Acquired Tastes XLIII: Gay Pulp Fiction, Part 27
Modern Greenleaf Classics
So, today, we bid good-bye to Greenleaf Classics.
What is being featured represents the next chapter in the publishing house's history.
From Greenleaf's website:
Modern Greenleaf Classics Books
1976 - 1990
By 1976, the original management team was gone and the books changed their character. The pool of writers changed. The staff of cover artists changed. The editorial team that set story policy changed. Earlier imprints were halted and new imprints started. Thus the distinction being made here between the vintage and modern periods in the archive.
The books from the Modern period cover a wide spectrum of specific fetish themes featured in the various imprints. The cover art is either colorful and striking or simple line drawings illustrating a narrative scene.
I am not sure if today's covers are part of the next generation of Greenleaf Classics. But they are not listed among the Classic period's (1959-1975) imprints, though the publication dates typically assigned are 1969/1970. They include a number of re-issues and a few of the authors should be familiar to you.
"On October 13, 1971, the case against Hamling, Kemp, Rogers, and Thomas begins.
'The American people want sexually oriented material,' Hamling tells the New York Times. 'This is what's on the best-sellers' list, and now the best movies are those rated R and X (Midnight Cowboy's original rating). The people have mandated for explicit sex. The snowball has started and that's why this trial is so important.' (New York Times, November 1971)
Judge Thompson admits that he is 'overwhelmed.' His first big case since taking the bench, he is, reportedly, under a great deal of pressure from Attorney General Mitchell and the Justice Department to assure convictions. The judge vehemently denies this, but reliable sources insist that there was a mole in Judge Thompson's office reporting to the defense who swears that the judge was receiving phone calls from the Justice Department on almost a daily basis to check in on the trial's progress. I have not, however, been able to confirm these reports with substantiating evidence.
What is being featured represents the next chapter in the publishing house's history.
From Greenleaf's website:
Modern Greenleaf Classics Books
1976 - 1990
By 1976, the original management team was gone and the books changed their character. The pool of writers changed. The staff of cover artists changed. The editorial team that set story policy changed. Earlier imprints were halted and new imprints started. Thus the distinction being made here between the vintage and modern periods in the archive.
The books from the Modern period cover a wide spectrum of specific fetish themes featured in the various imprints. The cover art is either colorful and striking or simple line drawings illustrating a narrative scene.
--- ---
I am not sure if today's covers are part of the next generation of Greenleaf Classics. But they are not listed among the Classic period's (1959-1975) imprints, though the publication dates typically assigned are 1969/1970. They include a number of re-issues and a few of the authors should be familiar to you.
I did come across a eFanzine site by Earl Kemp, the 'Godfather of gay publishing". He worked under William Hamling, the owner of Greenleaf Publishing. The two were involved in a major court case that would help shape the course of censorship here in the U.S.
You see, Greenleaf Publishing had fallen in the crosshairs of the FBI under Richard Nixon. And when Greenleaf dared to publish a fully-illustrated version of the Presidential Report of the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography (which included images of those things deemed obscene by the commission) that was the final straw. Kemp, along with Hamling, and two others were charged with a number of obscenity charges. And Greenleaf publishing? They were up for the fight.
From Kemp:
'The American people want sexually oriented material,' Hamling tells the New York Times. 'This is what's on the best-sellers' list, and now the best movies are those rated R and X (Midnight Cowboy's original rating). The people have mandated for explicit sex. The snowball has started and that's why this trial is so important.' (New York Times, November 1971)
Judge Thompson admits that he is 'overwhelmed.' His first big case since taking the bench, he is, reportedly, under a great deal of pressure from Attorney General Mitchell and the Justice Department to assure convictions. The judge vehemently denies this, but reliable sources insist that there was a mole in Judge Thompson's office reporting to the defense who swears that the judge was receiving phone calls from the Justice Department on almost a daily basis to check in on the trial's progress. I have not, however, been able to confirm these reports with substantiating evidence.
One thing is clear, though: Judge Thompson admits that he is absolutely dazed and dazzled by Stanley Fleishman's command of obscenity law and can barely keep up with him. He tries to rein-in Fleishman when he insists that the jury be allowed to go over the Greenleaf illustrated report, page by page, to little avail. Judge Thompson believes that this is a deliberate tactic to desensitize the jury to the book's content. The judge also feels that another Fleishman tactic is to purposely confuse the jury regarding obscenity laws. 'If it was, it worked,' he remembers. The trial lasted until two days before Christmas. Guilty of 12 counts of obscene mail solicitation, innocent on all other counts, and mistrial on the counts of publishing and distributing an obscene book."
Hamling and Kemp are both sentenced to one year in prison. They end up only serving the federal minimum of 3 month and one day.
Here is a bit more insight into the world of Greenleaf Classics, from Kemp:
Note: Illustrator Harry Bremmer is responsible for most of the cover art below. If no author is listed, then it is attributed to 'anonymous'.
"In the late sixties, inspired by the success of Fanny Hill, publishers turned their attentions to classical erotica. The very fact of their age gave these writings a cachet that made proving obscenity difficult, and it was not much of a problem to find experts willing to testify to their literary worth. Trouble was, there were only so many of these old gems lying about.
Then one day I had much the same thought I had had a few years earlier, when I first started looking at these sexy pulps in a Hollywood book store: "By golly, I could do this." So I reread Fanny Hill, The Memoirs of Cesare Borgia and a bit of de Sade, and wrote Friar Peck and His Tale - by anonymous.
