And yet, Delany’s seminal tome, Times Square Red, Times Square Blue (two distinct essays first published as a unit in 1999) captures the desire lines and exquisite, fragile freedoms of sex in the public space by taking as a case study the stomping grounds that the writer knew well: the streets and theaters of Manhattan’s 42nd Street area, where men of all ages, classes, and races intersected with a shared purpose. Cruising is obviously not a 20th-century phenomenon. Or really, that should be books plural, as the pioneering 79-year-old writer (of science fiction, of short stories, of essays, and of criticism an all-around gay hero of letters) has included the art and technique of cruising in many of his narratives.
The book has been written on American gay cruising, and its author and prime practitioner is Samuel R.
