James Robert Baker

James Robert Baker was an American author of sharply satirical, predominantly gaythemed transgressional fiction. A native Californian, his work is set almost entirely in Southern California. After graduating from UCLA, he began his career as a screenwriter, but became disillusioned and started writing novels instead. Though he garnered fame for his books FuelInjected Dreams and Boy Wonder, after the controversy surrounding publication of his novel, Tim and Pete, he faced increasing difficulty having his work published. According to his life partner, this was a contributing factor in his suicide.

Baker was born in Long Beach, California and raised in what he considered a stifling, Republican Southern Californian household. Rebelling against his parents, he became attracted to the fringe elements of society, including beatniks , artists and gays. In high school during the 1960s he explored his sexuality at underground gay teen nightclubs, while living in fear that his abusive father would find out. At one point, his father hired a private detective to follow him, when he suspected Baker was having an affair with a male neighbor. This family dynamic would be used in many of his novels, most extensively in Boy Wonder.

Source: Wikipedia