Lige Clarke

Elijah Hadyn "Lige" Clarke (February 22, 1942 − February 10, 1975) was an American LGBT activist, journalist and author. He was the author of two books with his lover, Jack Nichols.

Early life

Clarke was born on February 22, 1942, in Knott County, Kentucky.

Career

By the early 1960s, Clarke worked for the United States Department of Defense in Washington, D.C. He held "a host of security clearances."

Clarke and Nichols created and wrote "The Homosexual Citizen" as a continuation to their original column written for The Mattachine Review beginning around 1965. It was published in Screw magazine. It was the first regular LGBT-interest column printed in a non-LGBT publication. By 1972, they edited "Gay", the first weekly national homosexual magazine.

Clarke and Nichols authored two books about same-sex attraction.

Personal life and death

Clarke met Jack Nichols in the early 1960s in Washington, D.C. They became lovers.

Clarke died on February 10, 1975 in Veracruz. For Nichols, Clarke was "murdered" in "a hail of gunfire at a mysterious roadblock."

He is buried in Hindman, Kentucky.

Selected works

• Clarke, Lige; Nichols, Jack (1972). I Have More Fun With You Than Anybody. New York: St Martin's Press. ISBN 9780900997907. OCLC 993400702.
• Clarke, Lige; Nichols, Jack (1974). Roommates Can't Always Be Lovers: An Intimate Guide to Male-male Relationships. New York: St. Martin's Press. OCLC 1054028.