For the Ferryman

Dr. Charles Silverstein is well known in the gay community for his activism in the struggle for gay rights, his professional contributions toward providing counseling for gay people, and for his publications.Silverstein's 1973 historic presentation before the "Nomenclature Committee" of the American Psychiatric Association led to the removal of homosexuality as a mental illness from the diagnostic manual. He was in the vanguard in the fight to stop the use of aversion therapy on gay people, and founded two gay and lesbian counseling centers in New York, Identity House and the Institute for Human Identity. He was also the founding editor of the Journal of Homosexuality, now in its fifty-seventh volume.In publishing, he is best known for the groundbreaking 1977 The Joy of Gay Sex (with Edmund White), subsequently translated into five other languages. His A Family Matter: A Parents' Guide to Homosexuality was the first book to assist parents who learn that a son or daughter is gay. Man to Man: Gay Couples in America was the first book to examine the nature of gay male love relationships.In August 2011, Silverstein was awarded a Gold Medal for Lifetime Achievement in the Practice of Psychology from the American Psychological Foundation.

Dr. Charles Silverstein has made a habit of breaking down barriers. He successfully persuaded the American Psychiatric Association to remove homosexuality as a mental illness in 1973. With Edmund White, he co-authored the landmark publication The Joy of Gay Sex in 1977. He was awarded a Gold Medal for Lifetime Achievement in the Practice of Psychology in 2011.In his stunning memoir, For the Ferryman, we share his life's joys and sorrows, professionally and personally. It's not just a tour of the political events of gay activism, it is a love story of the extraordinary twenty-year relationship the author shared with William Bory. As Reverend John J McNeil puts it: "It is a memorial to a love affair which relentlessly and courageously analyzes the neurotic wounds in both their lives that led to their loving partnership with all its ups and downs, an extraordinary faithful love that persevered to the end."
A compelling read, written in a disarming style which conveys the passion, and sometime sorrow, of a life richly lived - For the Ferryman rewards the reader with an afterglow which long sits in one's heart. This second edition has been updated for a 2022 release.


"Charles Silverstein has written a memoir about the great love of his life - an eccentric, androgynous genius whom Charles adored and cared for despite all his flaws and addictions. Most writers idealize their lovers, especially if they've died young, but Silverstein presents his William with all his charm and sexual allure and intellectual brilliance - and all his maddening faults. I wept at the end of this brave, honest book - and I suspect you will too." - Edmund White


"From his Brooklyn childhood to his climactic gay-Scott and Zelda relationship, Silverstein's For the Ferryman is a searing, unafraid, and indelible self-portrait of a distinguished and amazing life. Not the coolly calculated look-back we might have expected but instead a roller-coaster ride of emotion recollected in anything but tranquility." - Felice Picano


"Detailed, unflinching, and unrepentantly honest, this memoir is both personal in scope and universal in relevance." - Jerry Wheeler, Out in Print


"Silverstein takes no liberties, hides no truths, glosses over no details and is candid in a way that could make Larry Flint blush. For The Ferryman uniquely blends the early years of the gay struggle for liberation and AIDS with the simple life of two men in love." - Joe Franco, Windy City Times