Works by
Toby Johnson
[aka Edwin Clark Johnson]
(Writer)

Fiction

• Plague (1987)
  A Novel about Healing is the story of an AIDS educator who uncovers a misconceived plot to suppress an effective cure for HIV. As he begins to realize the sinister nature of his discovery, he is forced to take seriously the teachings about healing and about the nature of evil presented in A Course In Miracles, which he has been talking about with members of an AIDS support group he facilitates. While structured as a thriller, the novel is an uplifting presentation of the wisdom of A Course In Miracles and of the delightful little spiritual classic The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment.
  
  This novel is an example of science fiction as modern day mythology.

• Secret Matter -- Co-winner, 1990 Lambda Literary Award for Science Fiction/Fantasy, and Horror (Gay Men)
  The winner of a Lambda Literary Award for Gay Men's Science Fiction and bestselling novel, Secret Matter returns to print in a revised edition for the 21st century. Kevin Anderson is moving along through his life, finishing up college, and getting ready to leave New York for an internship rebuilding San Francisco after an immense earthquake. Then the Visitors arrive; a race of human-like aliens touch down in several cities around the globe, including SF, and nothing will ever be the same. When Kevin's company is given a contract to build a facility for the Visitors, he forms a friendship with 'Bel, one of their number. But is 'Bel so alien after all? They seem so human, albeit much larger, but they possess some odd characteristics and seem to be hiding something. What secrets do they carry, and where, exactly, are they from? Before Kevin can get to the bottom of his questions, political disasters and miscommunications occur, and the Visitors are expelled. 'Bel and his emissaries are very clear that certain actions on the part of the U.S. will have grave consequences upon his people and their world, but no one listens except Kevin, who has fallen in love with 'Bel. Now the young man is on a mission to unravel the Visitors' secrets in order to prevent the death and destruction of Visitors and millions of Americans.

• Getting Life in Perspective (1991)
  Post-modern gay novel about a big city literary editor who, when faced with serious illness, retires to the country to relieve stress and to write the novel he's always been intending to write. Living alone in a ramshackle old mansion in the Texas Hill Country, he begins to imagine that the characters of his novel are real. Two young gay men from the 1890s appear to him and recount the story of their lives.

• Two Spirits: A Story of Life With the Navajo (2006) with Walter L.. Williams
  Twenty years after publishing his groundbreaking The Spirit and the Flesh, anthropologist Walter L. Williams breaks his silence and publishes another book on Native Americans by teaming up with award-winning writer Toby Johnson. Together they have produced a work of historical fiction that is striking in its evocation of Navajo philosophy and spirituality. Set in the Civil War era of the 1860s, this novel tells the story of a feckless Virginian who finds himself captivated by a Two-Spirit male highly respected among the Navajo. It is a story of tragedy, oppression, and discrimination, but also an enlightening story of love, discovery, and beauty. This book illuminates the truth of what the United States did to the largest indigenous people of this nation. Full of suspense, plot twists, and endearing romance, Two Spirits will captivate readers.

• The Myth of the Great Secret: An Appreciation of Joseph Campbell (1981)
  Toby Johnson was a student and correspondent with the renowned Comparative Religions scholar Joseph Campbell -- best known for this aphorism "Follow Your Bliss." This spiritual autobiography recounts his experiences as a young Roman Catholic seminarian discovering Campbell's wider vision of religious meaning. Johnson left religious life, moved to San Francisco where he studied comparative religion at the California Institute of Integral Studies. It was there he found the announcement of Campbell's talk. For the next 10 years he was part of the crew that worked Campbell's appearances in Northern California. This book is an easy introduction to Campbell's thought.

• In Search of God in the Sexual Underworld (1983)
  An account of Toby Johnson's work in a study of gay teenage prostitution along with his namesake and first collaborator Toby Marotta. Together they investigated the plight of young teenage boys living on the streets of San Francisco, Boston, New York, and several other American cities to make recommendations for social service providers targeting this population. Johnson also describes his take on the "sexual underworld" from his perspective as a student of Comparative Religion.

• Gay Perspective: Things Our Homosexuality Tells Us About the Nature of God and the Universe (2003) -- Finalist 2003 Lambda Literary Award for Religion/Spirituality
  In this companion volume to his cri-tically acclaimed, Lambda Literary Award–winning Gay Spirituality, Toby Johnson further explicates his visionary stance that gay people's nature as outsiders gives them a uniquely powerful perspective on the nature of God and religion. By living outside gender norms, gay people are more open to seeing across boundaries of gender and gain access to a less dualistic outlook on the nature of life. Once again, Johnson approaches this potentially controversial subject matter with -erudition, empathy and visionary speculation and gives meaning to gay consciousness beyond superficial issues of sexual behavior.

• Gay Spirituality: The Role of Gay Identity in the Transformation of Human Consciousness (2004)
  In this Lambda Literary award-winning title, author Toby Johnson explores how the rise of gay identity has become an important part of contemporary religious development. This dramatic transformation has resulted due to the perspective of gay men; their ability to step outside the assumptions and conventions of culture and see things from a different point of view. This book will reward readers seeking new insight into faith as well as culture, myth and traditions.

See also:

• Charmed Lives: Gay Spirit in Storytelling (2006), Edited with Steve Berman -- Finalist 2006 Lambda Literary Award for Anthologies
  Storytelling can be a way of spinning straw into gold, of showing ourselves we have drawn a long straw in this life. Charmed Lives offers readers a collection of over thirty short works of fiction and personal essays as an alternative to the stories that society often tells about gay men. Some are whimsical with a touch of enchantment, some profoundly spiritual, others romantic--all offer insight into modern gay life that will inspire and shed light on the grace of being gay with tales of hope against adversity and love over loneliness.

Other

• For seven years, Toby Johnson was editor of White Crane: A Journal of Gay Men's Spirituality.