cleopatra, Madame Bovary, Lois Lane--a few faces in the crowd of girl-

friends limned by men through the centuries. Compare this horde with

the handful of boyfriends described by women. A permanent vacancy sign

hangs outside the boyfriend pantheon. Inside, empty niches and echoes.

Women have always told stories about their lovers, but their narratives were

dismissed as chat, or worse yet, gossip.

We mourn the many stories that, left unwritten, were forgotten and died.

"The lOOth Boyfriend" is dedicated to this aborted prose, and the hope that

other stories can be saved from extinction.

Working from written and taped accounts, long distance phone calls,

overheard conversations, lost letters, dreams and stolen diaries, we gathered

the stories women tell about their lovers.

All of these stories are true; all of them are anonymous. Names have been

changed to protect both the writers and their subjects. Transcripts have been

edited and synthesized, yet in each story, we have striven to maintain the tone

and mood of the original account, at times feeling ourselves to be instruments

of some collective girlfriend unconscious.

We thank the men who allowed their photographs to be used. Readers of

"The lOOth Boyfriend" should not look for any connection between stories

and snapshots; there isn t one. They are simply there. Slices of life. Men as

objects of the feminine gaze. Or simply: artifacts of romantic memory.

Most of all, we thank the grandmothers, sisters, friends, and strangers who

stepped forward with stories. This book is a panegyric to their adventures.