Novelist, nonfiction writer, archivist. Born on June 19, 1953 in Charleston, South Carolina, Greene is the son of Holocaust survivors Samuel and Regina Miedzyrzecki Kawer Greene. After their release from a Russian work camp at the end of World War II, Greene\u2019s parents moved to Charleston, South Carolina. One of four children, Greene attended St. Andrews High School in Charleston. After graduation, he became a student at Clemson University before transferring to the College of Charleston, where he earned a B.A. in English in 1975.<\/p>\n
In 1976 Greene began work as a volunteer in the archives of Charleston\u2019s South Carolina Historical Society where he catalogued the papers of DuBose Heyward, a key figure of the Charleston Renaissance and author of Porgy. <\/em>For the next thirteen years, Greene worked in various capacities at the South Carolina Historical Society. Greene left the organization in 1989 and followed his partner, Olin Jolley, to Chapel Hill, North Carolina. During that period, Greene founded and served as the director of the North Carolina Preservation Consortium, an association providing preservation education to libraries and archives. He also taught a preservation course at the University of North Carolina. Greene\u2019s partner, Olin Jolley, died in 1996 after a long battle with AIDS.<\/p>\n Returning to Charleston in 1998, Greene served as the manager of special collections at the Charleston County Public Library and later held the position of director of archival and reference services at the Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture in Charleston. Greene is currently the senior manuscript and reference archivist at the College of Charleston\u2019s Addlestone Library. He now lives with his partner, Jonathan Ray.<\/p>\n A writer of fiction and nonfiction, Harlan Greene created a body of work that thematically centers on Charleston, homosexuality, and Jewish identity. Dripping in historic details and intricacies, Greene\u2019s fiction and nonfiction benefit from the skills and expertise honed in his professional life as an archivist, researcher, and historian.<\/p>\n Greene\u2019s first novel, Why We Never Danced the Charleston <\/em>(1984), is a gay fiction cult classic that examines the underbelly of Charleston\u2019s gay culture in the 1920s. Greene artfully crafts a southern gothic tale that delves into the depths of Charleston\u2019s historic and dark past as seen through the characters Hirsch Hess, Ned Grimke, and an unnamed narrator.<\/p>\n What the Dead Remember <\/em>(1991) is Greene\u2019s coming-of-age story. Set in and around Charleston, the narrative follows an unnamed gay protagonist as he explores his identity, sexuality, and the closeted gay culture of Charleston society. The story ends with the protagonist\u2019s diagnosis with AIDS. What the Dead Remember <\/em>was the winner of the 1992 Lambda Literary Award for Gay Men\u2019s Fiction.<\/p>\n Departing from the genre of the southern novel, Greene\u2019s The German Officer\u2019s Boy <\/em>(2005) is a piece of historical fiction based on the events surrounding the controversial figure of Herschel Grynszpan. In 1938, a young Polish Jew shot Ernst vom Rath, a German diplomat. In retaliation for this shooting, the Nazi party launched the Kristallnacht or \u201cNight of Broken Glass\u201d\u2013a destructive and murderous assault on the Jewish community that is considered the beginning of the Holocaust. History paints the vom Rath murder as an act of political aggression. Greene instead follows an alternative theory that vom Rath and Grynszpan were involved in a passionate affair. In a tragic series of events, Grynszpan accidentally shoots and mortally wounds his lover, vom Rath. Greene\u2019s tale of passion and tragedy fills a narrative void in the mystery surrounding the events of Ernst vom Rath\u2019s death and the legacy of Herschel Grynszpan.<\/p>\n Widely considered an authority on the history of Charleston, and specifically the Charleston Renaissance, Greene has authored several nonfiction works related to this subject matter. Charleston: City of Memory <\/em>(1987) offers up a brief history of Charleston enhanced with photographs by N. Jane Iseley. Greene\u2019s 2001 release Mr. Skylark: John Bennett and the Charleston Renaissance <\/em>is a biographical account of John Bennett, a writer, expert on Gullah folklore, and a major figure of the Charles- ton Renaissance. Extending his writings on that critical period in the city\u2019s cultural life, Greene coedited in 2003 Renaissance in Charleston: Art and Life in the Carolina Lowcountry, 1900\u20131940. <\/em>Working with James Hutchisson, Greene envisioned this collection of essays as a tribute to the artistic flowering of Charleston in the early twentieth century. Also in 2003, Greene co-authored Slave Badges and the Slave-Hire System in Charleston, South Carolina, 1783\u20131865 <\/em>with a Medical University of South Carolina pediatric dentistry professor, Harry S. Hutchins, Jr., and his son Brian E. Hutchins. Their work examined the history of the Charleston slave badge system that permitted slave owners to hire out slaves. In addition to his nonfiction writing, Greene has contributed biographical essays to Hometowns: Gay Men Write about Where They Belong <\/em>(1991) and A Member of the Family: Gay Men Write about Their Families <\/em>(1992).<\/p>\n \u201cGreene, Harlan.\u201d Literary South Carolina. <\/em>Spartanburg, S.C.: Hub City Writers Project, 2004.<\/p>\n \u201cHarlan Greene (1953\u2013).\u201d Contemporary Gay American Novelists: A Bio-bibliographical Critical Sourcebook<\/em>. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1993.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Novelist, nonfiction writer, archivist. Born on June 19, 1953 in Charleston, South Carolina, Greene is the son of Holocaust survivors Samuel and Regina Miedzyrzecki Kawer Greene. After their release from a Russian work camp at the end of World War II, Greene\u2019s parents moved to Charleston, South Carolina. One of four children, Greene attended St. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":-1,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","class_list":["post-16230","entry","type-entry","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","ecms-a-z","ecms-charleston-county","ecms-civil-rights-era-1955-1969","ecms-encyclopedia","ecms-ethnicity","ecms-g","ecms-literature","ecms-lowcountry","ecms-post-war-america-1946-1954","ecms-the-modern-state-1970-present"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n