Items

• From violent men : a novel
  In 1978, gay politician Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone were assassinated in San Francisco by former city Supervisor Dan White. Daniel Curzon (1938-) self-published this loosely fictionalised version of the aftermath of these deaths through IGNA (or International Gay News Agency). He had experienced “a decade of frustration with publishing houses” over this and other works, according to a 1983 article in ‘Out’ magazine. This copy is inscribed by the author, “Give ‘em hell at Customs! Long live Oscar Wilde, D.H. Lawrence and gay rights!”, and dated 27 February 1985. “D.H. Lawrence” is a reference to the ‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover’ trial in 1960, when the amended Obscene Publications Act 1959 allowed for a work to be defended on the grounds of literary merit for the first time. Curzon’s short story collection ‘Human Warmth and Other Stories’ was also seized in ‘Operation Tiger’.
• Game-texts : a Guatemalan journal
  This meditative travelogue is written in a fragmentary style, combining quasi-spiritual musings on the natural world (“See that a stone is a stoning in the same sense that a flower is a flowering”) with casual accounts of sexual encounters with various Guatemalan teenagers. The 1982 mail-order catalogue of Los Angeles bookstore A Different Light puts it bluntly – “Personal reflections & sex with Latin American boys.” Although Erskine Lane (1940-) was awarded a 1976 Fels award for the best non-fiction published by a small-press magazine (‘Gay Sunshine Journal’ no. 26/27, in which it first appeared), the lack of reflection on race, class, colonialism and the power dynamics at play make this an uncomfortable read. Lane also worked for Gay Sunshine Press as a translator from Portuguese and Spanish into English.
• Gay fiction journal. No. 47 : anthology of fiction/poetry/prose
  ‘Gay Sunshine’ was published, in tabloid newspaper format, between 1970 and 1982. The first issues focussed on radical gay politics and liberation, but when Winston Leyland (1940-) became editor in 1971, he included an emphasis on literature. Leyland made the decision to publish this issue, which became the final one, in book format, as it was less ephemeral and easier to preserve than a newspaper. The issue contains poetry, fiction and prose, most of it previously unpublished, including the first English translation of Paul Verlaine’s story ‘A Draw’. The book also features illustrations, and the cover is by Joe Fuoco, who also illustrated other seized books, Gore Vidal’s ‘A Thirsty Evil’ and Jim Everhard’s ‘Cute’.
• Gay is the word
• Gay sunshine interviews. Volume 1
  In 1975, the editor of the ‘Gay Sunshine Journal’, Winston Leyland (1940-), founded the related book imprint Gay Sunshine Press, which published volumes of interviews. Most of the interviews had originally been published in the journal, which began its interview series with gay writers, artists and performers in 1973. This first volume includes interviews with William Burroughs, Jean Genet and Christopher Isherwood. Leyland conducted several of the interviews and noted that they all highlight “a definite gay sensibility in the arts”.
• Gay sunshine interviews. Volume 2
  This volume contains interviews with gay artists and cultural figures, including Ned Rorem, John Wieners and Samuel M. Steward. It also features Harry Britt, who was a gay member of the legislative San Francisco Board of Supervisors, and succeeded Harvey Milk, who had been the first openly gay man in such a role. Winston Leyland (1940-), the publisher of this book, had been ordained as a priest, a role he abandoned as he became more involved in radical and gay politics. This is most clearly seen in his work as a publisher, which he described as follows – “I see Gay Sunshine Press as a catalyst in the evolving Gay Cultural Renaissance and myself as deeply involved in that process”.
• Gay Theatre Alliance directory of gay plays
  This book was the first to list plays where gay men and lesbians are the “main, primary, or at least, very important focus”. As part of the criteria for including a play, the key emphasis was on the sexuality of the characters not the playwright, so works authored by straight writers are listed. The four hundred plays are organised alphabetically by title, alongside information such as number of male and female characters and date of first performance. The appendixes list '“Lost” Plays’ and names of gay theatre companies. Terry Helbing (1951-1994) was co-founder of the Gay Theatre Alliance, which supported and promoted gay theatre, and the book is published by his JH Press, which was one third of the Gay Presses of New York. He died from AIDS in 1994.
