17 Facts About Edward Sagarin

Edward Sagarin, known by his pen name Donald Webster Cory, was an American professor of sociology and criminology at the City University of New York, and a writer.

Edward Sagarin was titled "father of the homophile movement" for asserting that gay men and lesbians deserved civil rights as members of a large, unrecognised minority.

However, Vern L Bullough believes the title is undeserved as Sagarin did not actively participate in resistance and did not join any homophile organisations until 1962, a time when he was seeking a topic to analyse in his thesis.

Edward Sagarin was born with scoliosis, which produced a hump on his back.

Edward Sagarin attended high school and, after graduating, spent a year in France where he met Andre Gide.

In 1934, Edward Sagarin met Gertrude Liphshitz, a woman who shared his left-wing political interests.

Edward Sagarin established himself in the perfume and cosmetics industry, becoming knowledgeable about the chemistry of perfumes, and publishing The Science and Art of Perfumery in 1945.

Edward Sagarin began a dual life, publishing The Homosexual in America: A Subjective Approach in 1951, which was deemed an "act of heroism", under the pseudonym of Donald Webster Cory.

Mr Cory, who presented homosexuals as a despised minority, was seen as a "mythic hero", where Dr Edward Sagarin was a "hunchback deviant".

Edward Sagarin described how homosexuals were discriminated against in almost all aspects of their lives and called for a repeal of anti-homosexuality laws;.

In 1952, due to the success of The Homosexual in America: A Subjective Approach, Edward Sagarin established a subscription book service called "Cory Book Service", which chose a gay-themed literary work each month.

Edward Sagarin continued using his pseudonym, and released a second publication in 1953 called Twenty-One Variations on a Theme, an anthology of short stories dealing with homosexuality to which included pieces by Sherwood Anderson, Paul Bowles, Christopher Isherwood, Denton Welch, Charles Jackson, and Stefan Zweig.

In 1958, Edward Sagarin joined Brooklyn College, completing his BA in an accelerated program, and in 1961 he entered an MA program in sociology, where he wrote a thesis on The Anatomy of Dirty Words.

Edward Sagarin's belief was that homosexuality was "a disturbance" that probably arose as a result of a pathological family situation.

Around this time, Edward Sagarin met Barry Sheer, a student at Fairleigh Dickinson University and author for the gay press under the pseudonym John LeRoy.

Edward Sagarin entered New York University's PhD program in sociology, graduating in 1966, submitting a dissertation titled "Structure and Ideology in an Association of Deviants", which was a study of the Mattachine Society.

Edward Sagarin did not reveal his involvement in the society as Cory.