# Samuel Steward > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Samuel_Steward > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Samuel_Steward.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Steward > Source revision: 1352549346 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{Short description|American poet, novelist, tattoo artist (1909–1993)}} {{For|the boxer|Sam Steward}} {{Use mdy dates|date=January 2023}} {{Infobox person | image = Samuel Morris Steward 1957.jpg | alt = Black-and-white photograph of a shirtless, tattooed, mustachioed man with a cigarette in his mouth | caption = Steward in 1957 | birth_name = Samuel Morris Steward | birth_date = {{Birth date|1909|07|23}} | birth_place = [Woodsfield, Ohio](/source/Woodsfield%2C_Ohio) | death_date = {{Death date and age|1993|12|31|1909|07|23}} | death_place = [Berkeley, California](/source/Berkeley%2C_California) | nationality = | other_names = | known_for = | occupation = Novelist, tattoo artist }} '''Samuel Morris Steward''' (July 23, 1909 – December 31, 1993), also known as '''Phil Andros''', '''Phil Sparrow''', was an American [tattoo artist](/source/tattoo_artist) and [pornographer](/source/Pornography). Throughout his life, he kept extensive secret [diaries](/source/diary), journals, and statistics of his sex life. He lived most of his adult life in [Chicago](/source/Chicago), where he tattooed sailor-trainees from the [U.S. Navy](/source/United_States_Navy)'s [Great Lakes Naval Training Station](/source/Great_Lakes_Naval_Training_Station) (as well as gang members and street people) out of a tattoo parlor on South State Street. He later moved to the [San Francisco](/source/San_Francisco) Bay Area, where he spent the late 1960s as the official tattoo artist of the [Hells Angels](/source/Hells_Angels) Motorcycle Club. ==Life and career== Steward was born in [Woodsfield, Ohio](/source/Woodsfield%2C_Ohio), and began attending [Ohio State University](/source/Ohio_State_University) in [Columbus](/source/Columbus%2C_Ohio) in 1927. === Teaching and writing === He taught English at OSU from 1932 until 1934 as a university fellow.{{citation |title=Student Directories |publisher=Ohio State University Archives }} His first year-long post was as an instructor of English in 1934 at [Carroll College](/source/Carroll_College_(Montana)) in [Helena, Montana](/source/Helena%2C_Montana). In 1936, he was summarily dismissed from his second teaching position, at the [State College of Washington](/source/Washington_State_University_at_Pullman) (now Washington State University) at Pullman, as a result of his sympathetic portrayal of a prostitute in his well-reviewed comic novel ''Angels on the Bough''. He subsequently moved to Chicago, where he taught at [Loyola University](/source/Loyola_University_Chicago) until 1946. After leaving Loyola to help re-write the ''[World Book Encyclopedia](/source/World_Book_Encyclopedia)'', he subsequently taught at [DePaul University](/source/DePaul_University).{{cite book | last = Spring | first = Justin | title = Secret Historian: The Life and Times of Samuel Steward, Professor, Tattoo Artist, and Sexual Renegade | publisher = Farrar, Straus and Giroux | year = 2010 | isbn = 978-0-374-28134-2 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/secrethistorian00just }} Born into a [Methodist](/source/Methodist) household, Steward converted to [Catholicism](/source/Catholicism) during his university years, but had long since abandoned the Catholic Church by the time he accepted his teaching position at Loyola. From the mid-1930s until 1949, he was deeply addicted to alcohol, but he managed to overcome this dependence with the help of [Alcoholics Anonymous](/source/Alcoholics_Anonymous). Steward was introduced to [Gertrude Stein](/source/Gertrude_Stein) in 1932 by his academic advisor, Clarence Andrews, and the two began a long correspondence that led to a warm friendship. He visited her rented country home in France during the summers of 1937 and 1939. During the 1937 trip, he also met with many other literary figures, including [Thornton Wilder](/source/Thornton_Wilder), [Lord Alfred Douglas](/source/Lord_Alfred_Douglas) (the lover of [Oscar Wilde](/source/Oscar_Wilde)), [Thomas Mann](/source/Thomas_Mann), and [André Gide](/source/Andr%C3%A9_Gide). He detailed these encounters, some of them sexual, in his brief memoir, ''Chapters from an Autobiography''. He also described his friendship with Stein and [Alice B. Toklas](/source/Alice_B._Toklas) in his ''Dear Sammy: Letters from Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas''.