World Food Books

Notes from the Sick Room: Illness in Music, Literature and Art
by Steve Finbow

2017, English
Softcover, 343 pages, 19.5 x 12.4 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / fine
Published by Serpent's Tail / London

$36.00 - Out of stock

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Notes from the Sick Room takes place in an imaginary hospital that bends the rules of time and space.

Within its wards and departments we meet artists, musicians and writers who have suffered from various physical illnesses – cancer, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and physical trauma. Their lives and works are discussed in an attempt to diagnose how their complaints influenced their work or how their creativity affected their symptoms. We meet Virginia Woolf, Kathy Acker, Frida Kahlo, Katherine Mansfield, Bob Dylan Bruce Chatwin and many others as they struggle to produce works of art, literature and music while in denial, acceptance or flight and through periods of serious illness and convalescence. As we move through the hospital, specialists keep us informed of the history of creativity and illness and the author divulges his own medical history.

Fine copy, light pressure line on cover.

File under: Steve Finbow Serpent's Tail / London Transgressive / Visceral / Abject Literary Theory / Semiotics / Language Art Theory / Essay Fiction / Poetry Health LGBTQ+

ORG No. 7
APRIL 1994

1994, Japanese
Softcover, 226 pages, 21 x 15 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Tom Shobo / Japan

$70.00 - Out of stock

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Seventh issue of ORG, published in April 1994. Now rare and highly collectible, ORG was a visceral and visually explosive cult Japanese erotic photo magazine ("Bimonthly Sensual Photo Collection") initiated and edited by legendary Japanese publisher (of Too Negative) and gallery owner Kotaro Kobayashi and published by Tom Publishing between 1993—1997. After working in NYC in the early-mid 1990s, Kobayashi wanted to re-ignite the dense air that had evaporated from the erotic book market in Japan and return it to the subcultural realm of underground expression. ORG hit the shelves in 1993. In the same thick, glossy colour art-book format of Kobayashi's Too Negative, ORG shared very similar arresting and provocative themes, yet ORG focused it's densely-packed pages to erotica, less bloodlust. ORG features all manner of SM and bondage photography from Kiyoshi Ikejiri and like-minded fetish photographers, underground scene reports, an abundance of tattoo/irezumi and body art features, erotic art galleries, queer, trans, dom/slave, fem-dom, she-male, rubber, toys, alongside more traditional sensual nude female model photography and Japanese (and Euro) hardcore porn scenes. Considering it is by the same extreme publishers as Too Negative, a healthy dose of bizarre/trangressive/sado/maso/abnormal/exploitation/death/freak/medical/urolagnia/coprophilia/sodo/etc. content spices up each issue and given glamorous attention, always pushing the limits of taste and morality in the name of freedom of expression. Desire takes many forms... ORG also features some of the most creative censorship collage work of any Japanese smut we've seen.

Not for the faint hearted.

Very Good copy.

File under: Kotaro Kobayashi Kiyoshi Ikejiri Tom Shobo / Japan Periodicals Out-of-print / Rare Fetishism / BDSM Eros Ero Guro / Erotic / Grotesque Transgressive / Visceral / Abject LGBTQ+

ORG No.8
JUNE 1994

1994, Japanese
Softcover, 220 pages, 21 x 15 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Tom Shobo / Japan

$70.00 - Out of stock

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Eighth issue of ORG, published in June 1994. Now rare and highly collectible, ORG was a visceral and visually explosive cult Japanese erotic photo magazine ("Bimonthly Sensual Photo Collection") initiated and edited by legendary Japanese publisher (of Too Negative) and gallery owner Kotaro Kobayashi and published by Tom Publishing between 1993—1997. After working in NYC in the early-mid 1990s, Kobayashi wanted to re-ignite the dense air that had evaporated from the erotic book market in Japan and return it to the subcultural realm of underground expression. ORG hit the shelves in 1993. In the same thick, glossy colour art-book format of Kobayashi's Too Negative, ORG shared very similar arresting and provocative themes, yet ORG focused it's densely-packed pages to erotica, less bloodlust. ORG features all manner of SM and bondage photography from Kiyoshi Ikejiri and like-minded fetish photographers, underground scene reports, an abundance of tattoo/irezumi and body art features, erotic art galleries, queer, trans, dom/slave, fem-dom, she-male, rubber, toys, alongside more traditional sensual nude female model photography and Japanese (and Euro) hardcore porn scenes. Considering it is by the same extreme publishers as Too Negative, a healthy dose of bizarre/trangressive/sado/maso/abnormal/exploitation/death/freak/medical/urolagnia/coprophilia/sodo/etc. content spices up each issue and given glamorous attention, always pushing the limits of taste and morality in the name of freedom of expression. Desire takes many forms... ORG also features some of the most creative censorship collage work of any Japanese smut we've seen.

