People move to New York City for a variety of reasons -- for a new job, to make it on Broadway, to go to college. But, for novelist, playwright and activist Joseph Caldwell, it was largely about finding sexual freedom. 

Caldwell's new memoir In the Shadow of the Bridge details his life as a gay man and lovestruck writer in New York City. His story captures the before, during and after of the AIDS epidemic, taking us all the way back to when you could rent an apartment in Manhattan for a mere $24 a month.