His 1991 book Strange Bedfellows: The First American Avant-Garde was called "a chapter in our national biography" by
Stefan Kanfer for the Los Angeles Times[1] and "a marvelous group portrait of a band of cultural renegades" by Publishers Weekly.[2] Watson has written five books about 20th century American
avant-garde and
counterculture movements, curated two exhibitions at the
National Portrait Gallery ("Group Portrait, The First American Avant-Garde" and "Rebels: Painters and Poets of the 1950's"),[3][4] and served as consultant curator for the
Whitney Museum exhibition "Beat Culture and the New America".[5]
Biography
Watson was born in 1947. He grew up in the suburbs of
Minneapolis, Minnesota and graduated from Mound High School. He majored in English at
Stanford University and participated in anti-
Vietnam Warprotests, including a guerrilla theater piece called Alice in ROTC-Land, co-starring with
Sigourney Weaver. After graduation, he founded an alternative elementary school called KNOW School in Auburn, California. He studied psychology at the
University of California, Santa Barbara, where he received his Ph.D. in 1976, and he worked for nineteen years as the staff psychologist of the
Putnam County Community Mental Health Clinic. In 1976, Watson also began writing articles for the
Village Voice,
New York Newsday,
Soho Weekly News, and Gaysweek. His work on gay culture included the first major article about
Marsha P. Johnson,[6] an early extended interview with
Sylvia Rivera, and a book about the transgender figure, Minette.[7] At the same time, he began writing books about key circles of the twentieth century. He currently lives in
New York City.
Published works
Books:
Minette: Recollections of a Part-time Lady (with Ray Dobbins) (1979)