Not for the faint hearted.

Very Good copy.

File under: Kotaro Kobayashi Kiyoshi Ikejiri Tom Shobo / Japan Periodicals Out-of-print / Rare Fetishism / BDSM Transgressive / Visceral / Abject LGBTQ+ Eros Ero Guro / Erotic / Grotesque

SPIRAL No. 2
May 1994

1994, Japanese
Softcover, 206 pages, 21 x 15 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Tom Shobo / Japan

$70.00 - Out of stock

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"Photos of inserting and going to heaven"

SPIRAL No. 2, May 1994. Now rare and highly collectible, SPIRAL was a visceral and visually explosive cult Japanese erotic photo journal series initiated and edited legendary Japanese publisher (Too Negative, ORG, etc.) and gallery owner Kotaro Kobayashi and published by Tom Publication Inc. in the mid-1990s. In the same thick, glossy art-book format of Kobayashi's Too Negative and ORG, SPIRAL shared very similar arresting and provocative themes, but with an emphasis on sex and a more sensual depravity. SPIRAL is almost cover-to-cover hardcore Japanese sex photo-stories in vivid colour and b/w, heavy on fetish, kinbaku/bondage, S&M and the joy of the impulsive and experimental. Features works by photographer Kiyoshi Ikejri and many others.

Not for the faint hearted.

Very Good copy.

File under: Kotaro Kobayashi Kiyoshi Ikejiri Tom Shobo / Japan Eros Ero Guro / Erotic / Grotesque Out-of-print / Rare Periodicals Transgressive / Visceral / Abject Fetishism / BDSM LGBTQ+

SALE2 No.44
normalabnormal issue

1994, Japanese
Softcover, 192 pages, 13 x 18 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Fiction Inc. / Tokyo

$80.00 - Out of stock

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Issue No.44 of the great SALE2 periodical from Tokyo Japan during the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Published regularly as a sort-of fanzine/journal/catalogue/pocket-book by Fiction, Inc., a specialty shop and publisher of fetish and erotica in Tokyo in the 1980-90s. Each issue covers different themes and features, heavy on fetishism.

Issue No.44, the "normalabnormal" issue features "The Exhibitionist, Bondage, The Fetishist, The Transvestite, The Sadist, The Masochist", Gerard Malanga, Nobuyoshi Araki, Guido Crepax, Luc Sante's Evidence book, Carlo Mollino, fetish comix, Erotic Lactation, bondage catalogues, and much more...

Very heavily illustrated throughout with erotic photography and artwork, all texts in Japanese.

File under: Gerard Malanga Nobuyoshi Araki Guido Crepax Carlo Mollino Luc Sante Gerard Malanga Fiction Inc. / Tokyo Eros Periodicals Out-of-print / Rare Fashion Performance / Dance / Theater Art Illustration / Graphic Art / Bandes Dessinées LGBTQ+

SALE2 No.39
Lesbianism Issue

1990, Japanese
Softcover, 176 pages, 13 x 18 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Fiction Inc. / Tokyo

$80.00 - Out of stock

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Issue No.39 of the great SALE2 periodical from Tokyo Japan, founded in 1984 by Makoto Orui, who later became art director for Purple magazine in France and Rockin’on magazine in Japan. SALE2 was active for about 14 years during the 1980s—1990s, published regularly as a sort-of fanzine/journal/catalogue/pocket-book by Fiction, Inc., a specialty shop and publisher of fetish and erotica in Tokyo in the 1980-90s. With Orui's distinct design SALE2 developed an exclusive curated editorial set on ‘erotisism and its spiritual philosophy’, with each issue exploring different themes and features, heavy on fetishism and erotic art.

Issue No.39, the "Lesbianism" issue features writings by Rita Mae Brown, Alice Walker, Simone de Beauvoir, and many more, interspersed with erotic female imagery (photography, film stills, drawings, paintings) with facing images of flowers by famed German photographer Karl Blossfeldt. Also includes John Kacere, and catalogue/advertisments/clippings of Nobuyoshi Araki, Richard Cerf, Carlo Mollino, Pierre Molinier, Irving Claw, Jim, Betty Page, Sweet Gwen, Diva Bizarre, Centurian, Bizarre Comix, and much more...

Very heavily illustrated throughout with erotic photography and artwork, all texts in Japanese.
Very Good copy.