• Gaywyck
  ‘Gaywyck’ was the first novel by New York writer and photo editor Vincent Virga (1942-). The first edition of the book, the one seized during ‘Operation Tiger’, was published in 1980 by Avon and advertised with a quote from ‘New York Magazine’ stating it was the “first gay gothic” novel. As a fan of gothic romance – the title is a play on Anya Seton’s 1944 gothic novel, ‘Dragonwyck’ – Virga wrote the novel with gay characters “to show that genres know no gender”. Set in the nineteenth century at Gaywyck, a Long Island estate owned by the Gaylord family, the story follows Robert Whyte, who is employed to catalogue the library, and his relationship with Donaugh Gaylord. Dark family secrets are revealed, but the story ends happily for the couple. Virga’s second book, ‘A Comfortable Corner’, was also seized during ‘Operation Tiger’.
• Happy endings are all alike
  Uncompromisingly frank from its opening line, Sandra Scoppettone’s (1936-) depiction of the love affair between teenage girls Jaret and Peggy was a much-needed riposte to 1950s lesbian pulp, such as the novels of Ann Bannon and Vin Packer. As one reviewer put it, “The story 1) is not preachy, 2) does not kill off either girl in the end, 3) is not syrupy”. The ground-breaking ‘Happy Endings Are All Alike’, chosen as an American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults, was first published by Harper & Row in 1978, preceding Nancy Garden’s ‘Annie on My Mind’ by four years. Scoppettone is known also for her crime-writing, as a playwright and for her collaboration with Louise Fitzhugh (author of ‘Harriet the Spy’) on the 1961 picture book ‘Suzuki Beane’, a counterculture parody of the ‘Eloise’ books set in Greenwich Village.
• Herbal sex pills
• How about this one?
• Human warmth : & other stories
  Twelve short stories featuring gay and lesbian characters, which strive for “some kind of universality, even when dealing with very specific homosexual content”, according to the author’s preface. Daniel Curzon (1938-) is a former journalist for publications such as ‘Gay News’, and a now-retired professor of English. In the mid-1970s, Curzon edited and published ‘Gay Literature – A New Journal’, a literary quarterly which folded after eighteen months. Following ‘Something You Do in the Dark’ (Putnam’s,1971), dubbed the “first gay protest novel”, Curzon wrote (and sometimes self-published) several other short story collections, novels, plays, poems and humorous titles, including ‘The Joyful Blue Book of Gracious Gay Etiquette’. His novel ‘From Violent Men’ was also seized in ‘Operation Tiger’.
• I'm Ace
• If this isn't love! : (two men--twenty years--in three acts)
  Part of the ‘JH Press Gay Play Script’ series, this was one of the most successful plays performed at The Glines, a not-for-profit gay theatre company in New York. Written by Sidney Morris (Fineberg) (1929-2002), the play follows couple Eric and Adam across three acts representing three decades of gay life and experience, entitled ‘The Fearful Fifties’, ‘The Seeking Sixties’, and ‘The Succulent Seventies’. As the men age, they respond to increasing societal liberation and changes in their own relationship. Morris, whose own youth was in the 1950s, wanted to ensure that the gay community did “not forget our dark and absurd past”. Morris wrote a number of other plays with gay male themes. Terry Helbing from JH Press, the play’s publisher, was also the general manager of the play’s first run. Morris died from AIDS in 2002.
• Independence day
  “What does it mean when you fall in love with your best friend?”, asks the cover of this coming-of-age story, which depicts identically clad high-school students Mike and Todd. Mike decides to tell Todd how he feels about him on 4 July – Independence Day in the US – and although Todd does not feel the same, this proto-Young Adult novel models understanding and acceptance. By its close, Mike has “dated several guys” in college and is taking a course “to become a counselor to gay kids”. B.A. Ecker includes a reference to another of the books erroneously seized in ‘Operation Tiger’, Patricia Nell Warren’s ‘The Front Runner’ (1974), which Mike “really found some comfort reading”. ‘Independence Day’ appears to be Ecker’s only published work.
