Acquired Tastes XLIII
Gay Pulp Fiction, Part 118:
Adonis Classics, Part 2 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.)
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Author: Lyle Saunders
AC111
This looks like a tale in prison. Looks like a little toughie. Though I do admire the hang of those tighty whities.
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"I was born in the U.S. Pacific Northwest, land of work boots, flannel shirts, lumberjacks, and rain... rain... rain. Frequent deluges probably the origin of my present fondness for most places warm, tropical, and continually bathed in lots and lots of sunshine.
When I was young, we moved to California, land of surfboards, surfer shorts, surf sand, all beneath blue-blue surfer-boy-eyes skies. Providing me endless insights for telling tales of those blond-haired young studs who ride the waves and each other.
I attended university and majored in Marketing/Advertising. Between my junior and senior years, I accompanied a friend to South America to follow a treasure map from an obscure Spanish botanical text. All we got for our efforts were bad cases of crotch rot and enough he-man adventure for me to write up for a popular men's magazine.
After I got my university degree, I enlisted in the U.S. Army. The draft existed, and non-compliance with one's military obligation could provide a blotch on one's record. Granted, the Vietnam War moving into full-swing, more than a few of my peers sought and got deferments, or fled (momentarily or forever) to Canada; actions that, even today (ask some to-remain-unnamed political candidates) can come back to bite them on their collective ass. I rose to the rank of Sergeant (actually to an E-5 equivalent). Despite consistent rumors that my attained experience in "black-ops" accounts for the realistic portrayal of more than one of my military-background fictional characters (Jeff Billing in Thai Died specifically comes to mind), let me emphasize that my entire term of service was pretty much spent behind an innocuous desk in Personnel. My three years in the Army did, though, expose me to a genuinely extensive gay subculture that included officers and enlisted men...and their frequent get-togethers for sexual fun and games. Gay debauchery in the Army thrived covertly (sometimes overtly) between periodic sweeps - easily avoided by those in the know - for the purpose of "weeding out the perverts and the queers."
After my Honorable Discharge, I was faced with either advantaging my degree in Marketing/Advertising, by interviewing for jobs on the East and West coasts, or taking off a couple of months to try my hand at a return to writing. At which time, I read my first book of gay erotica and immediately thought I could do as well. I proceeded to write a chapter a day of my gay sci-fi opus, Five Roads To Tlen, reading the results each night to friends turned sycophants by free booze. I sent the final results to Greenleaf Classics that published not only it but my second Tlen book, then my Adonis detective series, and then so many others I've almost lost count. At which point, there was no looking back.
Finding myself rampantly prolific, my gay literary output suddenly too much for Greenleaf to keep up with, I was asked to come up with some hetero erotica for that publisher's straight-sex imprint."
And the last bit of biography from Mr. Maltese:
"My success in erotica and mainstream publishing, combined with my not-all-that-bad looks, college education, and an upbringing that had acquainted me early with all the nuances of successful mingling in polite society, saw me the darling of certain liberal, literary, artsy-fartsy circles. And it was during that time that I was 'taken under the wing' of an older woman with whom I soon embarked upon a whirlwind itinerary of 1st-class foreign travel by cruise ship... round-the-world, circle-the-Pacific, through-the-Panama-Canal. Supplemented by winters in the Caribbean, extensive visits to Mexico and South America, Europe and Asia. So many foreign cities under my belt before I ever set foot in New York City that my first impression of The Big Apple was an unimpressed, "Is this all there is?" It having taken me a long and leisurely courtship to arrive at my present state of true love for that city and adoration for its nowhere-else-in-the-world uniqueness.
The death of my lady "friend" saw me in a sudden burst of spend-my-own-money trekking through Thailand, Egypt, Zanzibar, South Africa, then returning to Greece and Italy.
