Hold Tight Gently: Michael Callen, Essex Hemphill, and the Battlefield of AIDS

In December 1995, the FDA approved the release of protease inhibitors, the first effective treatment for AIDS. For countless people, the drug offered a reprieve from what had been a death sentence; for others, it was too late. In the United States alone, over 318,000 people had died from AIDS-related complications—among them were the singer Michael Callen and the poet Essex Hemphill.

Meticulously researched and evocatively told, Two Lives, Two Deaths is historian Martin Duberman’s p…