File under: Nobuyoshi Araki Karl Blossfeldt Richard Cerf Carlo Mollino Pierre Molinier Irving Claw Jim Betty Page Simone De Beauvoir Alice Walker Fiction Inc. / Tokyo Eros Periodicals Out-of-print / Rare Art Photography Surrealism Film / Video Illustration / Graphic Art / Bandes Dessinées LGBTQ+

The Art of Gekko Hayashi

2005, Japanese
Softcover, unpaginated, 21 x 14.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / as new
Published by TACO che / Tokyo

$100.00 - Out of stock

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Scarce book collection / catalogue of illustrations by Gekko Hayashi aka Gojin Ishihara, published on he occasion of and exhibition at TACO che gallery/store in Tokyo in 2005. Illustrated throughout in colour, the book focusses almost entirely on Hayashi's gay erotic works, with some further S&M erotic fantasy for good measure. Gojin Ishihara, once known as an illustrator of monsters in boys’ and girls’ magazines, moved on to pornographic magazines in the 1970s under the name Gekko Hayashi. He was one of the main illustrators for the gay magazine “Sabu” and “Queen”. In the boy’s love magazine, “June”, he became popular among Yaoi (boys’ love) fans for his outstanding drawing skill. He is a pioneer in the genre of boys’ love and his dazzling sensuality still attracts many readers.

As New copy.

File under: Gekko Hayashi (Gojin Ishihara) TACO che / Tokyo Eros LGBTQ+ Ero Guro / Erotic / Grotesque Out-of-print / Rare Illustration / Graphic Art / Bandes Dessinées Fetishism / BDSM

Gekko Hayashi
THE DELIGHT OF BOY’S LOVE AND MASCULINITY

2022, English / Japanese
Softcover (w. dust jacket), 318 pages, 15 x 21 cm
Published by Treville / Tokyo

$70.00 - Out of stock

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The book collection of gay illustrations done under the name of Gekko Hayashi aka Gojin Ishihara.

Gojin Ishihara, once known as an illustrator of monsters in boys’ and girls’ magazines, moved on to pornographic magazines in the 1970s under the name Gekko Hayashi. He was one of the main illustrators for the gay magazine “Sabu” and “Queen”. In the boy’s love magazine, “June”, he became popular among Yaoi (boys’ love) fans for his outstanding drawing skill. He is a pioneer in the genre of boys’ love and his dazzling sensuality still attracts many readers.

Contributions (in japanese) by Tomomi Shibuya (Sociologist), Gengoroh Tagame (Manga artist), Ayumi Nakayama (TACO che bookstore)

File under: Gekko Hayashi (Gojin Ishihara) Gekko Hayashi Treville / Tokyo Eros LGBTQ+ Illustration / Graphic Art / Bandes Dessinées Painting Drawing

A Book of Music
by Jack Spicer

2023, English
Softcover (staple-bound), 28 pages, 16 x 11 cm
Published by Pilot Press / London

$28.00 - Out of stock

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A new edition of the posthumously published collection 'A Book of Music' by the American poet Jack Spicer (1925-1965).

While little known outside a circle of friends and poets in his lifetime, Spicer is widely considered one of the major figures of twentieth century American poetry.

After being removed from a teaching position at Berkeley in 1950 for refusing to pledge allegiance to the United States, he became a founder of the radical and counter-cultural San Francisco Renaissance movement of poets in an age when homosexuality was illegal.

He believed that the poet was a “radio” able to collect transmissions from an “invisible world,” as opposed to the idea that poetry was driven by a poet’s voice and will. In this sense he believed that his poems were dictated from a spirit world and saw poetry as a form of magic, most potent when spoken aloud.

He died at the age of 40 in the poverty ward of San Francisco General Hospital, from acute alcohol poisoning. One of his last coherent sentences was, “My vocabulary did this to me.”

This new edition of A Book of Music, published 65 years after its original was composed, is risograph printed on Munken Lynx paper and saddle-stitched by Earthbound Press.

File under: Jack Spicer Pilot Press / London LGBTQ+ Fiction / Poetry

Solitary Pleasure: Selected Poems, Journals and Ephemera of John Wieners
by John Wieners

2023, English
Softcover, 137 pages, 21 x 15 cm
Published by Pilot Press / London

$35.00 - Out of stock

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Solitary Pleasure is a new collection of poetry, journal entries, letters and ephemera by the American poet John Wieners, edited by Richard Porter with an introduction by Nat Raha.

John Wieners (1934-2002) was a poet, a Black Mountain College alumnus and an antiwar, gay rights & mental health activist.