In England, I learned of gay Prowler Books out to make its transition from magazine publisher to book publisher, in order to improve its hand in a proposed merger with Millivres. I advantaged its need by writing for it: California Creamin', Summer Sweat, and When Summer Comes. I was then given my own imprint by it to publish the first of my Stud Draqual Mystery Series, A Slip To Die For. ASTDF German-language rights soon purchased by Rotbuch Krimi and published by it as Dessous Zum Sterben. By way of German-language follow-up, I did Lust Auf Schweiss for Bruno Gmünder, and my now-infamous short-story Doppelmörder for inclusion in the Queer Crime anthology for Querverlag.
Again back in the States, I began working on the second book of my Stud Draqual Mystery Series (Thai Died), and started on another South American novel (SS Mann Hunt). The tragic events of 9-11 left me less enthusiastic about any additional immediate foreign travel and anxious to find a publisher and/or publishers closer to home. Enter US-based Writers Club Press, through which I published my SS Man Hunt in December 2002 and US-based Green Candy Press who released my Thai Died in February 2003."
Available as a pdf or e-book at Hommi Publishing.
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Author: Ross Holden
AC112
AKA: Gay Bar!
Have you ever actually entered a bar with swinging doors? Or one with a cute little sailor sitting outside as a bouncer?
The Boyfriend and I were watching Swan Song, on Hulu, the other night. In it, two gentlemen of a certain age talk about how sad it is to see gay bars close their doors now that they have outlived their purpose. According to their theory, gay bars were safe places, harbors in a storm, and, now, in this day and age, they are no longer necessary.
While I see the point being made, I don't necessarily think that's the whole story. Gay men, in particular, still need a sense of community and a place to go to find that. I don't think that need to be among our own kind will ever go away, so gay bars needn't go away either. Their purpose must change, that's all; we need to look upon them as community centers.
Anyway, check out Swan Song. It's a slice of gay history - a story that has gotten lost in the age of PrEP and legalized gay marriage. It's a movie that lives up to its title.
Available as a pdf or e-book at Hommi Publishing.
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Author: Kurt Kimble
AC113
I love me some locker room fun. But not between brothers. Nice illustration, though.
Available as a pdf or e-book at Hommi Publishing.
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Boy Lover
Author: Harlan Mallory
AC114
Another title I don't know what to make of. And another very nice illustration. Note the detail of the six pack under the bed. No doubt, beer to loosen up the object of his erection.
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Stud Maker
Author: Lambert Wilhelm
AC115
Sorry about the poor quality of this cover, but it was the best I could do.
This one is by the prolific William Maltese. In his own words (with a little editing):
When I was young, we moved to California, land of surfboards, surfer shorts, surf sand, all beneath blue-blue surfer-boy-eyes skies. Providing me endless insights for telling tales of those blond-haired young studs who ride the waves and each other.
I attended university and majored in Marketing/Advertising. Between my junior and senior years, I accompanied a friend to South America to follow a treasure map from an obscure Spanish botanical text. All we got for our efforts were bad cases of crotch rot and enough he-man adventure for me to write up for a popular men's magazine.
After I got my university degree, I enlisted in the U.S. Army. The draft existed, and non-compliance with one's military obligation could provide a blotch on one's record. Granted, the Vietnam War moving into full-swing, more than a few of my peers sought and got deferments, or fled (momentarily or forever) to Canada; actions that, even today (ask some to-remain-unnamed political candidates) can come back to bite them on their collective ass. I rose to the rank of Sergeant (actually to an E-5 equivalent). Despite consistent rumors that my attained experience in "black-ops" accounts for the realistic portrayal of more than one of my military-background fictional characters (Jeff Billing in Thai Died specifically comes to mind), let me emphasize that my entire term of service was pretty much spent behind an innocuous desk in Personnel. My three years in the Army did, though, expose me to a genuinely extensive gay subculture that included officers and enlisted men...and their frequent get-togethers for sexual fun and games. Gay debauchery in the Army thrived covertly (sometimes overtly) between periodic sweeps - easily avoided by those in the know - for the purpose of "weeding out the perverts and the queers."
