Acquired Tastes XLIII: Gay Pulp Fiction, Part 224 Guild Press, Part 3 of 3

Acquired Tastes XLIII:
Gay Pulp Fiction, Part 224
Guild Press, Part 3 of 3

Today, we take a final look at The Guild Press. The Guild Press published from 1964 to 1972.

 

Herman Lynn Womack was the founder of  the Guild Press, a Washington, D.C., publishing house that catered almost exclusively to a gay male audience.  

After making peace with his homosexuality and discovering that the academic life was not for him, Womack became interested in publishing. 

His first scrape with the law occurred about this time; a fraudulent investment scheme from which he escaped unscathed and netted a cool half a million in the process. That is how he  kickstarted  his own publishing empire.

With his ill-gotten gains, Womack acquire a small printing plant in Washington, D.C. He then began buying up various physique magazines. When obscenity charges began piling up, Womack avoided prison time by contriving to serve his sentence at a federal psychiatric hospital, St. Elizabeths Hospital.  Womack had a degree in psychology, and was able to manipulate the doctors who interviewed him to ensure he'd never see the inside of a prison cell. Womack appealed his conviction all the way to the Supreme Court, ultimately winning the case, thereby carving out greater freedoms for gay publications throughout the United States.  

Guild Press serving as 'middleman' 

for Private Edition books

In the aftermath of his Supreme Court victory, Womack revived his physique magazines. Upon acquiring a new printing press, he began publishing or republishing books. What began as a mail order business with Guild Press serving as a middleman for other publishers, became a full-fledged publishing house.

Initial books were hardcover, but by 1968, pamphlet-sized wraps (folded and stapled, rather than with a spine and bound) became the publishing house's chosen format. Imprints in this format included the GPA (Guild Press Award) series, the Black Knight Classics series, the Road House Classics series, the Twilight Classics series and the Stuart House Classics series. He soon branched out into newsletters, newspapers, a chain of bookstores (Village Books) and even a clothing line featuring the jocks and underwear worn by models in his physique magazines. 

However, in 1970, due to charges regarding the use of underage models, Womack's empire began to crumble. Bankrupt by 1974, he moved to Boca Raton, Florida where he died in 1985.

Please note: a comprehensive list of Guild Press titles does not (yet) exist. I've done what I could gleaning information from my usual sources along with literature from Guild Press promoting various titles and special sales. 

Initially, Guild Press published hardcover novels; all the titles below are hardcover editions. However, that gradually gave way to softcover wraps (folded and held together with staples as opposed to being bound), no doubt due to cost of making and shipping hardcover books and the fact that most of the new titles being created in-house fell below the 100 pages mark. 

Currently, these hardcover books go for hundreds of dollars. I recently found a copy of Phil Andros' $tud listed for $1,400 with other titles ranging from $249-$498.

Here are the last Guild Press titles.

 

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The Invisible Glass

Author: Loren Wahl

Greenberg Publications

Sold By Guild Press

1950

Hardcover

"Some thick sheet of invisible but horribly tangible plate glass is between them and the world."-W.E.B. DuBois, Dusk of Dawn

Set against the backdrop of the Italian front at the end of World War II, Loren Wahl's controversial novel recounts, in a compact narrative set in five intense days, the passions and prejudices that boil inside an African-American company of soldiers commanded by a racist white captain and visited by an Italian-American lieutenant who falls in love with one of the soldiers. Originally published in 1950, The Invisible Glass explores themes of homophobia and racism as well as their relationship to each other and to the culture of the military - a topic still making headlines today.

Virtually nothing is known about the author. The name Loren Wahl is most likely a pseudonym.

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Scarlet Pansy

Author: Robert Scully

Royal Publications

1952

Originally Published 1932

Sold by Guild Press

Hardcover

First published in 1932, A Scarlet Pansy is an extraordinarily vivid and richly textured depiction of American queer life in the early twentieth century, tracing the coming-of-age of androgynous Fay Etrange. Born in small-town Pennsylvania and struggling with her difference, Fay eventually accepts her gender and sexual nonconformity and immerses herself in the fairy subculture of New York City. A self-proclaimed “oncer” (never tricking with same man twice) she immerses herself in the nightclubs, theaters, and street life of the city, cavorting with kindred spirits including female impersonators, streetwalkers, and hustlers as well as other fairies and connoisseurs of rough trade. While reveling in these exploits, she becomes a successful banker and later attends medical school, where she receives training in obstetrics. There she also develops her life’s ambition to find a cure for gonorrhea, a disease supposedly "fastened on mankind as a penalty for enjoying love".

