The Yale professor was John Boswell and the book was "Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe" (Villard, 1994).

Before the ink was dry on "Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe," for instance, the book had been entered as evidence in a Hawaiian court case challenging the limitation of civil marriage to heterosexuals.

"Same-Sex Unions Move Center Stage" by David Von Drehle (The Washington Post)

Coolidge also edited with Wardle, Duncan and Mark Strasser the book Marriage and Same-Sex Unions: A Debate.

In 1994, Boswell's fourth book, Same-Sex Unions in Pre-Modern Europe, was published, but he died that same year from AIDS-related complications.

The book in which he makes his case, "Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe," is only now being sent to bookstores by its publisher, Villard Books.

Terms of affection are central to "Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe," Mr. Boswell's knotty study of male love and the ceremonies that were used to solemnize it.