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.

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