A Scarlet Pansy stands apart from similar fiction of its time by celebrating rather than pathologizing its effeminate and sexually adventurous protagonist. Much more than an artifact, A Scarlet Pansy remains a uniquely delightful and penetrating work of literature, resonating as much with present-day culture as it is illuminating of our understanding of queer history and challenging our notions of what makes a man a woman, and vice-versa.

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Escape To An Autumn Pavement

Author: Andrew Salkey

Hutchinson Publications

1960

Sold by Guild Press

Hardcover

A brave and pioneering treatment of sexual identity in Caribbean literature, this novel, first published in 1960, follows the fortunes of Johnnie Sobert, a Jamaican exile who works in London at a club that caters to black American servicemen. In flight from his dominant, possessive mother, he immerses himself in the bohemian Soho scene and adopts a wisecracking persona as a cover for his deep-seated insecurities. Adding to Johnnie’s confusion is the fact that when he is not at work, he navigates a completely different life in Hempstead, where he lives in a bedsitter and carries on an unsatisfying affair with his white landlady, Fiona. These two worlds provide a lively portrait of Britons reacting to the growing presence of blacks and Asians in their neighborhoods, and Johnnie takes lessons from each place. By the time he finally decides to move in with his gay friend, Dick, he is much better equipped with self-awareness—but he has yet to make a decision about where his desires truly lie.

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Guild Guide

Guild Press

1964

Softcover Wrap

The first Guild Press's Annual Guides, offering information on where to go, what to wear, etc. These were published each year, right up to 1972 when Guild Press ceased publication. The Houston LGBT History site offers an on-line PDF versions of these guides.

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The Hell of Loneliness

Author: Henry Von Rhau

Illustrations by John Colton

Guild Press

1964

Softcover, Wrap

A reprint of the 1929 first edition of this spoof on Radclyffe Hall's Sapphic The Well of Loneliness.

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The Gay Coloring Book 

Author: George Haimsohn 

Illustrations: Etienne

1964

Guild Press

Softcover Wrap

The Houston LGBT History site offers an on-line PDF version of this campy gay classic. It originally sold for $3. The character is known as Percy and appears in and on a number of Guild Press related items. As of this writing, Etsy offers a reprint for $17.

 

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The Beginner's Guide to Cruising

Author: George Marshall

Guild Press

1964

Softcover Wrap

The Houston LGBT History site offers an on-line PDF version of this. Originally only $3, These currently go for between $195-$285.

Back Cover

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Advanced Guide to Cruising

Author: George Marshall

Guild Press

1965

 Softcover Wrap

The Houston LGBT History site offers an on-line PDF version of this.

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Boldfinger

Author: Anonymous

1965

Guild Press

 

Possibly the first gay comic book ever. Boldfinger came out before Batfag and Sparrow (1966) and The Uncensored Adventures of Harry Chess: That Man from A.U.N.T.I.E. (1966).

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The Guild Dictionary of Homosexual Terms

Introduction by Dr. Albert Ellis, Ph.D.

Guild Press

1965

Softcover Wrap

The Guild Dictionary of Homosexual Terms, with an introduction written by Dr. Albert Ellis, Ph. D, was published in 1965. Dr. Ellis was an American psychologist most famously known for developing Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT), which is often seen as the first form of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). Though some saw Dr. Ellis as “anti-homosexual” due to his book published in 1965 titled Homosexuality: It’s Causes and Cures where he saw homosexuality as a pathology or a conditioned to be cured, he later clarified these views in 1976 and stated that homosexuality is not inherently good or bad and does not need to be treated in most cases. This clarification in views came after the American Psychiatric Association reversed its position on homosexuality and acknowledged that it was not, in fact, a mental illness. In the preface of this dictionary, Dr. Ellis states he wanted to create a lexicon that was "simple and clear and completely avoids pseudo-impressive jargon." This publication is culturally significant because it gives insight on standard terms used by the LGBTQ+ community as well as words and phrases employed by heterosexuals to refer to the LGBTQ+ community during the 1960s. He claims the dictionary to be objective and un-pejorative.

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And that's all for now.

Next up : more tantalizing titles from another Guild Press imprint, Twilight Classics. 

Until then...

Thanks for reading.

Goldfinger - Shirley Bassey