| Perry Deane Young | |
|---|---|
| Born | Perry Deane Young March 27, 1941 Woodfin, North Carolina, United States |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill |
| Period | 1967-present |
| Genres | Non-fiction |
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www.perrydeaneyoung.com |
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Perry Deane Young (born 27 March 1941[1]) is a journalist, author, playwright, historian, and professional gardener.[2] He is the author of Two of the Missing, about fellow journalists Sean Flynn and Dana Stone, who went missing during the Vietnam War and whose fates remain unknown, and the co-author of The David Kopay Story, a biography of 1970's professional football player David Kopay, who revealed in 1975 that he is gay.[2]
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Young was born in Woodfin, North Carolina,[1] near Asheville, the youngest of 13 children.[3] His mother was Rheba Maphry Tipton Young.[1] His father, Robert, died in 1958.[3] He edited his high school newspaper and earned a scholarship to University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1959.[2] He graduated in 1994.[1]
Dropping out of UNC, Young worked several jobs. He worked as part of Richardson Preyer's failed gubernatorial campaign in 1964, and joined the Army Reserves in 1966.[3] He then went to work for United Press International in 1967.[2]
Young took an assignment with UPI in Vietnam, arriving in Saigon on January 29, 1968,[3] and his first story was about the Tet Offensive, which began later that night.[2][3] While covering the war, he roomed with fellow journalists Tim Page, Sean Flynn, and Nik Wheeler.[2] He left after witnessing the near-fatal injuries to Page.[2] In 1975, his book Two of the Missing was published. The memoir was based on a magazine article of the same name that Young wrote in Harper's Magazine in December 1972,[4][5] with the intention of later writing a book about the disappearance of Flynn and Stone.[3][4] He had met and worked with them in Vietnam covering the war, and they went missing after Young had left.[3]
Ater reading of Kopay's post-retirement revelation of being gay, Young offered to help Kopay write a book. The offer was accepted, and in 1977, the book became the first book about a sports figure to appear on the New York Times Best Seller list.[6] For a time, Young and Kopay lived together in Washington, D.C.[7]
A Killing Cure, about Evelyn Walker's malpractice suit against psychiatrist Zane Parzen, was published in 1982.[8] In a 1998 profile, Young revealed that "[the] book made no money at all, and it was a disaster."[3]
He was a columnist for The Chapel Hill Herald from 1996–2003.[1]
Young has long acknowledged that he is gay, writing candidly about it in Two of the Missing,[2] and has written or co-written books with gay-related themes, including The David Kopay Story and Lesbians and Gays and Sports. He has lived in the basement of a non-profit counseling and support group in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, working around the building in lieu of rent, since 1993.[2]