‘John Wieners has been described as both ‘the greatest poet of emotion’ (by Robert Creeley) and ‘the poet laureate of gay liberation’ (within the Gay Liberation press). Solitary Pleasure delivers us this poet raw with mid-century queer feelings. Here, we encounter a writer preoccupied with the power and magic of poetics to profoundly render love, loss and survival in the face of destruction.’—Nat Raha, from the introduction

'Any "selected poems" is going to reveal the tastes of its editor, especially when those poems are selected from among an extensive body of work like the one John Wieners left us. Richard Porter's taste is exquisite, and his selection covers great ground, from the torch song poems of Wieners' early career to the rich, tessellated works of his beautiful and anguished late-sixties period. If I wanted a friend to fall in love with John Wieners, I'd give them this book.'—Michael Seth Stewart, editor of Stars Seen in Person: Selected Journals of John Wieners (City Lights)

'This book is a great love held on paper, groaning out of Black Mountain and Boston. You are hit accurately by the poet flying around you as a reincarnated bow and arrow cherub. John Wieners is a fever dream where the poems forever maintain their mystery, releasing a flood of spontaneity in the reader's imagination. Let's get in the magic with both feet; let's do it now!'—CAConrad, author of Amanda Paradise and While Standing in Line for Death (Wave Books)

File under: John Wieners Pilot Press / London LGBTQ+ Fiction / Poetry

Fuzoku Kitan
September 1974

1974, Japanese
Softcover, 208 pages, 21 x 15 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by Bunken Shiryo Kankokai / Tokyo

$55.00 - In stock -

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September 1974 issue of Fuzoku Kitan, an important Japanese SM magazine was published between 1960—1974, and edited by Hajime Takakura. Filled with SM stories and illustrations, along with colour and b/w gravure photographic kitan and fetish photoshoots and art galleries, the magazine published a wild array of subjects on sexual customs, especially a significant amount of queer and transgender sexuality, lots of cross-dressing, masochism, torture, sodomy, sadophelia and fem-dom material. Includes artwork by Tatsuji Okawa, a number of kinbaku photo features, lots of stories from Japanese cross-dressers, readers confessions, a treasure-trove of illustrated transgressive fiction, almost all articles under nom de plumes! Also, excellent ads.

VG—Good copy, with light wear, tanning.

File under: Tatsuji Okawa Bunken Shiryo Kankokai / Tokyo Out-of-print / Rare Periodicals Eros Ero Guro / Erotic / Grotesque Illustration / Graphic Art / Bandes Dessinées Counterculture Transgressive / Visceral / Abject Fetishism / BDSM LGBTQ+

Fuzoku Kitan : Fantasia Issue
May 1975

1975, Japanese
Softcover, 210 pages, 21 x 15 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by Bunken Shiryo Kankokai / Tokyo

$55.00 - Out of stock

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May 1975 issue of Fuzoku Kitan, an important Japanese SM magazine was published between 1960—1974, and edited by Hajime Takakura. Filled with SM stories and illustrations, along with colour and b/w gravure photographic kitan and fetish photoshoots and art galleries, the magazine published a wild array of subjects on sexual customs, especially a significant amount of queer and transgender sexuality, lots of cross-dressing, masochism, torture, sodomy, sadophelia and fem-dom material. Includes a number of kinbaku photo features, bondage technique photography, fetish fashion, lots of stories from Japanese cross-dressers, readers confessions, a treasure-trove of illustrated transgressive fiction, almost all articles under nom de plumes! Also, excellent ads.

VG—Good copy, with light wear, tanning.

File under: Bunken Shiryo Kankokai / Tokyo Periodicals Out-of-print / Rare Counterculture Ero Guro / Erotic / Grotesque Eros Transgressive / Visceral / Abject LGBTQ+ Fetishism / BDSM Illustration / Graphic Art / Bandes Dessinées

Fuzoku Kitan
April 1974

1974, Japanese
Softcover, 210 pages, 21 x 15 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by Bunken Shiryo Kankokai / Tokyo

$55.00 $35.00 - Out of stock

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April 1974 issue of Fuzoku Kitan, an important Japanese SM magazine was published between 1960—1974, and edited by Hajime Takakura. Filled with SM stories and illustrations, along with colour and b/w gravure photographic kitan and fetish photoshoots and art galleries, the magazine published a wild array of subjects on sexual customs, especially a significant amount of queer and transgender sexuality, lots of cross-dressing, masochism, torture, sodomy, sadophelia and fem-dom material. Includes artwork by Tatsuji Okawa, Men's Naked Festival, artwork by Gene Bilbrew, Flowers In Full Bloom (Western SM photography and play), kinbaku photo gallery, fem-fem Western spanking photography, lots of stories from Japanese cross-dressers, readers confessions, a treasure-trove of illustrated transgressive fiction, almost all articles under nom de plumes! Also, excellent ads.

VG—Good copy, with light wear, tanning.