{{cite book | last1 = Steward | first1 = Samuel | last2 = Stein | first2 = Gertrude | last3 = Toklas | first3 = Alice B. | title = Dear Sammy: Letters from Gertrude Stein & Alice B. Toklas | publisher = Houghton Mifflin | year = 1977 | isbn = 978-0-395-25340-3 }} === Collaborations with Kinsey and others === Steward met sex researcher [Alfred Kinsey](/source/Alfred_Kinsey) in late 1949 and subsequently became an unofficial collaborator with Kinsey's [Institute for Sex Research](/source/Kinsey_Institute). During his years of work with the institute, Steward collected and donated sexually themed materials to the Kinsey archive, gave Kinsey access to his lifelong sexual records, introduced him to large numbers of sexually active men in the Chicago area, and provided him with large numbers of early [Polaroid](/source/Polaroid_Corporation) sex photographs which he took during the frequent all-male sex parties he held in his Chicago apartment. He also allowed Kinsey to take detailed photographs of that sexually themed apartment. He ultimately donated large numbers of drawings, paintings, and decorative objects that he himself had created to the institute. In the spring of 1950, at Kinsey's invitation, he was filmed engaging in [BDSM](/source/BDSM) sex with [Mike Miksche](/source/Mike_Miksche), a New York-based erotic artist also known as Steve Masters. After Gertrude Stein, Kinsey was Steward's most important mentor; he later described Kinsey as "as approachable as a park bench" and as a god-like bringer of enlightenment to humankind, thus giving him the nickname, "Doctor Prometheus."{{cite book | last = Steward | first = Samuel | title = Chapters from an Autobiography | publisher = Grey Fox Press | year = 1981 | page = 98 | isbn = 978-0-912516-59-2 }} While making the transition from professor to tattoo artist during the 1950s, Steward befriended several gay artists and writers, including [Paul Cadmus](/source/Paul_Cadmus), [George Platt Lynes](/source/George_Platt_Lynes), [Julien Green](/source/Julien_Green), [Fritz Peters](/source/Arthur_Anderson_Peters), and [Glenway Wescott](/source/Glenway_Wescott). At Kinsey's specific request, he also kept highly detailed journals and diaries of his daily sexual activities, and chronicled them in a secret card catalogue he referred to as his "Stud File." Starting in 1957, he began contributing short stories based on his many sexual encounters to the [Zürich](/source/Z%C3%BCrich)-based homophile magazine ''Der Kreis'' ("The Circle"), to which he also contributed essays, reviews, and homophile journalism. During his final years in Chicago, Steward befriended [Chuck Renslow](/source/Chuck_Renslow), co-owner of Kris Studio, and Renslow's partner [Dom Orejudos](/source/Dom_Orejudos), the homoerotic illustrator also known as "Stephen" and "Etienne." Renslow and Orejudos would later open the Gold Coast, Chicago's first leather bar, and found [International Mr. Leather](/source/International_Mr._Leather), a yearly gathering of leathermen from around the world. === Pornography work === In the 1960s, Steward began writing and publishing his erotica under the name Phil Andros, initially with the Danish magazine ''Eos/Amigo''. Some of his early works described his fascination with [rough trade](/source/Trade_(gay_slang)) and [sadomasochistic](/source/sadomasochistic) sex; others focused on the power dynamics of interracial sexual encounters between men. In 1966, thanks to changes in American publishing laws, he was able to publish his story collection ''$TUD'' with Guild Press in the United States, under the pseudonym Phil Andros. By the late 1960s, Steward began writing a series of pulp-pornographic novels featuring the hustler Phil Andros as narrator. === Tattooing === Steward "initially developed an interest in tattoos because of his attraction to the kinds of masculinity he saw in criminals, hustlers, bikers, sailors, and other working-class men".{{Cite journal |last=Lee |first=Meredith |date=September 2023 |title=Permanent Gestures: Primitive Whiteness in the (Queer) Tattoo Shop |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S1054204323000242/type/journal_article |journal=TDR: The Drama Review |language=en |volume=67 |issue=3 |pages=32–46 |doi=10.1017/S1054204323000242 |issn=1054-2043|url-access=subscription }} As a leading tattoo artist of the 1950s and '60s, Steward was mentored by [Milwaukee](/source/Milwaukee)-based master tattooist [Amund Dietzel](/source/Amund_Dietzel). Steward, in turn, mentored Cliff Ingram, aka [Cliff Raven](/source/Cliff_Raven), and [Don "Ed" Hardy](/source/Don_Ed_Hardy), later known simply as Ed Hardy, encouraging both to practice the Japanese-style tattooing he himself most admired. [Chuck Arnett](/source/Chuck_Arnett) was one of Steward's tattoo clients.