Perry Deane Young

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Perry Deane Young
Born( 1941-03-27)March 27, 1941
Woodfin, North Carolina, U.S.
DiedJanuary 1, 2019(2019-01-01) (aged 77)
Chapel Hill, North Carolina, U.S.
OccupationWriter
NationalityAmerican
Alma materUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Period1967–2018
GenreNon-fiction
Website
www.authorperrydeaneyoung.com

Perry Deane Young (March 27, 1941 – January 1, 2019) was a journalist, author,

Sean Flynn and Dana Stone, who went missing during the Vietnam War and whose fates remain unknown, and the co-author of The David Kopay Story, a biography of 1970's professional football player David Kopay, who revealed in 1975 that he was gay.[1]

Early life

Young was born on March 27, 1941, in Woodfin, North Carolina,[2] near Asheville, the youngest of 13 children.[3] His mother was Rheba Maphry Tipton Young.[2] His father, Robert, died in 1958.[3] He edited his high school newspaper and earned a scholarship to University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1959.[1] He graduated in 1994.[2]

Career

Dropping out of UNC, Young worked for several newspapers, including the

Army Reserves in 1966.[3] He then went to work for United Press International in 1967.[1]

Young took an assignment with UPI in Vietnam, arriving in

Sean Flynn, and Nik Wheeler.[1] He left after witnessing the near-fatal injuries to Page.[1] In 1975, his book Two of the Missing was published. The memoir was based on a magazine article of the same name that Young wrote in Harper's Magazine in December 1972,[4][5] with the intention of later writing a book about the disappearance of Flynn and Stone.[3][4] He had met and worked with them in Vietnam covering the war, and they went missing after Young had left.[3]

After reading of the American football player Dave Kopay's post-retirement revelation of being gay, Young offered to help Kopay write a book. The offer was accepted, and in 1977, the book appeared on the

New York Times Best Seller list.[6] For a time, Young and Kopay lived together in Washington, D.C.[7]

A Killing Cure, about Evelyn Walker's malpractice suit against psychiatrist Zane Parzen, was published in 1982.[8] In a 1998 profile, Young revealed that "[the] book made no money at all, and it was a disaster."[3]

He was a columnist for The Chapel Hill Herald from 1996–2003.[2]

In addition to the books, Young penned three plays with William Gregg. All three were produced by the Southern Appalachian Repertory Theatre: Frankie in 2001; Mountain of Hope in 2004; Home Again, 2009.

Personal

Young long acknowledged that he was gay, writing candidly about it in Two of the Missing,[1] and authored or co-authored books with gay-related themes, including The David Kopay Story and Lesbians and Gays and Sports. He lived in the basement of a non-profit counseling and support group in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, working around the building in lieu of rent, from 1993 until his death.[1]

Young died from cancer on January 1, 2019, aged 77.[9]

Published works

Books

  • Two of the Missing: Remembering Sean Flynn and Dana Stone.
    ISBN 978-0-9816280-9-7
    .     (originally published in 1975)
  • Hanged by a Dream.
    ISBN 0-595-80734-8
    .
  • Our Young Family. Overmountain Press. 2003.
    ISBN 1-57072-274-9
    .
  • The David Kopay Story. Advocate Books. 2001.
    ISBN 978-1-55583-638-2. (with David Kopay
    ; originally published in 1977)
  • The Untold Story of Frankie Silver. Down Home Press. 1998.
    ISBN 0-595-37725-4. (reissued 2005 by iUniverse
    )
  • Lesbians and Gays and Sports.
    ISBN 978-0-7910-2951-0
    .
  • A Killing Cure.
    ISBN 0-03-069906-1
    . (with Evelyn Walker)
  • God's Bullies; Native Reflections on Preachers and Politics.
    ISBN 0-03-059706-4
    .

Plays

  • Frankie, Southern Appalachian Repertory Theatre August 2001 (with William Gregg)
  • Mountain of Hope, SART, July 7, 2004 (with William Gregg)
  • Home Again, July 29, 2009 (with William Gregg)

References

  1. ^
    News & Observer. p. A1. Archived from the original
    on 2012-10-03. Retrieved 2009-05-17.
  2. ^ a b c d "Inventory of the Perry Deane Young Papers, 1954-2004". University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. November 2004. Retrieved 2009-05-18.
  3. ^
    News & Observer
    . p. D1.
  4. ^ a b Young, Perry Deane (December 1972). "Two of the Missing". Harper's Magazine: 84. Retrieved 2009-05-18.
  5. ^ Young, Perry Deane (March 1975). "Goodbye, Asheville". Harper's Magazine: 63.
  6. ISBN 978-0-231-08437-6
    .
  7. ^ Maxa, Rudy (1978-02-26). "Perry Deane Young and David Kopay". The Washington Post. p. 4 (Magazine).
  8. ^ Downey, Maureen (1986-07-21). "About Women - Psychiatrist's abusive treatment reported in book by patient". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. p. B1.
  9. ^ "Perry Deane Young, NC-born Vietnam War correspondent and author, has died". newsobserver. 2019-01-03. Retrieved 2019-01-04.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Perry_Deane_Young&oldid=1168991867"