River Days, River Nights: …true gay adventures at the Russian River (1976 – 1984)

Product Description

Mark Abramson, a Minnesota farm boy, moved to San Francisco from Minneapolis in 1975 and dived right into the debauchery of gay life in that pre-AIDS world, including many day trips and overnight stays at the Russian River, ninety miles north of the city. In 1981 he decided to join a group of friends in fixing up an old house south of Guerneville, California. He soon found a job at the legendary Hexagon House/Woods Resort, where he got to meet a plethora of boyfriends, tricks, and celebrities including Divine, Charles Pierce, Sylvester, and Etta James. This is his story of those magical years before the plague.

Review

I always look forward to one of Mark Abramson’s memoirs but with 
River Days, River Nights, he has notched up his game. The Russian River has been one of the most storied of U.S. gay resorts. In his usual modest, straightforward but always readable manner, Mark shows us what it was like for someone who lived and worked there year after year. He brings the unique local characters, visitors, venues, and entertainers to life, and also creates a vibrant cultural history.

–Felice Picano, author of 
Justify My Sins: A Hollywood Novel in Three Acts

“As a longtime eyewitness of the Russian River, I found Mark’s book wonderfully engaging and historically valuable.”

–Jack Fritscher, author of 
Mapplethorpe: Assault with a Deadly Camera.

“Mark Abramson has written another wonderful memoir; a poignant, sexy and sometimes hilarious reminiscence of a moment in time when gay men created a magical community on the banks of a river winding through a redwood forest.

–Cleve Jones, author of 
When We Rise: My Life in the Movement

Mark’s trademark hashtag is #ILOVEMYLIFE and it’s not hard to see why when you read his remarkable multi-volume diaries. He processes his adventures as a gay man in San Francisco with self-effacing warmth and impressive attention to detail. His work is bound to conjure up your own memories of days gone by.” 

–Armistead Maupin, author of 
Tales of the City and
 Logical Family: A Memoir

“A sweet nostalgic romp into the woods of the Russian River, an enchanted Northern California gay resort. 
River Days, River Nights is Mark Abramson’s valentine to the halcyon days of a bygone era (but not gone from the author’s memory!). A time when waiters took acid, spinning mirror balls and free poppers fueled the tribal ritual on the dance floor, and Sylvester, Elvis Presley’s love child, Betty Hutton, Edith Massey, Etta James, Eartha Kitt, Charles Pierce, Christine Jorgensen, Mr. Drummer and Divine covered the river front.” 

–Marc Huestis, author of 
Impresario of Castro Street

Mark’s writing is superb and 
River Days, River Nights is no exception. Read it for a tender look back at a much more innocent time in gay life.

–Race Bannon, author, writer, and community organizer

“Step into Mark Abramson’s time machine and be whisked away to the Golden Age of Gay! Once upon a time San Francisco was a party town, and when it came time for summer vacation, a good bit of that party relocated to the country. There, amidst the winding waters of the Russian River and majestic redwood forests, gay men (and a few women) reveled with hedonist abandon. Mark cleverly contrived to be in the very center of the revelry, and in his fast-paced memoir you’ll read about sex, bars, parties, cabaret stars, disco divas, more sex, Divine, drugs, booze, leather, and even more sex. Anyone interested in what gay life was like between Stonewall and the plague years will surely want to read 
River Days, River Nights.

–Alvin Orloff, author of 
Disasterama! – adventures in the queer underground 1977-1997

“Hilarious, sexy, nostalgic, and a historically informative document of gay culture, 
River Days, River Nights is a welcome addition to author Mark Abramson’s collection of endearing memoirs.” 

–Jim Provenzano, author of 
PINS, Now I’m Her