Although there is some memorabilia from his high school years and some personal mementoes, the bulk of this collection reflects Nungesser's struggle against homophobia, and particularly his battle with AIDS. The papers include published and unpublished writings, contracts with publishers, book reviews, drafts of research projects and grant proposals, correspondence, college placement files, articles and interviews, photographs, and clippings. There are two videocassettes, one of a call-in talk show with Nungesser as guest, and the other of Nungesser reading from Notes on Living until We Say Goodbye. In addition, there are two audio cassettes of radio interviews of Nungesser. The 1984 interview concerns Homosexual Acts, Actors and Identities and the 1988 interview discusses his battle with AIDS and Notes on Living until We Say Goodbye. These audio cassettes have been reformatted.
Nungesser is a prolific writer. There are several unpublished, book-length manuscripts in the papers, as well as dissertation and grant proposals and other writings. All relate to the social psychology of homosexuals, and several concern AIDS. Copies of Nungesser's three books have been cataloged for the Labadie Collection.
In April 1989, Lon began sending his correspondence and writings to the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections on computer disks. The files on these disks have been printed and those that did not duplicate materials already in the collection were interfiled. The disks are stored separately from the collection (in Case 2). Each of the printed files are labeled with the name of the file and its date of creation.
The papers have been divided into five series.
Lonnie Gene Nungesser was born in Springfield, Mo., on May 30, 1953, to a family living below the poverty level in the Ozark Mountains. He left home at the age of fifteen, graduated from Mountain Grove (Mo.) High School in 1971, and entered the U. S. Coast Guard, serving until 1973. He was licensed as a Southern Baptist minister in 1969. In 1975 he received his Associate's Degree from the College of Alameda (Ca.), where the previous year he had been elected the first Caucasian student body president. In 1979 Lon earned a B.A. in psychology from Stanford University and, in 1982, an M.A. in social psychology from the State University of New York at Stony Brook.
Lon left Stony Brook in early 1983 because of faltering health. In October of that year he was diagnosed as having Kaposi's Sarcoma and AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) and told he had only a few months to live. Since his diagnosis, Lon has dedicated his life to helping others survive the experiences he has lived through - coping with terminal disease and homophobia. To that end, Lon has written extensively. In addition to several unpublished works, he has three books: Homosexual Acts, Actors and Identities (Praeger, 1983); Epidemic of Courage: Facing AIDS in America (St. Martin's, 1986); and Notes on Living until We Say Goodbye: A Personal Guide (St. Martin's, 1988).