In a scholarly introduction, Douglas H. Gamlin, Ph.D. (Donald H. Gilmore, Ph.D.) compared the book to Spenser, Chaucer, et al, and hedged his bets by stating the writing suggests 'deep research on the part of the author or, indeed, that the author did exist four hundred years ago.'
Despite such a coy hint, Friar Peck quickly became accepted as an authentic piece of 16th century erotica, and still appears as such in book catalogs. So I did make a contribution to the literature of the Dark Ages, although I'm not quite old enough to have lived through them."
And one more interesting tidbit: Greenleaf Classics invested in a number of feature-length adult films. Most notable among them being Adultery For Fun And Profit, an award-winner at the 1970 Amsterdam sex film festival.
In a scholarly introduction, Douglas H. Gamlin, Ph.D. (Donald H. Gilmore, Ph.D.) compared the book to Spenser, Chaucer, et al, and hedged his bets by stating the writing suggests 'deep research on the part of the author or, indeed, that the author did exist four hundred years ago.'
Despite such a coy hint, Friar Peck quickly became accepted as an authentic piece of 16th century erotica, and still appears as such in book catalogs. So I did make a contribution to the literature of the Dark Ages, although I'm not quite old enough to have lived through them."
Earl Kemp at the Sex 69 World's Fair of Sex in Copenhagen,
holding up a poster for next year's show. (1969).
So these are the 'red cover' titles that, for the purposes of this series, are going to close out this publishing house. While searching for other books, titles that are part of this imprint kept popping up, so I would save them. Therefore, you would think that locating all of them would be a snap, but that is not so. I did my best. Yes, a number of titles are missing in action. The one's shown are listed in the order of their catalog number.
The Tijuana Bible Reader
GL 101
Two to Show...
Author Dallas Kovar
GL 103
Pot & Pansies
Author: Paul Quinn
GL 100
The Virgin Eater
Author: Chris Davidson
GL 107
The Good Fairy
Author: Jadkle Bortner
GL 109
The Male Stem
Patrick Doyle
GL 111
Friar Peck and his Tale
Author: Earl Kemp
GL 113
Farmer in the Fly
Author: Allan James
GL 114
Naked on Main Street
Author: Richard Amory
GL 117
Coxswains of Malibu
Gabriel Hunter
GL 118
Experiment With Men
Author: Cal Hearn
GL 120
God Save the Queen
Author: Peter Randolph
GL 121
The Golden Tuft
Author: Chris Davidson
GL 124
Tongue & Cheek
Author: Allan James
GL 127
The Sultry Stud
Author: Shane V. Baxter
GL 128
Leather
Author: Dirk Vanden
GL 129
Lay Them Straight
Author: Chris Davidson
GL 130
Bunny Bitch
Author: Julian Francis
GL 131
The Second Tijuana Bible Reader
GL 133
All-Stud
Author: O.R. Wells
GL 134
Coming Out
Author: Chris Davidson
GL 140
Truck Stop
Author: Jeff Lawton
GL 141
The Gooser
Author: Larry Townsend
GL 142
A Handsome Young Man With Class
Author: Richard Armory
GL 143
Gay Guy
Author: Chet Roman
GL 144
Longhorn Drive
Author: Richard Amory
GL 146
Five Roads to Tlen
Author: William J. Lambert, III
GL 148
Leather AD Volume I.M.
Author: Larry Townsend
GL 150
Coq Le Grand
Author: Llewellyn Hollingsworthy
GL 151
In Homage to Priapus
Authors: Various
Editor: E.V. Griffith
GL 152
Demon's Stalk
Author: William J. Lambert, III
GL 153
The Gods of Tlen
Author: William J. Lambert, III
GL 154
The Young Master
Author: William J. Lambert, III
GL 154
The Rap for Sodomy
Author: Jason Forbes
GL 157
Snowjob
Author: Burton Dickson
GL 160
The Conqueror
Author: Morley Cochran
GL 162
From left to right:
Robert Bonfils, Art Director/Cover Artist
Robert Speray, Bibliophile
Earl Kemp, Publisher
April 21, 2002
God Save The Queen - The Sex Pistols
.webp)
3 comments:
Interesting how basic (if you will) the covers were; title, author, line drawing of a character. Well, what more did one need to know what was on the inside?
First of all, the Sex Pistols. Yes, please!!!
Second, Americans have always been prudish and uncultured when it comes to eroica and porn, so I'm not surprised he went to trial for basically illustrating what is it that the 'public' found so ghastly. I would love to see that document, though. Also, I totally believe the judge was under a ton of pressure. Look what just happened in the IMPOTUS admin. It was more blatant, but I'm sure it's happened before.
I like the 'modern' covers and the idea of re-taking the theme of the erotica of Fanny Hill. BTW, I read Fanny Hill right after I read Anaïs Nin and Henry Miller when i was eighteen. LOL
XOXO
These red cover GL series books are some of the queerest paperbacks that Greenleaf (or anyone else for that matter) ever published.
First of all, the text is printed upside down and backwards. To read one of these books you have to turn it over and start from the back cover.
Second, the text begins on the back cover of the book in a large font. The 2nd page is on the inside of the back cover in a regular font. The remainder of the book continues as normal until the final page, which is printed on the inside of the front cover.
Finally, these books are taller and wider than the usual Greenleaf gay pulps - 7 5/8" x 5 1/4" versus 7" x 4 1/4".
I wonder why these strange choices were made?
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