An outstanding look at one of postcolonial America’s more bizarre murders. One evening in 1812, Russell Colvin vanished from Manchester, Vermont, following a violent argument with his wife’s brothers, Jesse and Stephen Boorn. Tongues began to wag, the gossip flowed, and seven years later, the Boorns were convicted of murder. And then, just in the nick of time, Colvin reappeared. The Boorns’ convictions were quickly overturned.
But wait—there’s more! Forty years later, while trying to recruit a man for his counterfeiting ring, Jesse Boorn boasted about hiring an impostor to play Colvin. Unfortunately, Boorn’s potential recruit was an undercover U.S. marshal. McFarland carefully reconstructs the crime, and while he plainly leans toward the impostor theory, he avoids going on a heavy revisionist trip. Superior historical true crime. JM

Publisher: University of Massachusetts
Paperback: 242 pages
Illustrated

Essays on camp, featuring such immortal icons of this camp century as: Dusty Springfield, Ronald Firbank, Mae West, The White Negro, Marlene Dietrich, Judy Garland, Jerry Lewis, Tennessee Williams, Lypsinka, Mötley Crue, Twisted Sister, Ratt, Andy Warhol, Carmen Miranda, Dean Martin, Liberace, Raquel Welch, Tom Cruise, Susan Sontag, Kristy McNichol, AIDS! The Musical!, Norma Desmond, and et al. Plus these flaming camp slogans, suitable for bumper sticker or T-shirt: “Art From Pain,” “The Re-creation of Surplus Value from Forgotten Forms of Labor,” “A Drag Queen’s Genitals Must Never Be Seen,” “Fascinating Fascism,” “The Lie That Tells the Truth,” “It’s So Bad, It’s Good,” “Humor in Leftovers,” and “Outrage Against a Homophobic Mass Culture!” Conclusion for the 21st century-Camp is an attitude you visit. GR

Publisher: University of Massachusetts
Paperback: 300 pages
Illustrated