• Ioläus : an anthology of friendship
  First published in 1902, this book contains selections from multiple texts, including poetry and essays, which present romantic friendships between men. The collection is edited by Edward Carpenter (1844-1929), a writer and socialist who campaigned for sexual freedom and homosexual equality. This collection covers three centuries, beginning with examples of male love from pagan and early worlds, and features the words of some English canonical writers, including William Shakespeare. This is a reprint of a 1917 Mitchell Kennerley edition and was the first book published by John Lauritsen’s Pagan Press which aimed to introduce a new audience to classical, “pro-male” texts.
• It starts with me
• It’s not Obscene to Exist
• Jack and Jim : a personal journal of the 70's
  In January 1970, Jim Brogan (1941-), a young college professor at San Francisco State University (SFSU), is about to be fired for participating in strike action. He is considering going back into therapy and thinks 1970 might be the year he finds love. By December, he has a permanent post. In August 1972, he meets the handsome Jack, and they begin seeing each other. These diaries, revised for publication by an extensive ensemble of Brogan’s friends, cover the decade up to 1981. They are a remarkable chronicle of long-term love and an ongoing search for personal, sexual and spiritual fulfilment. Brogan taught SFSU’s first lesbian and gay studies course and, with husband Jack Post, established three scholarships for the study and teaching of literature and sexuality.
• Kevin
  Wallace Hamilton came out in his fifties, moved to Greenwich Village and began writing popular books and plays about the queer community. ‘Kevin’, about a relationship between a teenage runaway and a professional man in his mid-thirties, draws in part on Hamilton’s own experiences. Hamilton died after a fall at his home in 1983, aged 64. Various obituaries note his involvement in the international paedophilia advocacy organisation NAMBLA (North American Man/Boy Love Association). Criticised by one contemporary reviewer for its sentimentality and lack of realism, readers of ‘Kevin’ today may have more serious concerns about the abusive power dynamics at play. Hamilton’s novel ‘Coming Out’ (1977) was also seized in ‘Operation Tiger’.
• Learn from my reflection
• Look me in the eye : old women, aging, and ageism
  This book focusses on women and ageing via several essays previously published in journals such as ‘Broomstick’ and ‘Sinister Wisdom’. Barbara Macdonald (1913-2000) and Cynthia Rich (1933-), the sister of poet Adrienne Rich, who were a couple and active in the women’s rights movement, write from different stages in the ageing process. Macdonald uses her introduction to reflect on the repressive environment she encountered growing up, which forced lesbians to become “other”, an otherness she now equates with being an older woman. The copy displayed here is the 1985 reprint edition. The first edition, and likely the one seized during the raids, was published by Spinsters Ink, a feminist press founded in 1979 in New York by Judith McDaniel and Maureen Brady.
• Male love : a problem in Greek ethics and other writings
  Poet and literary critic John Addington Symonds (1840-1893) had several same-sex relationships both before and after his marriage in 1864 to Janet Catherine North, with whom he had four daughters. ‘A Problem in Greek Ethics’, an extensive study of sexuality in Ancient Greece, including the culturally sanctioned practice of pederasty (sex between men and adolescent boys), was written in 1873 and published privately a decade later in an edition of ten. In 1897, it was expanded as an appendix to sexologist Havelock Ellis’s ‘Sexual Inversion’ (though immediately suppressed) and was subsequently reprinted over the course of the twentieth century, often using fictitious imprints to avoid prosecution. The Pagan Press edition of 1983, edited by John Lauritsen, marked the centenary of the work’s first publication and was named one of the ten best gay books of the year by ‘The Advocate’ newspaper.
• Meat : how men look, act, walk, talk, dress, undress, taste & smell
  Described in the introduction by ‘Fag Rag’ co-founder and Walt Whitman scholar Charles Shively as “an unprecedented piece of literature”, ‘Meat’ is an anthology of writing from the first forty-seven issues of ‘Straight to Hell (S.T.H.)’, a self-published magazine sometimes known by other titles including ‘The Manhattan Review of Unnatural Acts’. Created by Boyd McDonald (1925-1993), the publication predominantly contains explicit true stories of gay men’s sexual experiences which have been submitted by readers. These are accompanied by photos of muscular men, not unlike those published in physique magazines, often posed by models from agencies such as the Athletic Model Guild. This collection is published by Gay Sunshine Press, and the back cover includes quotes from readers including Gore Vidal, William Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg.
• MEAT!