Charles Kaiser is the author of "1968 in America "(Grove/Atlantic), one of the most admired popular histories of the music, politics, and culture of the 1960s, and "The Gay Metropolis" (Houghton Mifflin and Grove), the landmark history of gay life in America, which was a "New York Times" Notable Book of the Year and a Lambda Literary Award winner. He is is a former reporter for the "New York Times" and "Wall Street Journal" and a former press critic for "Newsweek." His articles and reviews have also appeared in the "Washington Post," "Los Angeles Times," "Rolling Stone," "New York," "Vogue," "Vanity Fair," "The Guardian" (UK), and "New Republic," among other publications. He grew up in Washington, D.C., Dakar, Senegal, London, England, and Windsor, Connecticut. Since 1968 he has always lived on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, except for two and a half years he spent in France to research this book."