Robert Ferro

{{Redirect|Second Son (novel)||Second Son (disambiguation)#Literature{{!}}Second Son § Literature}} {{Use American English|date=February 2024}} {{short description|American writer (1941–1988)}} thumb|Ferro in 1988 '''Robert Ferro''' (October 21, 1941 – July 11, 1988) was an American novelist whose semi-autobiographical fiction explored the uneasy integration of homosexuality and traditional American upper middle class values.

==Biography== He was born in Cranford, New Jersey and graduated from Cranford High School.<ref>CHS 1957 yearbook http://www.digifind-it.com/cranford/DATA/yearbooks/1957.pdf; 2/23/1984 Cranford Chronicle. Cranford Remembered Fondly in a Novel by Robert Ferro</ref> He went to college at Rutgers University and received a Master's Degree from the University of Iowa. In late 1965 Ferro met Andrew Holleran at the Iowa Writer's Workshop.<ref>{{cite book|title=The violet quill reader : the emergence of gay writing after Stonewall|url=https://archive.org/details/violetquillreade00berg|url-access=registration|year=1994|publisher=St. Martin's|location=New York|isbn=0-312-11091-X}}</ref> He later lectured at Adelphi University.<ref name="nytimes">{{cite web |title=Robert Ferro, 46, Dies |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DEFDF1F30F931A25754C0A96E948260 |date=1988-07-12 |access-date=2007-08-08 |work=The New York Times}}</ref> He was a member of The Violet Quill.<ref name=glbtq>{{cite web |url=http://www.glbtq.com/literature/ferro_r.html |title=Ferro, Robert (1941-1988) |last=Consoli |first=Joseph P. |year=2002 |work=glbtq.com |access-date=2007-08-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070814030912/http://www.glbtq.com/literature/ferro_r.html |archive-date=2007-08-14 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

He died of AIDS a few months after his partner, Michael Grumley, in 1988 at his father's home in Ho-Ho-Kus, New Jersey, age 46.<ref name="nytimes"/><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20140728194049/http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1988-07-13/news/8802100718_1_adelphi-university-homosexuality-robert-ferro ''Sun Sentinel'', July 13, 1988]</ref> Grumley and Ferro are buried together under the Ferro-Grumley memorial in Rockland Cemetery, Sparkill, New York.

Following their deaths, the Ferro-Grumley Foundation, which manages their estate, created and endowed the annual Ferro-Grumley Award for LGBT fiction in conjunction with Publishing Triangle.

==Themes== Robert Ferro's works are especially interested in the phenomena of homosexual integration into the traditional family. Love of family is a theme that appears in both ''The Family of Max Desir'', and ''Second Son'' and reflects his traditional Italo-American sentiments.<ref name="Consoli">{{cite web|last=Consoli|first=Joseph P.|title=GLBTQ|url=http://www.glbtq.com/literature/ferro_r.html|work=Ferro, Robert (1941-1988)|access-date=February 27, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120309155026/http://www.glbtq.com/literature/ferro_r.html|archive-date=2012-03-09|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In 1984, Ferro told the "Cranford Chronicle" that the town in his novel ''The Family of Max Desir'' was a fictionalized version of his hometown, Cranford, New Jersey. The novel's "Indian River" is meant to be the Rahway River and acts as "the heart of the town and the center of [the main character's] imagination". "Indian Park", host to a revived Victorian water carnival in "Desir", is a fictionalized version of the real-life Nomahegan Park on the Rahway River.<ref>1984 Chronicle interview; Encyclopedia of Contemporary LGBTQ Literature of the United States [2 volumes]</ref>

==Books== * {{cite book|title=The Others|year=1977|publisher=Scribner|isbn=0-684-15137-5}} * {{cite book|title=The Family of Max Desir|year=1983|publisher=Dutton|isbn=0-525-24197-3}} * {{cite book|title=The Blue Star|year=1985|publisher=Plume|isbn=0-452-25819-7|url=https://archive.org/details/bluestar00ferr}} * {{cite book|title=Second Son|year=1988|publisher=Crown|isbn=0-517-56815-2|url=https://archive.org/details/secondsonnovel00ferr}}

==References== {{reflist}}

==Further reading==

===Archival sources=== * [http://hdl.handle.net/10079/fa/beinecke.ferro Robert Ferro papers, 1963-1988] (8.5 linear feet) are housed at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University.

== External links == Robert Ferro Papers. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ferro, Robert}} Category:1941 births Category:1988 deaths Category:20th-century American novelists Category:American writers of Italian descent Category:American gay writers Category:Cranford High School alumni Category:Rutgers University alumni Category:University of Iowa alumni Category:AIDS-related deaths in New Jersey Category:American LGBTQ novelists Category:LGBTQ people from New Jersey Category:American male novelists Category:People from Cranford, New Jersey Category:20th-century American male writers Category:20th-century American LGBTQ people