An intimate biography of the gay icon whose Tales of the City changed America's understanding of LGBT culture during the 1970s and '80s. Step into Armistead Maupin's house, and you will be greeted by a strapping young gardener, a wave of marijuana smoke, and the most gracious host in the world. When he isn't flitting from protests to orgies, Maupin is a natural storyteller, and San Francisco is his favorite subject. Pull up a chair and prepare to be swept away on a wave of wit, gossip, and the most outrageous sexual anecdotes you've ever heard. His house seems like a scene out of his legendary Tales of the City, and that's no accident: Every moment of his groundbreaking series was drawn, one way or another, from Maupin's remarkable life, from a middle-class upbringing in North Carolina to a stint in the navy during Vietnam. Maupin landed in San Francisco just in time to chronicle the gay rights revolution that was sweeping the city and the country as a whole, and from the moment his Tales were first serialized, that city was never the same. This is an intimate biography, written by Maupin's longtime friend, Patrick Gale. From his fling with Rock Hudson to the darkest days of the AIDS crisis, Maupin saw it all—and lived to tell the tale.