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The Wonderful World That Almost Was: A Life of Peter Hujar and Paul Thek
The cinematic, never-before-told story of two intimately entangled artists who redefined queer art.
When Paul Thek met Peter Hujar in the winter of 1956 in Coral Gables, Florida, a slow-simmering connection began to burn. Thek, twenty-three and living in Miami, was handsome and itching to make it as a painter; in the twenty-two-year-old Hujar, a shy, sensual photographer, he’d found a kindred spirit. By 1960, they were dating and living in New York, beginning decades of sex, love, competition, and reconciliation—an entanglement that changed American art forever.
Surrounded by a robust creative scene populated by Susan Sontag, Andy Warhol, Fran Lebowitz, John Waters, and David Wojnarowicz, Thek and Hujar’s profoundly influential careers, from the early 1960s through the late 1980s, differed as much as the men themselves. The unpredictable and often overlooked Thek crafted visceral installations and sculptures, while Hujar, celebrated and sociable, took penetrating portraits of his world, queer and otherwise. Yet even at their most estranged, and even after their deaths from AIDS, both men were united by a pursuit of liberation—from artistic and sexual limits, from anything short of changing the world.
Andrew Durbin’s The Wonderful World That Almost Was unravels, for the first time, the intertwined stories and work of two boundary-burning, paradigm-tilting, never more relevant American artists. Weaving together deft art criticism with moving portraits of both men's inner lives, and assembled with exhaustive research, Durbin’s book is an ode to a lost but still-living world—and two men who defined it.
When Paul Thek met Peter Hujar in the winter of 1956 in Coral Gables, Florida, a slow-simmering connection began to burn. Thek, twenty-three and living in Miami, was handsome and itching to make it as a painter; in the twenty-two-year-old Hujar, a shy, sensual photographer, he’d found a kindred spirit. By 1960, they were dating and living in New York, beginning decades of sex, love, competition, and reconciliation—an entanglement that changed American art forever.
Surrounded by a robust creative scene populated by Susan Sontag, Andy Warhol, Fran Lebowitz, John Waters, and David Wojnarowicz, Thek and Hujar’s profoundly influential careers, from the early 1960s through the late 1980s, differed as much as the men themselves. The unpredictable and often overlooked Thek crafted visceral installations and sculptures, while Hujar, celebrated and sociable, took penetrating portraits of his world, queer and otherwise. Yet even at their most estranged, and even after their deaths from AIDS, both men were united by a pursuit of liberation—from artistic and sexual limits, from anything short of changing the world.
Andrew Durbin’s The Wonderful World That Almost Was unravels, for the first time, the intertwined stories and work of two boundary-burning, paradigm-tilting, never more relevant American artists. Weaving together deft art criticism with moving portraits of both men's inner lives, and assembled with exhaustive research, Durbin’s book is an ode to a lost but still-living world—and two men who defined it.
496 pages, Hardcover
Published April 14, 2026
About the author
Andrew Durbin
20 books75 followersAndrew Durbin is the author of MacArthur Park (2017) and Skyland (2020), both from Nightboat Books. In 2018, MacArthur Park was a finalist for the Believer Book Award. His book about Peter Hujar and Paul Thek, The Wonderful World that Almost Was, is forthcoming from FSG and Granta in April 2026. He is the editor of Jacolby Satterwhite’s How lovely is me being as I am (Carnegie Mellon Press, 2021), Kevin Killian’s Fascination: Memoirs (Semiotexte, 2018), and the chapbook series Say bye to reason and hi to everything (Capricious, 2015). His fiction, criticism, and poetry have appeared in The Believer, BOMB, Boston Review, The New York Review of Books, The London Review of Books, The Paris Review, Triple Canopy, and elsewhere. He lives in London and is the editor-in-chief of frieze magazine.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
April 14, 2026
A stunning portrait of two brilliant, troubled, and artistically clairvoyant mid-late 20th century artists, by one of my favorite contemporary writers. I have known Hujar’s work for years, but this book (and Primary Information’s brilliant Stay away from nothing) served as my introduction to Paul Thek. I find Paul’s sensibility eerily similar to my own, and Peter’s darkroom practices inspiring to no end. It’s hard to read this book and not imagine yourself on Ponza with P&P, or one among 15,000+ of Hujar’s lovers…
Jackson Howard is on a generational run as an editor
Jackson Howard is on a generational run as an editor
April 24, 2026
I loved living in the world of their love. Wow.
April 14, 2026
We get a sad but sweet biography of two young gay artists in NYC from the 60s to the early 80s, their eventual break up, and the death of one from AIDS. Ultimately tragic, and, the author goes out of his way to talk about them as people and as artists, and how they influenced each other and those around them. Recommended read for your April.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Thanks, Net Galley, for providing me with a copy of this book.
