Items

• A day and a night at the baths
  This book describes Michael Rumaker’s (1932-2019) first visit to the baths at West 28th Street, Manhattan. Although not named, this was the location of the Everard Turkish and Russian baths, which opened in 1888 and became a meeting place for gay men. Tragedy hit the increasingly run-down building in 1977, when nine men died in a fire so devastating it made newspaper headlines. This book is dedicated to all those who were at the Everard Baths during the fire and particularly “to the spirit of the rainbow gay and lesbian phoenix, rising” from the ashes. The publisher is Donald Allen whose Grey Fox imprint published works by several Beat authors, including Allen Ginsberg, whose words of praise for this book are on the back cover. Earlier in his career, Rumaker was aligned with the Beat movement.
• Men in erotic art
  This is a catalogue of artists represented by the Rob Gallery, based in Amsterdam and later also in New York, which exhibited male erotic art. Rob started as a leather worker catering for men, and the themes of leather and S&M continued in the art represented by the gallery. The catalogue is an introduction to this work and the artists, including Tom of Finland (Touko Laaksonen), Nigel Kent (aka James D.), Olaf and Orsen. The catalogue also introduces the Art Matchboxes series, limited edition matchboxes containing erotic prints by a single artist.
• Now the volcano : an anthology of Latin American gay literature
  Edited by Winston Leyland (1940-) and published by his Gay Sunshine Press imprint, this book is an anthology of short stories, poems, novel excerpts and a memoir, interspersed with illustrations. The collection presents a snapshot of gay male writing from Latin America, with an emphasis on Brazilian literature, which Leyland notes is the richest, including ‘Bom-Crioulo’ which was first published in 1895 (and which was also seized during ‘Operation Tiger’ as a separate title). The book’s title refers to Malcolm Lowry’s Mexican-set novel ‘Under the Volcano’. Translator Erskine Lane’s own novel, ‘Game-Texts – a Guatemalan Journal’, was also published by Gay Sunshine Press and seized during the raids.
• Ryder
  This first novel by modernist writer and artist Djuna Barnes (1892-1982) was published in 1928 and focusses on the experiences of Wendell Ryder. The story is relayed in over fifty chapters of differing lengths, via experiments with literary form and style (including in a faux Medieval style, complete with explanatory footnotes). Part prose, part poetry, part play and accompanied by Barnes’s own illustrations, the novel was, for a time, a bestseller. Before publication, however, the proofs were seized by the New York Postal Service, who deemed them “obscene”. Barnes responded by removing some sections of the text and replacing them with asterisks. These textual markings are retained in this 1979 edition, although Barnes’s original foreword critiquing censorship is not. This was the edition seized at Gay’s the Word, making ‘Ryder’ a doubly censored book.
• Special teachers/special boys
  “What happens here when a teacher comes out?” is the question this novel explores. The “here” is the fictional Lennox School for troubled boys, who are taught in small groups by a dedicated teacher – the special boys and special teachers of the title. Amongst the teachers is Bob Davidson, who is gay and comes out publicly on a television programme, an act which reverberates through the school and gives courage to two gay pupils. The novel was criticised in some quarters for the style of writing but praised for providing an antidote to prejudicial accounts of gay teachers. The authors, Peter Fisher (1944-2012) and Marc Rubin (1932-2007), were both gay activists. Rubin was also a teacher, and the book draws on his own experiences. It is dedicated to “the staff and boys of ‘The Lennox School’”.