{{cite web |title=Never-before-released Toklas oral history highlights exhibit of Bancroft Library's LGBT collections |url=https://news.berkeley.edu/2012/03/29/never-before-released-toklas-oral-history-highlights-exhibit-of-bancroft-librarys-lgbt-collections/ |website=Berkeley News |date=2012-03-29 |access-date=2024-07-07 |language=en}} After retiring from tattooing in 1970, Steward wrote a social history of American tattooing during the 1950s and '60s, which was ultimately published as ''Bad Boys and Tough Tattoos''. ==Death== In his later years, Steward's abilities as a writer were compromised by chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and a barbiturate addiction. He died at the age of 84 in [Berkeley, California](/source/Berkeley%2C_California).{{cite news | title = Samuel Steward, 84, a writer about Stein | url = https://www.nytimes.com/1994/01/20/obituaries/samuel-steward-84-a-writer-about-stein.html | work = New York Times | page = B8 | date = January 20, 1994 }} ==Reception and scholarship== In 1972, [Jack Fritscher](/source/Jack_Fritscher) became the first openly gay writer to unearth and interview Steward; his Steward audiotapes were referenced in [Justin Spring's](/source/Justin_Spring_(writer)) biography of Steward. The [Leather Archives & Museum](/source/Leather_Archives_%26_Museum) in Chicago holds recordings of several interviews Steward sat for in the 1980s and 1990s,{{cite web |title=Sam Steward interview – Sound Recording (2014014601) |url=https://leatherarchives.org/ca/index.php/Detail/objects/17946 |access-date=October 31, 2024 |website=leatherarchives.org}}{{cite web |title=Sam Steward interview – Sound Recording (2005162201) |url=https://leatherarchives.org/ca/index.php/Detail/objects/17864 |access-date=October 31, 2024 |website=leatherarchives.org}} as well as some of Steward's writings, art, and stencils.{{cite web |title=Jim Kane Collection – Archival Collection (PERS-0003) |url=https://leatherarchives.org/ca/index.php/Detail/collections/95 |access-date=October 31, 2024 |website=leatherarchives.org}} Starting in 2001, Justin Spring tracked down Steward's archive and began writing the biography ''Secret Historian: The Life and Times of Samuel Steward, Professor, Tattoo Artist, and Sexual Renegade'', which was ultimately published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in 2010. The book was a finalist for the [National Book Award](/source/National_Book_Award).{{cite web |url=http://secrethistorian.com/aboutthebook.html |title=Welcome to the Website of Justin Spring, Author of Secret Historian: The Life and Times of Samuel Steward, Professor, Tattoo Artist, and Sexual Renegade |first=Justin |last=Spring |date=2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101228185436/http://secrethistorian.com/aboutthebook.html |archive-date=December 28, 2010 }} It received the [National Leather Association](/source/National_Leather_Association)'s Geoff Mains Non-fiction book award for 2011.{{cite web |url=http://www.livinginleather.net/list-of-winners-8.html |title=List of winners – Living In Leather |website=www.livinginleather.net |access-date=July 7, 2024}} In 2018, Jeremy Mulderig edited ''The Lost Autobiography of Samuel Steward: Recollections of an Extraordinary Twentieth-Century Gay Life,'' published by the University of Chicago Press.{{Cite web |last=Mulderig |first=Jeremy |date=2018-06-15 |title=Autobiography of a Professor, Tattoo Artist, Gay Pornographer, and Sexual Record Keeper |url=https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2018/06/15/autobiography-of-a-professor-tattoo-artist-gay-pornographer-and-sexual-record-keeper/ |access-date=2026-03-03 |website=The Paris Review |language=en}}{{Cite book |last=Steward |first=Samuel |url=https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/L/bo27803701.html |title=The Lost Autobiography of Samuel Steward: Recollections of an Extraordinary Twentieth-Century Gay Life |publisher=University of Chicago Press |editor-last=Mulderig |editor-first=Jeremy |location=Chicago, IL |language=en}} In 2012, 2014, and 2018, Seth Eisen of Eye Zen Presents created the play ''Homo File'' depicting the life and times of Steward, as part of a project to unearth and spread gay history from when homosexuality "could not speak its name".{{cite web |url=https://www.sfstation.com/homo-file-e2104072 |title=Homo File |work=SF Station |access-date=December 28, 2018}}{{cite web |url=https://www.broadwayworld.com/san-francisco/article/eye-zen-to-celebrate-the-life-of-remy-charlip-in-rainbow-logic-premiere-20160815 |title=Eye Zen to Celebrate the Life of Remy Charlip in RAINBOW LOGIC Premiere |work=Broadway World |access-date=December 28, 2018}}{{cite web |title=Micro-reviews of Theatre and Dance |url=https://andreadelmoral.wordpress.com/micro-reviews-of-theatre-and-dance/ |first=Andrea |last=del Moral |date=September 24, 2012 |access-date=July 7, 2024}} ==Honors== [[File:Sam Steward plaque in Ringold alley.jpg|thumb|Bootprint in honor of Steward, inlaid into the sidewalk as part of the [San Francisco South of Market Leather History Alley](/source/San_Francisco_South_of_Market_Leather_History_Alley)]] In 2012, Steward was inducted into the Leather Hall of Fame.