=2014-09-24}}</ref> It also inspired a spoof, ''Fruit of the Loon'' by "Richard Armory" (in reality veteran porn writer George Davies who wrote under pen names including Clay Caldwell or Lance Lester).<ref>{{cite web|url = https://efanzines.com/EK/eI08/index.htm| title = 2002 FAAn Awards| author = Kemp, Earl| website = efanzines.com| date = June 2003}}</ref>
Amory briefly partnered with fellow authors Dirk Vanden, Phil Andros, Peter Tuesday Hughes, Larry Townsend, and Douglas Dean in an attempt to found the first all-gay publishing company, which was to be called The Renaissance Group. The group was unable to secure funding for the attempt and several of its members ceased publishing shortly thereafter.<ref name="gunn">{{cite web|url=http://www.lambdaliterary.org/features/08/10/dirk-vanden-pioneer-of-gay-literature/|title=Dirk Vanden: Pioneer Of Gay Literature|last=Gunn|first=Drewey Wayne|work=Lambda Literary |date=August 10, 2011|publisher=Lambda Literary Review|accessdate=2014-09-24}}</ref>
He died in San Jose, California.
==Bibliography== *''Song of the Loon'' (1966) *''Song of Aaron'' (1967) *''Listen, the Loon Sings'' (1968) *''A Handsome Young Man with Class'' (1969) *''Longhorn Drive'' (1969) *''Naked on Main Street'' (1969) *''Frost'' (1972) *''Willow Song'' (1974)
==See also== *Gay pulp fiction
==References== {{reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Amory, Richard}} Category:1927 births Category:1981 deaths Category:People from Halfway, Oregon Category:20th-century American novelists Category:20th-century American male writers Category:American male novelists Category:American LGBTQ writers Category:LGBTQ people from Oregon Category:Ohio State University College of Arts and Sciences alumni Category:San Francisco State University alumni Category:20th-century American LGBTQ people