Two years ago, the New York Public Library put together this anthology of articles from their archives to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising.  The book is broken into three sections: before Stonewall, the Stonewall uprising, and post-Stonewall.  The articles consist of all types of writing, from historical accounts to personal diaries to poems and short stories.  I really enjoy reading about the history of the LGBT movement and the brave people who formed organizations like the Mattachine Society and the Daughters of Bilitis, published magazines, and protested on the picket lines.  The Stonewall uprising itself has been mythologized to death, but I still enjoyed the articles, especially the interviews with people who were truly there and were pivotal in this movement, like Sylvia Riviera and Marsha P. Johnson.  It’s a very diverse collection of articles, and some are definitely much more interesting than others, but it’s very well organized, and you’ll be proud of how far we’ve come, and a bit dismayed about how we still have a ways to go.  

“The Stonewall Reader” by the New York Public Library

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