{{cite web |url=https://leatherhalloffame.com/index.php/inductees.html |title=Inductees |publisher=Leather Hall of Fame |access-date=December 31, 2019}} Steward was honored in 2017 along with other notables, named on bronze bootprints, as part of [San Francisco South of Market Leather History Alley](/source/San_Francisco_South_of_Market_Leather_History_Alley).{{cite web |url=http://www.artandarchitecture-sf.com/ringold-alleys-leather-memoir.html |title=Ringold Alley's ''Leather Memoir'' |publisher=Public Art and Architecture |date=July 17, 2017 |access-date=November 23, 2019}}{{cite news |last=Paull |first=Laura |url=https://www.jweekly.com/2018/06/21/honoring-gay-leather-culture-with-art-installation-in-soma-alleyway/ |title=Honoring gay leather culture with art installation in SoMa alleyway |newspaper=J |publisher=JWeekly.com |date=June 21, 2018 |access-date=November 23, 2019}} ==Bibliography== As Philip Sparrow: * ''Philip Sparrow Tells All: Lost Essays by Samuel Steward, Writer, Professor, Tattoo Artist,'' edited by Jeremy Mulderig (2015) As Phil Andros: * ''The Motorcyclist'' (1953) * ''$tud'' (1966) * ''The Joy Spot'' (1969) * ''My Brother, the Hustler'' (1970; later published as ''My Brother, My Self'') * ''San Francisco Hustler'' (1970; later published as ''The Boys in Blue'') * ''When in Rome, Do . . .'' (1971; later published as ''Roman Conquests'') * ''Renegade Hustler'' (1972; later published as ''Shuttlecock'') * ''Below the Belt and Other Stories'' (1975) * ''The Greek Way'' (1975; later published as ''Greek Ways'') * ''Different Strokes: Stories'' (1984) As Samuel M. Steward: * ''Pan and the fire-bird'' (1930; short stories) * ''Angels on the Bough'' (1936) * ''Dear Sammy: Letters from Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas'' (1977, ed.) * ''Parisian Lives'' (1984; novel) * ''Chapters from an autobiography'' (1981; memoir) * ''Love Poems: Homage to Housman'' (1984; ManRoot; First Edition) * ''Murder Is Murder Is Murder'' (1985; Gertrude Stein-Alice B. Toklas Mystery) * ''The Caravaggio Shawl'' (1989; Gertrude Stein-Alice B. Toklas Mystery) * ''Bad Boys and Tough Tattoos: a Social History of the Tattoo with Gangs, Sailors, and Street-Corner Punks, 1950-1965'' (1990) * ''Understanding the Male Hustler'' (1991) * ''Pair of Roses'' (1993) ==References== {{reflist}} ==External links== *[https://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/26/books/26secret.html?th&emc=th Patricia Cohen, "Sexual Outlaw on the Gay Frontier"], ''The New York Times'' (July 26, 2010) about ''Secret Historian'', a biography of Steward by Justin Spring *[https://web.archive.org/web/20060622171942/http://www.glbtq.com/sfeatures/interviewssteward.html "A Very Magical Life: Talking with Samuel Steward" Interview by Owen Keehnen in ''GLBTQ''] * {{cite book |last1=Lautman |first1=Victoria |last2=Berndt |first2=Vicki |title=The new tattoo |date=1994 |publisher=Abbeville Press |location=New York |isbn=978-1-55859-785-3 |edition=1st}} *[Samuel Steward Papers](/source/hdl%3A10079%2Ffa%2Fbeinecke.steward), General Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Steward, Samuel}} Category:1909 births Category:1993 deaths Category:20th-century American novelists Category:20th-century American artists Category:20th-century American poets Category:20th-century American short story writers Category:20th-century American memoirists Category:American male novelists Category:Artists from Chicago Category:Artists from the San Francisco Bay Area Category:BDSM people Category:American gay artists Category:American gay writers Category:Gay memoirists Category:LGBTQ people from Ohio Category:Leather subculture Category:Ohio State University alumni Category:People from Woodsfield, Ohio Category:American tattoo artists Category:Writers from Chicago Category:Novelists from Ohio Category:Writers from the San Francisco Bay Area Category:American LGBTQ poets Category:American LGBTQ novelists Category:American male poets Category:American male short story writers Category:20th-century American male writers Category:Novelists from Illinois Category:American male non-fiction writers Category:20th-century American LGBTQ people Category:Gay poets Category:American male tattoo artists --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Samuel Steward](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Steward) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Steward?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.