File under: Tatsuji Okawa Gene Bilbrew Bunken Shiryo Kankokai / Tokyo LGBTQ+ Out-of-print / Rare Periodicals Illustration / Graphic Art / Bandes Dessinées Eros Ero Guro / Erotic / Grotesque Fetishism / BDSM Transgressive / Visceral / Abject Counterculture SALE

Fuzoku Kitan : Masochist Ecstasy
April 1962

1962, Japanese
Softcover, 190 pages, 21 x 15 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by Bunken Shiryo Kankokai / Tokyo

$100.00 $80.00 - Out of stock

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Very rare early special "Masochist Ecstasy" issue of Fuzoku Kitan, an important Japanese SM magazine was published between 1960-1974, and edited by Hajime Takakura. Filled with SM stories and illustrations, along with colour and b/w gravure photographic kitan and fetish photoshoots and art galleries, the magazine published a wild array of subjects on sexual customs, especially a significant amount of western SM artists and material introduced to Japanese audiences and a great deal of queer sexuality. This issue from 1962 is probably one of the finest examples of this, featuring photographic spreads of Japanese and western male physique models, Japanese cross-dressers, Japanese and western female kinbaku/bondage photography, the "man, man, man, man's world!" feature of queer western romanesque illustration from George Quaintance, Tom of Finland, and others, illustrated cover article on Masochism, stories from Japanese cross-dressers, illustrated fiction of gay and lesbian SM stories, as well as lots of fem-dom, sodomy and sadophelia. Almost all articles under nom de plumes! Cover art by Tom of Finland.

Good copy, with edge wear and tanning from age. Binding great.

File under: Tom of Finland George Quaintance Bunken Shiryo Kankokai / Tokyo LGBTQ+ Out-of-print / Rare Periodicals Ero Guro / Erotic / Grotesque Eros Japanese Photography Fetishism / BDSM Counterculture Illustration / Graphic Art / Bandes Dessinées SALE

Fuzoku Kitan
March 1969

1969, Japanese
Softcover, 242 pages, 21 x 15 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by Bunken Shiryo Kankokai / Tokyo

$45.00 - Out of stock

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March 1969 issue of Fuzoku Kitan, an important Japanese SM magazine was published between 1960—1974, and edited by Hajime Takakura. Filled with SM stories and illustrations, along with colour and b/w gravure photographic kitan and fetish photoshoots and art galleries, the magazine published a wild array of subjects on sexual customs, especially a significant amount of queer and transgender sexuality, lots of cross-dressing, masochism, torture, sodomy, sadophelia and fem-dom material. Includes documentation of performance of author Isamu Kurita's "Aikyo" (Tadanori Yokoo, Akira Uno collaborator), fetish artworks by Gene Bilbrew and Eric Stanton, female equestrianism photography, fem-fem Western spanking photography, lots of stories from Japanese cross-dressers, readers confessions, a treasure-trove of illustrated transgressive fiction, almost all articles under nom de plumes! Also, excellent ads.

VG—Good copy, with light wear, tanning.

File under: Gene Bilbrew Eric Stanton Isamu Kurita Bunken Shiryo Kankokai / Tokyo LGBTQ+ Out-of-print / Rare Periodicals Eros Ero Guro / Erotic / Grotesque Transgressive / Visceral / Abject Fetishism / BDSM Illustration / Graphic Art / Bandes Dessinées Counterculture

Fuzoku Kitan
March 1972

1972, Japanese
Softcover, 190 pages, 21 x 15 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by Bunken Shiryo Kankokai / Tokyo

$45.00 $25.00 - Out of stock

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March 1972 issue of Fuzoku Kitan, an important Japanese SM magazine was published between 1960—1974, and edited by Hajime Takakura. Filled with SM stories and illustrations, along with colour and b/w gravure photographic kitan and fetish photoshoots and art galleries, the magazine published a wild array of subjects on sexual customs, especially a significant amount of queer and transgender sexuality, lots of cross-dressing, masochism, torture, sodomy, sadophelia and fem-dom material. Art gallery by master of kinbaku illustration Yoko Ozuma, equestrianism photography, lots of stories from Japanese cross-dressers, readers confessions, a treasure-trove of illustrated transgressive fiction, almost all articles under nom de plumes! Also, excellent ads.

VG—Good copy, with light cover/spine wear, tanning.

File under: Yoko Ozuma Bunken Shiryo Kankokai / Tokyo Periodicals Fetishism / BDSM LGBTQ+ Eros Out-of-print / Rare Ero Guro / Erotic / Grotesque Illustration / Graphic Art / Bandes Dessinées Counterculture Japanese Photography SALE

The Complete Fear of Kathy Acker
by Jack Skelley

2023, English
Softcover, 136 pages, 20.1 x 13.6 cm
Published by Semiotext(e) / Los Angeles

$35.00 - Out of stock

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The first complete edition of this notorious novel which maps the 1980s anarchic underground of Los Angeles.

