John Mitzel


John Mitzel was a Boston writer, publisher, bookseller, and gay community and cultural activist.

Early activism

Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and educated at Boston University, he was one of the organizers of Boston's first gay pride parade in 1971. Mitzel was a founding member of the Fag Rag collective in 1971 which published Fag Rag, and he helped found the Good Gay Poets collective in 1973. He wrote numerous articles for Gay Community News and had a column in Philadelphia Gay News in the 1970s and 1980s. As a publisher, he started Manifest Destiny Press in the 1970s and Calamus Books in 2002.

Boston-Boise Committee

In December 1977, Mitzel with other members of the Fag Rag collective organized the Boston-Boise committee largely in response to the police entrapment of Boston gay men. In April 1978, through Mitzel's acquaintance with him, Gore Vidal spoke at a fund-raiser for the committee, and the controversy that followed the event led to the resignation of a Massachusetts Supreme Court judge and the founding of GLAD and NAMBLA.

Glad Day and Calamus

Mitzel operated the Boston branch of Toronto's Glad Day Bookshop for some fifteen years until about 2000. He then opened Calamus Books.

Works and publications