Beginning today, a three-part series from Mandate that features gay men afflicted with enormous physical and emotional challenges. Each man triumphed over the obstacles thrown in his path, and each one lives on through his work: Felix Irizarry through his illustrations, Denton Welch in his writings, and Cole Porter through his music.
The three are separated in time, in location, and by social and economic circumstances. Felix was born in 1953 in New York, where he still lives. He visited the Mandate offices a couple of times during my tenure in the 1980s, and I recall his obvious thrill at being in the company of other gay men. I remember also his joy when we complimented his work and accepted various illustrations for use in our magazines, Mandate, Honcho, and Playguy.
Next week, a poignant profile of the British writer Denton Welch (1915-1948), whose exuberant youth was ended when a careless driver smashed into his bicycle and crippled him for life.
The week after that, Cole Porter (1891-1964). The composer of Broadway musicals, film scores, love songs and comic ditties, he was enormously rich, successful as few musicians have been, revered by a vast public, married to an older woman who, as companion/wife, put no restraints on his gay liaisons. Then, in 1937, the horse he was riding stumbled, rolled on him, and crushed his legs. For the rest of his life he endured indescribable pain; not one of the many operations brought relief.
Perhaps you will feel, as I do, a certain awe and a sense of humility in view of these men’s courage — “the courage to endure,” a line I’ve borrowed from a poem by Emily Brontë.