Acquired Tastes XLIII Gay Pulp Fiction, Part 117: Adonis Classics, Part 1 of 25

Acquired Tastes XLIII 

Gay Pulp Fiction, Part 117

Adonis Classics

Part 1 of 25

Greenleaf Classic Books, the publishers of  the Adonis Classics imprint, began in 1959 and continued until 1971, when management lost focus on the business as the government's prosecution for obscenity became a major concern.

By 1974,a new management team and staff were in place, operating out of an office at 7523 Raytheon Road in San Diego and production ceased on all existing imprints. In an attempt to break into mainstream markets, two new imprints were started which used cover art and titles that were not provocative. These efforts failed.

The year 1975 marks the end of  Greenleaf Classics' Vintage period. It is at this time, with the loosening of censorship laws, that the Adonis Classics imprint began production. It marks the end of Greenleaf Classic's Classic Age (1959-1975.) 

Adonis Classics would release a total of 252 titles during it's lifespan. 

The first twenty covers feature white backgrounds (with one exception) and colored drawings or black and white pencil illustrations. After the first two titles, a particular type-face was established, with the title appearing above the illustration. The distinctive Adonis Classics symbol was established with either the seventh or eighth title in the series.

After the first twenty titles, the imprint switched to their iconic red covers (though sometimes pink,) featuring a black and white illustration framed in a black circle which has an arrow attached - a universal sign designating something as 'male.' The book's title at the top of the cover is encased in a white circle with an arrow (the symbol for male.)

Today, we'll take a look at the first ten titles, ten of which I was able to find covers for. 

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The Boy Keeper 

Author: Carl Strater

AC 101

Gee, nothing subtle about that ink blot in the background!

So, as I was searching for this title, I came a cross a court document where this book was used as an example of the grooming process used by homosexual men when it came to children. It is listed, along with a few others in the proceedings titled: Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Crime of the Committee on the Judiciary, House of Representatives, Ninety-fifth Congress, First Session ... May 23, 25, June 10, and September 20, 1977 - written by United States. Congress. House. Committee on the Judiciary. Subcommittee on Crime · 1977.

Talk about reserving yourself a place in history! 

This book sold on Ebay for $55 in June of 2022, but that was just before the market for gay pulp fiction went insane.

Title Page

Back Cover

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The Greek Way 

Author: Phil Andros

AC 102

This is the most unique cover in the series, as it features a colored background. 

Phil Andros is actually the name of a gay character created by author Samuel M. Steward, one whose name he occasionally employed as a pseudonym. In a blurb touting a collection of Steward's essays on the site LibraryThing, we learn:

"Samuel Steward (1909-93) was an English professor, a tattoo artist for the Hells Angels, a sexual adventurer who shared the considerable scope of his experiences with Alfred Kinsey, and a prolific writer whose publications ranged from scholarly articles to gay erotica (the latter appearing under the pen name Phil Andros). Perhaps his oddest authorial role was as a monthly contributor between 1944 and 1949 to The Illinois Dental Journal, an obscure trade publication for dentists, where writing as Philip Sparrow he produced a series of charming, richly allusive, and often quirky essays on a wildly eclectic assortment of topics. In Philip Sparrow Tells All, Jeremy Mulderig has collected thirty of these engaging but forgotten columns, prefacing them with revealing introductions that relate the essays to people and events in Steward's life and to the intellectual and cultural contexts in which he wrote during the 1940s. In these essays we encounter such famous friends of Steward as Gertrude Stein, André Gide, and Thornton Wilder. We hear of his stint as a holiday sales clerk at Marshall Field's (where he met and seduced fellow employee Rock Hudson), of his roles as an opera and ballet extra in hilariously shoddy costumes, of his hoarding tendencies, his disappointment with the drabness of men's fashions, and his dread of turning forty. We go along with him to a bodybuilding competition and a pet cemetery, and together we wander the boulevards of Paris and the alleys of Algiers. Throughout, Mulderig's entertaining annotations explain the essays' wide-ranging allusions and also highlight their gay subtext, which constituted a kind of private game that Steward played with his mostly oblivious audience of Midwestern dentists. The first collection of any of Samuel Steward's writings to be republished since his death in 1993, Philip Sparrow Tells All makes these lost essays available to a broad readership that Steward imagined but never actually enjoyed when he wrote them. In doing so, it takes a major step toward documenting his important place in twentieth-century gay literature and history."

