ABSTRACT

Laud Humphreys died on August 23, 1988 after a lengthy battle with lung cancer. This essay, authored by three who knew him well, is devoted to examining the life of Laud Humphreys and his effect on colleagues and on various aspects of American sociology. During his first term at Washington University Laud enrolled in Horowitz's seminar on sociological theory. Tearoom Trade was Laud's most significant book and in view of the fact that it has become as much a part of the folklore of sociology as it is central to the literature of the discipline, it serves us well here to recall aspects of its genesis and development. In 1970, the Aldine Publishing Company published Laud's revised dissertation, Tearoom Trade: Impersonal Sex in Public Places, and in that same year the Society for the Study of Social Problems (SSSP) announced the book won the coveted C. Wright Mills award.