I believe I can say that much of the events and culture from the 1950s to the 1980s are not unfamiliar to me, and with the Internet and the spread of knowledge, many potholes were filled along the years. And yet, only more recently have I come to know a little more about Peter Hujar and his works. Nowadays, many people know at least one of his works, although they may not know that he is the author of Orgasmic Man, which graces the cover of Hanya Yanagihara's book, A Little Life.
I am familiar with other works by Hujar besides those mentioned above, but I knew little about his life and whereabouts. And as for Paul Thek, he was a total mystery. So, I am very happy to have had the opportunity to read The Wonderful World That Almost Was by Durbin, a title that I believe is very close to the reality of these fascinating artists' lives.
Both Hujar and Thek, born in the 1930s, had to deal with immense difficulties during their childhood and adolescence, mainly in their relationships with their families/parents and poverty, which left deep marks on their personalities, affecting them psychologically. Although these marks, to some extent, also helped them forge their path towards artistic expression, they were also the trigger for their downfall, especially Thek's, who, at a certain point in his life around the 1970's and 1980's, was quite lost in his emotional turmoil, which distanced him more and more from everyone, including Hujar, his ex-boyfriend and close friend. At the end of their lives, they practically didn't speak to each other. And, unfortunately, their lives were cut short on account of the AIDS crisis, which took so many talented people so soon.
Something that caught my attention in the way the book was structured was how, within the circle of relationships between these two great artists, ideas flowed freely and were shared. Like Hujar's interest in visiting the catacombs of Palermo to create one of his major photography books, which also resulted in Thek's interest in developing his meat pieces. Or Thek's phrase, which Susan Sontag used as the title and foundation of one of her works, "Against Interpretation", and so on. It was just sad to know that, at the height of her fame, she didn't care much about those two, who were there for her in many instances.
The only thing I didn't like was that Durbin sometimes repeats some events too much. I understand that this is a way of adding emphasis, and that I've seen it in other biographies, but it sometimes doesn't add anything. In any case, this doesn't detract in any way from the work he did in writing the biographies of these two fascinating artists.
I believe I can say that much of the events and culture from the 1950s to the 1980s are not unfamiliar to me, and with the Internet and the spread of knowledge, many potholes were filled along the years. And yet, only more recently have I come to know a little more about Peter Hujar and his works. Nowadays, many people know at least one of his works, although they may not know that he is the author of Orgasmic Man, which graces the cover of Hanya Yanagihara's book, A Little Life.
I am familiar with other works by Hujar besides those mentioned above, but I knew little about his life and whereabouts. And as for Paul Thek, he was a total mystery. So, I am very happy to have had the opportunity to read The Wonderful World That Almost Was by Durbin, a title that I believe is very close to the reality of these fascinating artists' lives.
Both Hujar and Thek, born in the 1930s, had to deal with immense difficulties during their childhood and adolescence, mainly in their relationships with their families/parents and poverty, which left deep marks on their personalities, affecting them psychologically. Although these marks, to some extent, also helped them forge their path towards artistic expression, they were also the trigger for their downfall, especially Thek's, who, at a certain point in his life around the 1970's and 1980's, was quite lost in his emotional turmoil, which distanced him more and more from everyone, including Hujar, his ex-boyfriend and close friend. At the end of their lives, they practically didn't speak to each other. And, unfortunately, their lives were cut short on account of the AIDS crisis, which took so many talented people so soon.
Something that caught my attention in the way the book was structured was how, within the circle of relationships between these two great artists, ideas flowed freely and were shared. Like Hujar's interest in visiting the catacombs of Palermo to create one of his major photography books, which also resulted in Thek's interest in developing his meat pieces. Or Thek's phrase, which Susan Sontag used as the title and foundation of one of her works, "Against Interpretation", and so on. It was just sad to know that, at the height of her fame, she didn't care much about those two, who were there for her in many instances.
The only thing I didn't like was that Durbin sometimes repeats some events too much. I understand that this is a way of adding emphasis, and that I've seen it in other biographies, but it sometimes doesn't add anything. In any case, this doesn't detract in any way from the work he did in writing the biographies of these two fascinating artists.
May 9, 2026
This wonderfully absorbing biography is a measured and thoughtful study of Peter Hujar and Paul Thek, focusing on both their individual artistic careers and their personal relationship, a biographical and critical study of two central figures in the downtown New York art scene of the 1960s–80s. The book draws on archival material, letters, artworks, and cultural context, and combines biography with elements of criticism and interpretation. The narrative situates Hujar and Thek within a broader artistic and social environment, including the downtown art scene and the impact of the AIDS crisis, which affected both artists (Hujar died of AIDS-related illness; Thek also died in the late 1980s).
