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Author | Timothy Conigrave |
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Language | English |
Publisher | Penguin Group (Australia) |
Publication date | 1995 |
Publication place | Australia |
Media type | Print (Paperback) |
Pages | 286 (Penguin, 1996) |
ISBN | 9-7-8014025784-7 |
Holding the Man is a 1995 memoir by Australian writer, actor, and activist Timothy Conigrave.[1] It tells of his 15-year love affair with John Caleo, which started when they met in the mid-1970s at Xavier College, an all-boys Jesuit Catholic school in Melbourne, and follows their relationship through the 1990s when they both developed AIDS.[1] The book, which won the 1995 Human Rights Award for Non-Fiction,[2] has been adapted as a play,[3] a docudrama,[4] and in 2015 a film starring Ryan Corr, Craig Stott, Anthony La Paglia, Geoffrey Rush and Guy Pearce.[5]
"Holding the Man" refers to a rule in Australian Rules Football where a defensive player is awarded a free kick for being tackled while not being in possession of the ball.[6] Caleo, Conigrave's lover, was captain of the school football team.
Holding the Man was published in February 1995 by Penguin Books in Australia just a few months after Conigrave's death, and has since been published in Spain and North America.