This is a biography of an in interesting person, but first and foremost it is a detailed recounting of the sexual life of a gay man in the middle of the 20th century. The author had access to a remarkable amount of primary source material, and his subject was obsessive in his documentation of the nature of his sexual encounters and the volume as well.
Samuel Steward was a witty and ribald man, who obtained a PhD and taught (oddly) as a Catholic University for a number of years, where he had numerous sexual encounters. He was not what would be considered openly gay, but neither did he try to fake heterosexuality (think Colin Firth in 'A Single Man', but without the urge to have a long term relationship). The thing that was odd about him was that he left a thousand pages of details about the most intimate details of his sexual life. He and Kinsey hooked up (not literally--which was unusual for Mr. Steward--he definitely got around) in the mid-1950's and Steward turned over his chronicles to Kinsey at that time, and continued them for Kinsey's benefit. But he was a guy who liked to write things down.
The wonderful thing about this biography is that the author conveys Stewart's complete lack of shame about his sexuality. He is a man who probably had obsessive compulsive disorder and a sexual addiction. He certainly was an alcoholic and a barbiturate abuser, and he was a gifted writer. When he left his job as a University professor, he opened a tattoo parlor--lots of access to young men in uniform, a particular favorite of his, but he had an obsession with tattooing as well as sadomasochism. A complicated man. You might think it would be a challenge, but the author successfully makes him accessible and likable for the reader.
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