Published in excerpts over almost four decades, Jack Skelley's "secretly legendary" novel is at once an homage to the thrillingly inventive spirit of Kathy Acker's cut-up novels and a definitive history of LA's underground culture of the mid-1980s.

Composed in bursts, Fear of Kathy Acker depicts Los Angeles through the eyes of a self-mocking narrator. Shifting styles and personae as he moves between Venice and Torrance, punk clubs and shopping malls, Disneyland and Dodger Stadium, Jack Skelley pushes the limits of language and identity while pursuing-like Kathy Acker-a quixotic literary mix of discipline and anarchy. In this adrenalized, cosmic, and comic chronicle of Los Angeles, Skelley's "real life" friends make cameo appearances alongside pop archetypes from Madonna to Billy Idol.

This first-ever complete edition of the book includes new essays, playlists, and a map of the 1980s Los Angeles in which its manic protagonist lives and loves.

"Fear of Kathy Acker is one of the great lost masterpieces of '80s experimental fiction. That it's no longer an inaccessible legend is huge."—Dennis Cooper

"Jack Skelley pours it on like sometimes blam blam blam like the riff in "Death Valley '69" but mostly with a surfer's rhythm like the cool throb of his guitar, his writing the poetics of pink love and punk pool splash action, the sound I adore."—Thurston Moore

"Despite the dislike of seeing my own name, you're really a good writer—never what's expected."—Kathy Acker

"Deft, deadpan, dreadful, deliberate, delirious. Perfect adult bedtime reading."—Jane Rankin-Reid, White Hot Magazine

File under: Kathy Acker Kathy Acker Jack Skelley Semiotext(e) / Los Angeles Fiction / Poetry LGBTQ+ Performance / Dance / Theater Art

Mel Odom
First Eyes

1982, English / Japanese
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Genko-sha / Tokyo

$100.00 - In stock -

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First printing of the first ever book on the work of queer American illustrator Mel Odom (b. 1950), published in Japan in 1982. Profusely illustrated throughout with Odom's dreamy, highly-stylised, erotically-charged fantasy illustrations, made famous adorning the paperback covers of novels by Patrick White and in the pages of Blue Boy and through Odom's award-winning and still lauded tenure at Playboy. Odom's delicate and dreamy men struck a chord with the viewing public. They were finally seeing male figures of lust depicted lovingly, softly, in the sea of aggressive hyper-masculinity that dominated gay aesthetics of the time. Alongside his many masterful works (that owe much to art deco, the silver screen, and pre-Raphaelite sensuality) reproduced together for the first time, First Eyes also includes Odom's childhood drawings, photographic portraits, his sculptural painted masks, and much more. All texts in English and Japanese.

Very Good copy with light tan/wear.

File under: Mel Odom Genko-sha / Tokyo Art Fashion Out-of-print / Rare LGBTQ+ Drawing Illustration / Graphic Art / Bandes Dessinées Eros

Mother Clap's Molly House: Gay Subculture in England, 1700-1830
by Rictor Norton

1992, English
Softcover, 288 pages, 14.6 x 22.3 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Gay Men's Press / London

$160.00 - In stock -

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Very rare 1992 Gay Men's Press first printing of this pioneering historical study — the first comprehensive chronicle of the English gay community at its 18th-century roots, sporting for the first time a distinctive subculture with its "molly houses", "sodomites' walks", "maiden names" and gay slang. Rictor Norton's research into trial records and contemporary documents establishes a vital cornerstone for the reconstruction of gay history. Challenging in its demonstration that the molly subculture was primarily a working-class community of blacksmiths, milkmen, publicans and shopkeepers, Mother Clap's Molly House also records the exuberant lives of personalities such as Charles Hitchin the "thief-taker", the dramatists Samuel Foote and Isaac Bickerstaff, William Beckford of Fonthill, and Rev. John Church, prosecuted for his blessing of gay marriages. All these are set against a backdrop of persecution, blackmail and the pillory. And yes, "Mother Clap's" actually was the name of a prominent molly house!

Rictor Norton earned his Ph.D. from Florida State University for a study of homosexual themes in English Renaissance Literature, the basis for his book The Homosexual Literary Tradition, and he edited a highly-acclaimed issue of College English devoted to The Homosexual Imagination. He moved to London in 1973, and was an editor for Gay News from 1974-1978.

VG—Good copy with some light wear, tiny closed tear to cover right edge, foxing to endpapers and block edge, otherwise Very Good copy throughout, uncreased spine.

