American actor and writer Gordon Merrick was BOTD in 1916. Born in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania to a middle-class family, he studied French literature at Princeton University before quitting to become an actor. Tall, blond and good looking, he scored the lead in the Broadway production of the hit play The Man Who Came to Dinner, and had an affair with its co-writer Moss Hart. After growing tired of Broadway life to become a newspaper reporter, working for the Washington Star, the Baltimore Sun and the New York Post. During World War Two, he worked as a counter-intelligence agent for the United States government, based in Algeria and then (presumably in much greater comfort) in Cannes, France. After the war, he returned to New York but was unable to secure journalism work. He moved to Mexico, where he wrote The Strumpet Wind, a novel about a gay American spy in wartime Paris. Published in 1947, it was a critical and commercial success, allowing him to move to Paris. In 1956, he met Charles Tulse, a much younger American dancer and actor, who became his life partner. Merrick continued to write novels, without success, until his 1970 gay romance The Lord Won’t Mind became a surprise bestseller. Two sequels followed, One For the Gods and Forth Into Light. He continued publishing novels until his death, with narratives typcially featuring robustly masculine gay men learning to accept their sexuality and find love. He and Hulse eventually moved to Sri Lanka, where he died in 1988, aged 71. His works are largely out-of-print, though public interest in his life and work was revived by Joseph Ortiz’ 2022 biography Gordon Merrick and the Great Gay American Novel.