Joseph HansenJoseph Hansen was a pioneer in the homosexual mystery story, thanks to his Dave Brandstetter series, started in 1970. He developed a lean prose on par with Chandler, Hammett and Ross Macdonald, inspiring two generations of gay mystery authors since, any of whom pay homage today. His writing was published in a variety of periodicals including The Atlantic, Harper's, South Dakota Review and Mystery Monthly.Born in 1923, his first work was published by the New Yorker in 1952. In the 1960s he worked for the gay magazines One and Tangents. He produced the radio show "Homosexuality Today" for KPFK-FM and helped found the first Gay Pride Parade in Hollywood in 1970. During the 1960s, he also wrote, under the pseudonym James Colton, erotic pulp fiction ... all this before Stonewall.Hansen produced nearly 40 books including mainstream novels, including Backtrack, A Smile in His Lifetime, and Job's Year from the early 1980s reissued in 2025 by ReQueered Tales, and a series of semi-autobiographical works based on his early years as a struggling writer. His much praised mainstream novel. A Smile in His Lifetime (1981), was written on a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Read More Read Less