Though this memoir may not be standard fare for most libraries, it is unquestionably of historic importance. Nichols is one of the great figures of what used to be called gay liberation. His earlier memoir I Have More Fun with You Than Anybody (1972) became a classic, as did his even more influential Men's Liberation: A New Definition of Masculinity (1975). The gay world of the 1950's and 1960's in which Nichols came out was, curiously, in many ways less puritanical than today's, and his matter of fact report is without apology. As such it serves as a valuable counterpoint to the "mainstreaming" of gay culture. Although the title rightly suggests that the book is mainly about sex, it also provides a glimpse into other aspects of gay life. It stands with the growing number of memoirs from Nichols's generation that give a clearer picture of how a despised minority carved out a life in oppressive circumstances. Recommended.

"MORE EXCITING THAN THE WILDEST FICTION. . . . Jack takes his reader on the road with him (Jack often hitchhiking in only T-shirt and jeans) where he encounters, beds down (and sometimes hustles) dozens of attractive 'numbers' who come his way."

- Donn Teal, Author of The Gay Militants: 1971 & 1994

"This might be called Jack Nichols's version of Kerouacs beat classic On the Road. With a variety of companions, and with little money in his

pocket, in the early 1960's, he drove, hitchhiked, rode buses, and even walked for a couple of long stretches from Washington, D.C., to New York and then through West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, and Illinois. He recalls in considerable detail a variety of individuals with whom he had erotic encounters. The title The Tomcat Chronicles is fully descriptive."

- Vern L. Bullough, PhD, RN, Editor of Before Stonewall: Activists for Gay

and Lesbian Rights in Historical Context

"Jack Nichols, the gay liberation pioneer, has been a lifelong friend who helped to illuminate my concept of homophobia. Oscar Wilde believed one's life should be a work of art. Jack's life, which has always combined courage, social awareness and sexual passion, is certainly such a work."

- George Weinberg, PhD, Author of Society and the Healthy Homosexual and 13 other books (the psychotherapist credited with coining the term homophobia)

"THE VIVID DETAIL AND GRACEFUL PROSE THAT CHARACTERIZE THE WRITING OF JACK NICHOLS open a window into a time long before gay men appeared weekly on TV or before anti-sodomy laws had been banned."-

Rodger Streitmatter, PhD, Author of Unspeakable: The Rise of the Gay and Lesbian Press in America

"The Tomcat Chronicles is a gay pioneer's version of City of Night."

- James T. Sears, PhD, Author of Rebels, Rubyfruit, and Rhinestones:

Queering Space in the Stonewall South; Editor of the Journal of Gay &

Lesbian Issues in Education (from the Foreword)

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