File under: Rictor Norton Gay Men's Press / London LGBTQ+ Out-of-print / Rare Counterculture Theory / Essay Renaissance / Neoclassicism / Romanticism

Forbidden History : The State, Society, and the Regulation of Sexuality in Modern Europe
Edited by John C. Fout

1992, English
Softcover, 410 pages, 23.17 x 16.66 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by University of Chicago Press / Chicago

$45.00 - Out of stock

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From incest to infanticide, from breast-feeding and women's sexuality to female prostitution, from pornography to reproductive politics, and from the first homosexual rights movement to AIDS—this anthology addresses these and other crucial questions concerning the regulation of sexuality: How have society's values and attitudes toward sexuality and morality changed over the centuries? Why and how has the state sought to criminalize certain forms of sexual behavior and to control reproduction? How have churches tried to influence the state in its regulation of sexuality?

Contributions from a diverse group of prominent scholars representing a variety of disciplines are included in this anthology that spans European history. Essays by Randolph Trumbach on "Sex, Gender, and Identity in Modern Culture: Male Sodomy and Female Prostitution in Enlightenment London"; Ruth Perry on "Colonizing the Breast: Sexuality and Maternity in Eighteenth Century England"; Theo van der Meer on "Female Same-Sex Offenders in Late Eighteenth Century Amsterdam"; Robin Ann Sheets on "Pornography, Fairy Tales, and Feminism: Angela Carter's 'The Bloody Chamber'"; and James W. Jones on "Discourses on and of AIDS in West Germany, 1986-1990." Offering the most up-to-date scholarship from a significant and growing field, this collection is essential for both students and faculty in social history, family history, women's and gender studies, gay studies, sociology and literature. These essays were originally published in the Journal of the History of Sexuality.

John C. Fout is professor of history at Bard College. He is the founding editor of the Journal of the History of Sexuality, and general editor of The Chicago Series on Sexuality, History, and Society, a book series published by the University of Chicago Press.

Very Good copy.

File under: John C. Fout Angela Carter Robin Ann Sheets Randolph Trumbach Ruth Perry Theo van der Meer James W. Jones University of Chicago Press / Chicago Out-of-print / Rare Literary Theory / Semiotics / Language Philosophy Eros Feminism Sociology / Politics Crime / Violence LGBTQ+ Transgressive / Visceral / Abject Ancient / Medieval / Gothic

I, Boombox
by Robert Glück

2023, English
Softcover, 194 pages, 14.6 x 22.23 cm
Published by Roof Books / New York

$48.00 - Out of stock

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Robert Glück's new book I, Boombox is a long poem fashioned from the author's misreadings. In that sense, it's a queer autobiography in which Glück dreams on the page. Winner of the Gertrude Stein Award for Innovative Poetry in English.

"Rimbaud infamously claimed that I is an other, but for Bob I is a flicker of error, or a wandering ear that invents. He has made a home for several decades of errant listening in this sinuous long poem, which light heartedly teases the modernist tradition it also subverts. In true mock-heroic manner, Bob reveals from his gay marble desk how God's laughter glides in and out of garden festival, action film, and sublet alike. I have been waiting for this book for years and it sweetly exceeds all of my hopes."—Lisa Robertson

"In I, Boombox, Robert Glück makes it clear that dreams are as real as the spurts of sentences we use to discover them. Scoring the 'umbilical/indescribabilia' that accompanies unconscious feeling into a thin strip of thickly montaged verse, the 'invisible speakers' that populate Glück's poem--their misreadings and cant half-truths, their headlines and lies--turn dream's content into poetic foam. In this mind's eye--the 'suburb' is blithely rendered into a thing 'superb, ' and 'loneliness' roars with the face of a 'lioness /and intimacy.' I, Boombox is a poem of frothy divinations tempered by the slapstick of speech. It suggests that desire without sense is desire nevertheless--and this is a delight to understand."—Shiv Kotecha

Robert Glück served as director of San Francisco State University's The Poetry Center, co-director of Small Press Traffic Literary Center, and associate editor at Lapis Press. His books include two novels, Jack the Modernist and Margery Kempe, two books of stories, ELEMENTS OF A COFFEE SERVICE and Denny Smith, a book of poems, Reader, and with Kathleen Fraser, a book of prose poems, In Commemoration of the Visit. With Bruce Boone, Glück translated La Fontaine for a book of that name. With Camille Roy, Mary Berger, and Gail Scott, he edited Biting the Error: Writers on Narrative. Glück prefaced Between Life and Death, a volume of Frank Moore's paintings, and, with artist Dean Smith, made the film Aliengnosis, based on readings from I, Boombox. Other books include Communal Nude: Collected Essays, and Parables, an editioned artist book with Cuban artists José Angel Toirac and Meira Marrero D'az. Margery Kempe was republished by NYRB Classics in 2020 and his novel About Ed by NYRB in 2023.

