Legendary Children

The First Decade of RuPaul's Drag Race and the Last Century of Queer Life

By: Tom Fitzgerald, Lorenzo Marquez

Narrated by: Tom Fitzgerald, Lorenzo Marquez

A definitive deep-dive into queer history and culture with hit reality show RuPaul's Drag Race as a touchstone, by the creators of the pop culture blog Tom and Lorenzo.

NPR's Best Books of the Year 2020 Pick

A New York Times New & Noteworthy Book

One of Logo/NewNowNext's "11 Queer Books We Can't Wait to Read This Spring"

From the singular voices behind Tom and Lorenzo comes the ultimate guide to all-things RuPaul's Drag Race and its influence on modern LGBTQ culture. Legendary Children centers itself around the idea that not only is RuPaul's Drag Race the queerest show in the history of television, but that RuPaul and company devised a show that serves as an actual museum of queer cultural and social history, drawing on queer traditions and the work of legendary figures going back nearly a century. In doing so, Drag Race became not only a repository of queer history and culture, but also an examination and illustration of queer life in the modern age. It is a snapshot of how LGBTQ folks live, struggle, work, and reach out to one another - and how they always have - and every bit of it is tied directly to Drag Race. Each chapter is an examination of a specific aspect of the show - the Werk Room, the Library, the Pit Crew, the runway, the Untucked lounge, the Snatch Game - that ties to a specific aspect of queer cultural history and/or the work of certain legendary figures in queer cultural history.

©2020 Tom Fitzgerald, Lorenzo Marquez (P)2020 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"Using Drag Race's prominence as a mirror to reflect drag brilliance through the ages, this must-read book articulately celebrates the icons - both well-known and under-appreciated - who made magic with a mascara wand and whose finely glossed lips were always worth reading. Like this book!" (Michael Musto)

“Informative, entertaining, melodramatic in its obsessiveness, and written with equal amounts of insight and wit, the book serves as a commemorative archive of drag in American life.” (Kirkus Reviews)

“It's officially been a decade since RuPaul's Drag Race aired its first season, and a groundbreaking queer phenomenon was born. In celebration of this milestone, Tom Fitzgerald and Lorenzo Marquez wrote Legendary Children, which explores queer history and culture and talks about how RuPaul's hit reality show contributed to this rich tradition.” (Cosmopolitan)

Informative, emotional and entertaining

Beautiful written and narrated. Appreciated the conversational tone but also the sensibility shown by the authors by acknowledging their own privileges, and the layers of intersecting discrimination existing within the LGBT community. Very entertaining and fun, but also emotional at times. A great listen for anyone interested in LGBT+ history and culture.

Great listen! Great queer history!

I really enjoyed this. If you’re a Drag Race (or drag in general) it’s a must-listen. It delves into broader queer history, too, and I came away with topics to research further.

LGBTQIA+ Education 101

This book taught me so much more than I could've ever even hoped to. It is also very engaging and inspiring!!! I cannot recommend this enough to learn about Drag Race and its ties to Queer Culture and ode to it!!!

So much more than a history of Drag Race

Really enjoyed the audio version of this book. I'm a regular reader of the authors' blog. Really learned a lot about queer history is an entertaining way.

A Primer on Queer Performance

A book with more depth than the premise would suggest. Definitely worth a listen if you want a primer on 20th century queer cultural figures. Most older gays wont find a ton of revelatory information within, but its well written enough that if youre at all interested in a refresher course, i reccommend it

Entertaining and revealing history through a drag lens

Tom & Lorenzo’s fun and incredibly well researched history of queer expression, particularly as seen via drag, cross dressing, female impersonators and related acts of courage is easy to listen to, except the bits that make you cry.

The different threads of performance, protect and societal change are deftly shown as interconnected and continuous with the chaos and exuberance brought into a coherent narrative which is highly impressive.

Highly recommended, it will inspire and inform

An Outstanding Queer History

This is truly an amazing glimpse into queer history using Drag Race as a jumping off point. It argues that not only is everything on the show intentional and pointed, but also part of a long queer lineage. A must read for everyone!

Same old fairy tales

Just the same old fairy tales that don’t need to be told. Why do so many in the queer community feel they need to embellish stories and lives that need no embellishing? That is what this book does in an effort to filter “the last century” of gay culture through the lens of the authors. Hardly any history here, only hagiography. The most accurate part of the book is the cartoonish cover.

legendary

i learned a lot and i found i didnt know as much as i thought i did. i appreciate what this community has contributed to modern pop culture.

poorly written with obnoxious narration

there's a lot of misinformation here presented as fact which is something that really ticks me off generally speaking. I found this really hard to listen to, It sounded like someone trying to give a pep talk. anyway it starts off with a completely inaccurate description of what happened at Stonewall and it did not get better from there. Total trash. I can't even believe they published this. What I really want to know is if Derrick Berry wrote this book.