Although he died at a heartbreakingly young age and appeared in only a handful of movies, James Dean revolutionized American manhood. As a celebrity and icon, he melded vulnerability with determination, sensitivity with strength, in a way that offered a bracing and–for some–threatening new vision of masculinity. His massive influence and the fascination he continues to inspire is inseparable from his secret life as a queer man contending with the homophobia of midcentury America. Today, even though it is widely accepted that Dean was gay or bisexual, the story of his life and his personal character continue to be colored by the tropes and prejudices of an earlier era. Drawing on more than four hundred previously secret pages of Dean’s personal and business records, Jimmy is a necessary and essential corrective to the biographical-historical record. A modern, twenty-first century approach, informed by contemporary ideas about sexual diversity transforms our understanding James Dean’s story, and the stories of boys and men like him.
