Born in Woodsfield, Ohio. He studied at Ohio State Uniersity, where he received a doctoral degree in English in 1934. His teaching career, begun in 1934, was abandoned in 1954 in favour of a cereer as tattooist, which he had started in Chicago in 1952, under the name Phil Sparrow.

In 1949, Steward met Alfred Kinsey and became an "unofficial collaborator" in his research, remaining a friend until Kinsey's death in 1956. To his career as tattooist, he added that of gay writer in 1958, when he was invited to contribute to the trilingual Swiss journal Der Kreis (The Circle); is association with Der Kreis lasted until its demise in 1967.

Steward used at least ten pseudonyms, but is best known as Phil Andros, the eponimous hero of several collections of witty and graphic stories of gay male sex. In the mid 1960s Steward had moved to Califoria, continuing his tattooing in Oakland and his writing in Berkeley. He died in Berkeley, California. The very popular Phil Andros stories inspired a generation of younger gay writers.

Source: excerpts from: Aldrich R. & Wotherspoon G., Who's Who in Contemporary Gay and Lesbian History, from WWII to Present Day, Routledge, London, 2001

Picture from the book: Robert Giard (photographer), Particular Voices: Portraits of Gay and Lesbian Writers

His books include:

• Below the Belt, & Other Stories
• My Brother, My Self
• Shuttlecock
• Different Strokes, Stories by Phil Andros & Co.