Author Armistead Maupin was born on this day in 1944 and is celebrating his birthday today.
Maupin is best known for his Tales of the City novels, which have also been adapted into a series of television programs.
First published as a column in the San Francisco Chronicle, the series encompasses ten hugely popular novels: Tales of the City, More Tales of the City, Further Tales of the City, Babycakes, Significant Others, Sure of You, Michael Tolliver Lives, Mary Ann in Autumn, The Days of Anna Madrigal and Mona of the Manor.
The books were adapted into a TV series starring actress Laura Linney and Olympia Dukakis. Since 1993, four series have been created, with the most recent debuting on Netflix in 2019.
Maupin chatted to OUTinPerth back in 2007 and spoke about how the characters in his books all have certain small elements of his own personality. His life was captured in a 2017 documentary.
His 1992 novel Maybe the Moon, which followed the serio-comic adventures of a dwarf actress working in Hollywood, was named one of the ten best books of the year by Entertainment Weekly.
The Night Listener, published in 2000, is a psychological suspense novel inspired by an eerie episode in Maupin’s own life. It was later adapted into a 2006 feature film starring Robin Williams and Toni Collette.
In 2017 he wrote a memoir titled Logical Family which grew out of his critically acclaimed one-man show of the same name.
Armistead Maupin has won numerous awards, including the ‘Bill Whitehead Award for Lifetime Achievement’ from the Publishing Triangle of New York, the ‘Lambda’s Pioneer Award’ (which is bestowed on individuals who have broken new ground in the field of LGBT literature and publishing) and the Visionary Award from the 2014 Outfest Legacy Awards for his collected novels.
The author was scheduled to return to Western Australia in July 2020, but the tour was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
OIP Staff, the post on Armistead Maupin was first published on 13th May 2020. It has subsequently been updated.
