Full Name: Samuel Morris Steward
Born: July 23, 1909, Woodsfield, Ohio, USA
Died: December 31, 1993, Berkeley, California, USA
Also Known As: Phil Andros, Phil Sparrow (among other pseudonyms)
Occupations: Writer, novelist, poet, English professor, tattoo artist, erotica author, pornographer.

Early Life & Education

Samuel Steward grew up in rural southern Ohio and entered Ohio State University in 1927, where he studied literature. Raised in a Methodist family, he later briefly converted to Catholicism during university years, but eventually abandoned organized religion altogether.

Academic Career

Steward began teaching English early in his career. He held academic posts including at Carroll College in Montana and later at Loyola University Chicago. His novel Angels on the Bough (1936), which featured a nuanced portrayal of a prostitute, drew controversy and led to his dismissal from Washington State College. He also taught at DePaul University and contributed to reference projects such as the World Book Encyclopedia.

Tattooing Career

After leaving academia, Steward apprenticed as a tattoo artist under Amund Dietzel in Milwaukee. He opened a tattoo studio in Chicago, where he became known for tattooing sailors, gang members, and working-class clientele. In the late 1960s, he was the official tattoo artist for the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club in Oakland, California. His influence extended to mentoring artists such as Cliff Ingram (Cliff Raven) and Don “Ed” Hardy, encouraging artistic styles he admired.

Sexual Documentation & the “Stud File”

Steward chronicled his sex life with compulsive thoroughness, keeping diaries and a vast “stud file” documenting encounters with men from sailors and laborers to motorcycle club members. His meticulous records later became a key resource for sex researcher Alfred Kinsey, with whom Steward collaborated and provided data and first-hand accounts.

Phil Andros — Erotic Writing

Under the pen name Phil Andros (a name combining Greek roots meaning love of men’), Steward became a pioneering author of gay erotica in the 1960s and ’70s:

• $TUD: A landmark collection of stories published in the U.S. after obscenity law changes.
• Ring-Around-the-Rosy / The Joy Spot: Classic stories capturing raw, unapologetic male sexuality.
• Novels and stories featured the narrator Phil Andros, a hustler whose exploits portrayed gay sex with frankness and literary intelligence—distinct from typical pulp portrayals of the era.

His works explored BDSM, interracial power dynamics, leather subculture, and sex positivity at a time when such topics were taboo.

Literary & Cultural Work

In addition to erotica, Steward wrote under his own name fiction, nonfiction, and memoir. He authored historical and social treatments of tattoo culture, including Bad Boys and Tough Tattoos, and edited collections like Dear Sammy: Letters from Gertrude Stein & Alice B. Toklas. His early literary friendships and correspondences included figures such as Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas, Thornton Wilder, and André Gide.

Later Years & Death

Steward faced chronic health issues later in life, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and struggles with barbiturate addiction. His capacity to write diminished before his death on December 31, 1993 in Berkeley, California.

Legacy & Recognition

• Steward’s life and work remained partly hidden until Justin Spring’s biography Secret Historian: The Life and Times of Samuel Steward, Professor, Tattoo Artist, and Sexual Renegade (2010) brought his story to a wider audience, becoming a National Book Award finalist.
• In 2012, he was inducted into the Leather Hall of Fame. Wikipedia
• Steward is celebrated in queer literary and leather subcultures as a radical documenter of gay male experience, bridging academic rigor, subcultural intimacy, and erotic expression.

Selected Works

📚 Erotica as Phil Andros

• $TUD (1966)
• My Brother, the Hustler (1970)
• Gay in San Francisco (1984) 

📚 Writings under real name

• Bad Boys and Tough Tattoos (1990)
• Dear Sammy: Letters from Gertrude Stein & Alice B. Toklas