Peter Hujar (1934–1987) was an American photographer known for his stark black-and-white portraits, including images of artists, writers, and members of New York’s downtown scene.
Paul Thek (1933–1988) was an American artist associated with sculpture and installation, known for works such as his “Technological Reliquaries.”
A central strength of the book is its attention to how their lives and work intersected. Hujar’s photography and Thek’s installations are considered alongside their friendship and shared milieu, giving a sense of how artistic communities functioned during that period. The book also acknowledges the historical context in which they lived and worked, including the impact of the AIDS crisis on that community. I found the book well-written, extremely interesting and informative and enjoyed the many illustrations. Overall I learnt a lot about these 2 influential artists and feel inspired to examine more of their work.
Peter Hujar (1934–1987) was an American photographer known for his stark black-and-white portraits, including images of artists, writers, and members of New York’s downtown scene.
Paul Thek (1933–1988) was an American artist associated with sculpture and installation, known for works such as his “Technological Reliquaries.”
A central strength of the book is its attention to how their lives and work intersected. Hujar’s photography and Thek’s installations are considered alongside their friendship and shared milieu, giving a sense of how artistic communities functioned during that period. The book also acknowledges the historical context in which they lived and worked, including the impact of the AIDS crisis on that community. I found the book well-written, extremely interesting and informative and enjoyed the many illustrations. Overall I learnt a lot about these 2 influential artists and feel inspired to examine more of their work.
May 16, 2026
A beautiful behemoth that I can hardly believe exists. Until this book was published, if you wanted a biography on Paul Thek you had to fork over hundreds of dollars for a copy of Artist’s Artist (I haggled on Amazon for mine). And if you wanted a biography on Peter Hujar, too bad.
This was a really ambitious project for a number of reasons. Hujar and Thek were not ever in a serious relationship with one another, were not heavily or directly involved in each other’s careers, were rarely on the same continent, and weren’t even on speaking terms towards the ends of their lives. I think that Durbin handled their intense and impactful dynamic really well, meaning that he wrote objectively about what was kind of a really complicated friendship. Durbin described the women in the book (Ann Wilson, Susan Sontag, Fran Lebowitz, et al.) as its backbone, which I think is correct. It makes you wonder why other major players in their lives were omitted. Writing a dual biography is a massive feat so I don’t fault the author for getting really clear about his vision, but it is kind of a curious thing.
Overall I think it’s worth a read for anyone interested in Hujar and Thek, but maybe not comprehensive enough for people who already have a strong knowledge of who they were and what they did. It’s a great book to discuss with anyone you know who was part of this scene and ran in their circles, or anyone in your life who lost loved ones to AIDS. In a lot of ways this book serves as a reminder that lives were cut short and relationships never got the chance to heal due to the AIDS crisis.
It’s truly a miracle at all that we have this book.
This was a really ambitious project for a number of reasons. Hujar and Thek were not ever in a serious relationship with one another, were not heavily or directly involved in each other’s careers, were rarely on the same continent, and weren’t even on speaking terms towards the ends of their lives. I think that Durbin handled their intense and impactful dynamic really well, meaning that he wrote objectively about what was kind of a really complicated friendship. Durbin described the women in the book (Ann Wilson, Susan Sontag, Fran Lebowitz, et al.) as its backbone, which I think is correct. It makes you wonder why other major players in their lives were omitted. Writing a dual biography is a massive feat so I don’t fault the author for getting really clear about his vision, but it is kind of a curious thing.
Overall I think it’s worth a read for anyone interested in Hujar and Thek, but maybe not comprehensive enough for people who already have a strong knowledge of who they were and what they did. It’s a great book to discuss with anyone you know who was part of this scene and ran in their circles, or anyone in your life who lost loved ones to AIDS. In a lot of ways this book serves as a reminder that lives were cut short and relationships never got the chance to heal due to the AIDS crisis.
It’s truly a miracle at all that we have this book.
May 7, 2026
This lacks any framing or argument as to why should we care. Why are we writing about Hujar and Thek in tandem if they weren’t communicating for most of the last decade of their lives? Why are we writing about them now? Why do they matter? I don’t think any of that is ever articulated here, which makes this biography lose any weight it could’ve had. It ends up reading a bit bland and without depth; a compilation of letters and recreations of life that fails to give readers anything to grab on to. Which is unfortunate for two artists who clearly still matter today. I’m just unsure why.
April 26, 2026
Absorbing.... at times sexy, at times melancholic, and always moving.
May 6, 2026
Exhilarating.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews