• openly gay novelist Gordon Merrick's book The Lord Won't Mind spent 16 weeks on the New York Times best-seller list in 1970, at a time when most authors would not write about homosexual themes for a mass audience?

Facts on topics related to Gordon Merrick

Central Intelligence Agency

• JMWAVE was a secret CIA base on University of Miami campus grounds during the 1960s?
• Jim Sanborn's sculpture Kryptos (pictured), located at the United States CIA headquarters, contains text that remains undeciphered after more than 18 years?
• Michigan State University, which gave technical assistance to South Vietnam from 1955 to 1962, provided cover for the CIA?
• an exploding cigar was at the heart of an alleged plot by the Central Intelligence Agency to assassinate Fidel Castro?
• the attack on Camp Chapman in Afghanistan on December 30, 2009, was the most lethal sustained by the CIA in 25 years?
• the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency supported the Chushi Gangdruk guerilla fighters in their attempts to overthrow the Communist Party of China in Tibet in the 1950s?
• the United States Youth Council received more than 90 percent of its funds from the Central Intelligence Agency?
• visual evidence of the installation of Soviet missiles in Cuba which triggered the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 was found in reconnaissance photographs by CIA analysts led by Arthur C. Lundahl?

New York City

• African-American gay and transgender Ali Forney, once homeless himself, had a homeless LGBT youth center in New York City named after him for his work helping other youths?
• architecture critics praised the Art Deco Ghostbusters Building, in New York City, when it opened in 1929?
• Australian singer Lana Cantrell, a 1968 Grammy Award nominee for Best New Artist, later became an entertainment lawyer in New York City?
• Edgar Allan Poe wrote "The Raven" while living at what is now called Edgar Allan Poe Cottage in the Fordham section of The Bronx in New York City?
• Hal the Central Park Coyote got his nickname from his temporary lair in Hallett Nature Sanctuary (pictured) in Central Park, New York City?
• Leo Tolstoy's play The Living Corpse played in New York City in both Yiddish (1911) and German (1916) before it was ever presented there in English (1918)?
• New York City authorities asked the Museum of Sex not to locate itself within 500 feet of a church or school?
• New York City has been working on the Second Avenue Subway project since 1919?
• New York City's Ramaz School, with 1,100 students in 2007, was named for Rabbi Moses Margolies and founded by his grandson Rabbi Joseph Lookstein, whose son was in the opening class of six in 1937?
• New York City's Central Park West Historic District contains only one building not felt to contribute to its historic character?

France

• "4 Mots sur un piano", which deals with the theme of a romantic relationship between two men and one woman, was the fifth best-selling single of 2007 in France?
• 11-year old Prince Joseph Wenzel of Liechtenstein is regarded by Jacobites as third in line for the throne of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland?
• 18th century Franco-Portuguese industrialist Jácome Ratton (pictured) left a vivid account of the 1755 Lisbon earthquake in his memoirs and was exiled to the Azores during the Napoleonic Wars?
• 18th century French artilleries were the most efficient at cannon operation (pictured), capable of firing 150 shots per cannon daily during siege?
• 18th century French salons were often led by those who were creating the Encyclopédie?
• footballer Edward King was honored for heroism in the Philippines and tactical skill in France and later became Commandant of the Army Command and General Staff College?
• Cambodia's Mongkol Borei District was part of Thailand until the French demanded it back in 1907?
• Camille Le Mercier d'Erm and his colleagues formed the Breton Nationalist Party in 1911 to advocate the independence of Brittany from France?
• Catherine II's Instruction to the Legislative Assembly was banned in pre-revolutionary 18th-century France as a "libertarian book"?
• cinematographer Lawrence Sher first developed an interest in photography after his father convinced him to take a 35mm camera on a Teaneck High School-sponsored trip to France?

Algeria

• Arnon Grunberg's award-winning 2003 novel The Asylum Seeker features a ménage à trois involving a former john, a terminally ill former prostitute, and an Algerian asylum seeker?
• French Army soldiers killed between 15,000 and 45,000 Algerian civilians in the Setif massacre of May 8, 1945, the same day as V-E day in Europe?
• Donald Trounson distributed chocolate to soldiers returning from Dunkirk, escorted captive Italians to prison camps in Algeria, and founded the National Photographic Index of Australian Wildlife?
• John Kempthorne defeated an attack by seven Algerine corsairs on his single ship, HMS Mary Rose?
• Bombardment of Algiers, an oil-on-canvas by Thomas Luny, depicts the titular battle in which over 1000 Christians were liberated from slavery in Algeria?
• in the capture of Algiers (1529), Barbarossa (pictured) delivered the city of Algiers (modern Algeria) from Spanish control and installed it under Ottoman rule for three centuries?
• the Algerian communist trade union centre UGSA disbanded itself in 1957, after the rival nationalist UGTA had participated in the Leipzig congress of the World Federation of Trade Unions?
• the turnout in the 2002 Algerian legislative election was Algeria's lowest yet since independence in 1962?
• the 2003 earthquake that killed more than 2,200 was the strongest to hit Algeria since 1980?
• the National Union of Algerian Farmers, one of the six main mass organizations of the FLN period, enjoyed less political autonomy than the other mass organizations in Algeria at the time?

Greece

• German painter Ludwig Thiersch influenced the debate over Byzantine and Western influences in modern Greek art, and painted church frescoes in Greece, Austria, Germany, England, and Russia?
• Greek composer Phivos has written songs for artists including Keti Garbi, Angela Dimitriou, Manto, Thanos Kalliris, and, most successfully, Despina Vandi?
• Greek–Polish singer Eleni Tzoka has been awarded the Saint Rita of Cascia prize for the act of mercy towards the killer of her young daughter?
• Nigeria, which contains what was once the Kingdom of Benin, has repeatedly called for the U.K.'s return of the Benin Bronzes, in a situation similar to Greece's petition for the return of the Elgin Marbles?
• Norwegian chemist Alexis Pappas was born in London to Greek parents who fled from Belgium to England during World War I?
• Russian Hussar Alexander Bulatovich (pictured) was a military aide to Ethiopian ruler Menelek II, a hieromonk in Greece, and leader of a banned religious movement?
• Stylianos Pattakos, a principal of the 21 April 1967 coup in Greece, after his conviction at the Greek junta trials, enjoyed amenities such as a pond with 21 goldfish while imprisoned?
• American statesman John Milledge named Athens, Georgia, the city surrounding the University of Georgia, after Athens, Greece, the city of Plato's Academy?
• Emmanouil Argyropoulos (pictured), the first Greek aviator to fly over his country, was also the first casualty suffered by Greek military aviation one year later during the Balkan Wars?
• Nobile Teatro di San Giacomo di Corfù‎, founded in 1720, was the first modern opera theatre in Greece?