After my Honorable Discharge, I was faced with either advantaging my degree in Marketing/Advertising, by interviewing for jobs on the East and West coasts, or taking off a couple of months to try my hand at a return to writing. At which time, I read my first book of gay erotica and immediately thought I could do as well. I proceeded to write a chapter a day of my gay sci-fi opus, Five Roads To Tlen, reading the results each night to friends turned sycophants by free booze. I sent the final results to Greenleaf Classics that published not only it but my second Tlen book, then my Adonis detective series, and then so many others I've almost lost count. At which point, there was no looking back.
Finding myself rampantly prolific, my gay literary output suddenly too much for Greenleaf to keep up with, I was asked to come up with some hetero erotica for that publisher's straight-sex imprint."
...to be continued.
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The Boy Master
Author: Kurt Kimble
AC116
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Sucker Boy
Author: Curt McLean
AC117
Another great illustration. These make me think of Norman Rockwell. Maybe it's the color pallet and saturation? The relative wholesomeness? Could this illustrator be the gay Norman Rockwell? Imagine how many issues The Saturday Evening Post would've sold with something like this on its cover?
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Author: Lambert Wilhelm
AC118
Love the word 'bugger.'
Have you ever referred to a child as 'a little bugger?'
I think our friends across the pond might raise an eyebrow or two if they heard that.
More about Mr. Maltese from the hand of Mr. Maltese...
"A passing "aside", here, on my sexuality, since it's often (surprisingly enough to me), a subject of intense interest and speculation, more than one critic having surmised my sexually ambiguous Stud Draqual character, from my mystery series of the same name, is based upon me. Maybe Stud is a self-characterization, but only to a point, because let me assure you that I was far less baggaged with angst as regards my decision to have sex with a man. However, that I knew at an early age how attracted I was to the same sex (and/or vice versa, even more so), steered me into my concentrated and successful efforts to make sure my first sexual experience was with a woman. Well aware of the political correctness and necessity of a wife, even of children, for anyone out to succeed in the world of corporate America, I wanted to be sure that I didn't eliminate those options. No way I intended to enjoy sex with a man so much that I was, in the end, as were some gays, suddenly forever turned off by the prospect of going to bed with a member of the opposite sex.
So, when Greenleaf requested I do some hetero erotica, I was not only ready, willing, and able to provide it, but I quickly became as prolific with my hetero as with my gay stuff, soon publishing through just about every available outlet.
American Art Enterprises, one such publisher at the time, also had a mainstream imprint, Carousel, and was soon publishing my for-middle-America non-erotic adventure/espionage, my sci-fi fantasy, and my romance paperbacks, all appearing on the family-accessed racks of your local bookstores.
My three romances for Carousel ended up providing me entrée to behemoth romance publisher Harlequin where George Glay, Senior Editor, was out to update the sexuality of his company's output via launching a new SuperRomance imprint. Up until then, Harlequin was mainly a reprint house for England's Mills and Boon. Books from M&B somewhat simplistic girl meets boy, girl loses boy, girl gets boy, girl and boy don't have sex until after marriage. George viewed my background in romances and erotica as likely advantageous (he was right), in providing his company with that all-important and internationally best-selling (translated into over ten foreign languages), Book 2 of the SuperRomance imprint. No coincidence, I might add, that my Love's Emerald Flame hearkened back to a familiar-to-me South-American jungle theme."
So, when Greenleaf requested I do some hetero erotica, I was not only ready, willing, and able to provide it, but I quickly became as prolific with my hetero as with my gay stuff, soon publishing through just about every available outlet.
American Art Enterprises, one such publisher at the time, also had a mainstream imprint, Carousel, and was soon publishing my for-middle-America non-erotic adventure/espionage, my sci-fi fantasy, and my romance paperbacks, all appearing on the family-accessed racks of your local bookstores.
