Author, editor, and activist Joseph Beam (1954– 1989) created the groundbreaking anthology In the Life (1986). Beam was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of a security guard and an educator who spent her career in the Philadelphia school system. Beam attended Catholic primary and secondary schools and then received his bachelor’s degree from Franklin College, a small Baptist institution in Indiana. When he returned to Philadelphia in 1979, he became active in the city’s gay and lesbian movement. By the early 1980s he had become a writer, contributing short pieces to gay publications like the Advocate, Au Courant, Blackheart, Body Politic, Changing Men, Gay Community News, New York Native, Philadelphia Gay News, and Windy City Times. By 1985 he was a leading figure of the National Coalition of Black Lesbians and Gays and was the editor of its journal Black/Out.