In the 1960's after establishing a shop in Chicago where he practiced his art on sailors and streetwalkers, he moved to San Francisco, where he became the official tattoo artist of The Hell's Angels. 

Samuel M. Steward

Available as a pdf or e-book at Hommi Publishing.

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Stud House 

Author: Lew Hollings

AKA: Prime Meat  - HIS69092

AC103

Sigh. Hard to argue with a man holding a tap measure, while sporting a tool belt and a pair of well-shorn denim cut-offs. Construction porn definitely has it's audience and appeal. 

Available as a pdf or e-book at Hommi Publishing.

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Hung Man 

Author: Aaron Thomas

AC 104

Pretty much the same model as the previous title, but with a distinct emphasis.

Thomas is holdover author from Greenleaf Classics' Vintage period, having written numerous titles for the publishers older imprints. 

  

Available as a pdf or e-book at Hommi Publishing.

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Billy Stud 

Author: Jonathan Melburn

AC 105

More cut-offs, the gift that keeps on giving. This cover finds the imprint trying out a simple black and white pencil drawing while keeping their distinctive title font. 

 

Available as a pdf or e-book at Hommi Publishing.

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Beat The Man Down 

Author: Chad Stuart

AC 106

Another pencil drawing, but this time featuring a well-filled speedo.

Chad Stuart was quite prolific, publishing over 35 titles for several different imprints, including: RAM, Golden Boy, HIS69, Pleasure Reader, Gay Novel, and Blue Boy Books. He also wrote a story for Gay Times, which appeared in an issue with one by Phil Andros.

Available as a pdf or e-book at Hommi Publishing.

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Bed Boy 

Author: Lyle Saunders

AC 107

I make my bed every morning like a good boy. 

I assume that is what this book is all about. 

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Macho Man 

Author: Peter Tuesday Hughes

AC 108

Peter Tuesday Hughes is a name that should be familiar to regular readers of this series of posts.

 
He was very prolific with a total of 33 books in the genre, many of which were for the Blueboy Library imprint. He primarily wrote gay-oriented sci-fi and mystery novels, and is noted as an early exponent of the gay gothic subgenre. In 2013, his' 'Bruce Doe' novels, a series of six mysteries, were named one of the top ten mystery series by The Lambda Literary Review.

Note the appearance of the imprint's distinguishing logo, here, above the title.

Available as a pdf or e-book at Hommi Publishing.

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The Stud Seeker

Author: Byron Shelby

AC 109 

And the imprint waffled back to work by their original illustrator, who definitely had a 'type.'

Sitting in a very odd manner on a pair of peculiarly stacked suitcases, our blonde stud is ripped and ready for whatever adventure his travels offer him. Imagine going on a vacation where all you do is cruise the locals?

Why, I never...

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Shafted! 

Author: Kurt Kimble

AC 110

This is the first of seven titles for this imprint by Kurt Kimble. It's also our first nude, though a cautious one, with a well-placed hand obscuring the butt crack. 

From Shafted: "Okay. Now turn around for me! The liquor was beginning to warm his brain and Gary's voice sounded a little commanding. What the fuck for man? The blue eyes were looking directly into his in open honesty. Just so I can see what else bought. Oh, no you don't get that!"

Available as a pdf or e-book at Hommi Publishing.

This one sold on Etsy recently for $56.21.

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And that's all for now.

Next week: ten more Adonis Classics!

Until then... thanks for reading!

Can't Keep A Good Man Down

from the television series Cop Rock