When the definitive history of hte emergence of gay culture in the second half of the twentieth century is written, one individual artist is almost certain to be acknowledged for having singlehandedly shaped the erotic imaginations of generations of gay men: hte Scandinavian illustrator Tom of Finland. Working alone and in secret in a far-off land, the remarkable drawings that sprang from this artist's hands-leatherman-bikers, cowboys, cops, lumberjacks, hardhats, soldiers, and sailors -- become archetypal images that delineated the shape of homoerotic desire. With Tom's full cooperation in the years before his death, F. Valentine Hooven III hs written a full biography of the man, while tracing the evolution and impact of his art on the world.