My three romances for Carousel ended up providing me entrée to behemoth romance publisher Harlequin where George Glay, Senior Editor, was out to update the sexuality of his company's output via launching a new SuperRomance imprint. Up until then, Harlequin was mainly a reprint house for England's Mills and Boon. Books from M&B somewhat simplistic girl meets boy, girl loses boy, girl gets boy, girl and boy don't have sex until after marriage. George viewed my background in romances and erotica as likely advantageous (he was right), in providing his company with that all-important and internationally best-selling (translated into over ten foreign languages), Book 2 of the SuperRomance imprint. No coincidence, I might add, that my Love's Emerald Flame hearkened back to a familiar-to-me South-American jungle theme."
...more to come.
Available as a pdf or e-book at Hommi Publishing.
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Leather Boy
Author: Merrill James
AC119
Oh, my... a pair of bare buttocks! Sweet.
Have you ever found yourself naked, except for a pair of leather boots.
I have. It is as awkward as you can imagine. But I thought it better than running around wearing a pair of high-tops or bedroom slippers. At the baths, nothing surprises me... except bare feet. I can't imagine all that one risks stepping in while frequenting a bath house, a sex club, or a gay bars backroom.
--- ---
Author: Lambert Wilhelm
AC120
"My success in erotica and mainstream publishing, combined with my not-all-that-bad looks, college education, and an upbringing that had acquainted me early with all the nuances of successful mingling in polite society, saw me the darling of certain liberal, literary, artsy-fartsy circles. And it was during that time that I was 'taken under the wing' of an older woman with whom I soon embarked upon a whirlwind itinerary of 1st-class foreign travel by cruise ship... round-the-world, circle-the-Pacific, through-the-Panama-Canal. Supplemented by winters in the Caribbean, extensive visits to Mexico and South America, Europe and Asia. So many foreign cities under my belt before I ever set foot in New York City that my first impression of The Big Apple was an unimpressed, "Is this all there is?" It having taken me a long and leisurely courtship to arrive at my present state of true love for that city and adoration for its nowhere-else-in-the-world uniqueness.
The death of my lady "friend" saw me in a sudden burst of spend-my-own-money trekking through Thailand, Egypt, Zanzibar, South Africa, then returning to Greece and Italy.
In England, I learned of gay Prowler Books out to make its transition from magazine publisher to book publisher, in order to improve its hand in a proposed merger with Millivres. I advantaged its need by writing for it: California Creamin', Summer Sweat, and When Summer Comes. I was then given my own imprint by it to publish the first of my Stud Draqual Mystery Series, A Slip To Die For. ASTDF German-language rights soon purchased by Rotbuch Krimi and published by it as Dessous Zum Sterben. By way of German-language follow-up, I did Lust Auf Schweiss for Bruno Gmünder, and my now-infamous short-story Doppelmörder for inclusion in the Queer Crime anthology for Querverlag.
Again back in the States, I began working on the second book of my Stud Draqual Mystery Series (Thai Died), and started on another South American novel (SS Mann Hunt). The tragic events of 9-11 left me less enthusiastic about any additional immediate foreign travel and anxious to find a publisher and/or publishers closer to home. Enter US-based Writers Club Press, through which I published my SS Man Hunt in December 2002 and US-based Green Candy Press who released my Thai Died in February 2003."
I think the man has a way with a story.
I'd buy him a drink!
Available as a pdf or e-book at Hommi Publishing.
--- ---
And that's all for now.
Next week, another ten Adonic Classics.
Until then...
Thanks for reading!
STUD - Troye Sivan
3 comments:
He happened upon the industry at just the right time. Bravo!
Love Trove!
And I had no idea he had written gay and hetero pulp!
Who knew!
And my mom had Harlequin romance books.
XOXO
Great background and story.
Really incredible and informative.
Love the covers too!
Yeah, didn’t know he did gay and straight books.
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