Adam, Barry D., The Rise of a Gay and Lesbian Movement, rev. ed., Twayne, 1995.

Called "the classic of its field," this academic text traces the movement for gay rights back to its origins in Germany in the 1890s. More concerned with gay politics than any of the characters in the play, it is still useful for background to the world that Crowley changed.

Kaiser, Charles, "The Sixties," in Gay Metropolis: 1940-1996, Houghton Mifflin, 1997.

This much-lauded history of New York contains a long section explaining the ground-breaking impact of The Boys in the Band when it first appeared.

Marcus, Eric, Making History: The Struggle for Gay and Lesbian Rights, 1945-1990, HarperCollins, 1992.

The Boys in the Band falls right in the middle of the area covered by this oral history, which includes interviews with people from all walks of life who talk about what it was like for...