File under: Robert Glück Roof Books / New York LGBTQ+ Fiction / Poetry

Good Sex Illustrated
By Tony Duvert

2007, English
Softcover, 216 pages, 15.5 x 23 cm
Published by Semiotext(e) / Los Angeles

$35.00 - In stock -

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Translated with introduction by Bruce Benderson

A scathing view of sex manuals for children and society's hypocrisy of over sex that argues for the rights of children to their own bodies and their own sexuality.

Why is pleasure "doubled" when it's "shared"?... Do you really have to cut pleasure in two so that it'll exist? I mean, if it's doubled when there are two of you, then it must be tripled when there are three, quadrupled when there are four, centupled when there are a hundred, right? Is it O.K. for a hundred to share? And if I get used to trying it all alone, why is it that I'll never love anyone again? Is it that good alone and that awful with others? ; from Good Sex Illustrated First published in France in 1973, Good Sex Illustrated gleefully deciphers the subtext of a popular sex education manual for children produced during that period. In so doing, Duvert mounts a scabrous and scathing critique of how deftly the "sex-positive" ethos was harnessed to promote the ideal of the nuclear family. Like Michel Houllebecq, Duvert is highly attuned to all the hypocrisies of late twentieth century western "sexual liberation" mass movements. As Bruce Benderson notes in his introduction, Good Sex Illustrated shows that, "in our sexual order, orgasm follows the patterns of any other kind of capital... 'good sex' is a voracious profit machine." But unlike Houllebecq, Duvert writes from a passionate belief in the integrity of unpoliced sex and of pleasure. Even more controversially now than when the book was first published, Duvert asserts the child's right to his or her own playful, unproductive sexuality. Bruce Benderson's translation will belatedly introduce English-speaking audiences to the most infamous gay French writer since Jean Gênet.

Tony Duvert (1945–2008) earned a reputation as the “enfant terrible” of the generation of French authors known for defining the postwar Nouveau Roman. Expelled from school at the age of 12 for homosexuality (and then put through a psychoanalytic “cure” for his condition), Duvert declared war on family life and societal norms through a controversial series of novels and essays (whose frequent controversial depictions of child sexuality and pedophilia often lead his publisher to sell his works by subscription only). He won the Prix Medicis in 1973 for his novel Strange Landscape. His reputation faded in the 1980s, however, and he withdrew from society. He died in isolation in July 2008 in the commune of Thoré-la-Rochette in central France.

File under: Bruce Benderson Tony Duvert Semiotext(e) / Los Angeles Eros LGBTQ+ Theory / Essay

Jean Cocteau
Erotica Drawings

1991, English
Hardcover (w. dust jacket), 110 pages, 20.3 x 28.3 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Peter Owen Ltd. / London

$160.00 - In stock -

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First hardcover edition of this splendid collection of Jean Cocteau's Erotica Drawings, published by Peter Owen Ltd., London, published in 1991.

Although better known for his poetry, films and novels, Jean Cocteau experimented with drawing from childhood, and his caricatures have become iconic of his unique vision of people and life. This beautiful book collects four decades of his erotic drawings, many of which could not be published in the artist's lifetime. With images of some of Cocteau's famous lovers, including author Raymond Radiguet and actor Jean Marais.

Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau (1889—1963) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, filmmaker, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost creatives of the surrealist, avant-garde, and Dadaist movements; and one of the most influential figures in early 20th-century art as a whole.

Very Good copy with VG dust jacket.

File under: Jean Cocteau Jean Cocteau Peter Owen Ltd. / London Art Drawing Eros Out-of-print / Rare LGBTQ+

Le Sang et La Rose No. 1, 1968

1968, Japanese / French
Softcover, 228 pages, 23 x 18 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Tensei Shuppan / Tokyo

$110.00 - Out of stock

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Revue de Érotologie, Homosexualité, Sadisme, Masochisme, Fétischisme, Narcissime, Infantilisme, Magie, Occultisme, Humour Noir, Complexe Psychisme. What more could you ask for? Le Sang Et La Rose is a masterpiece of the Japanese underground. A groundbreaking, powerful, yet short-lived Japanese arts and literary journal published in Tokyo from late 1968—mid 1969, published in a total of four luxurious, now collectible, volumes. The first three issues were edited by Tatsuhiko Shibusawa (1928—1987), a legendary, controversial Japanese novelist, art critic, translator of French writers such as Jean Cocteau, Georges Bataille and Marquis de Sade, and specialist in medieval demonology. The importance of this magazine to the Japanese avant-garde and radical culture cannot be overstated.

Born from a period of political, social and economical turmoil in Japan, Le Sang Et La Rose may be understood as a emblematic distillation and product of the late ‘60s student rebellion and anti-authoritarian underground culture. Wilfully politically subversive, the publication drew upon a vast range of perspectives - from criticism, literature, obscure esoteric sciences, art, eroticism, radical avant-garde and a historical-rooted Japanese counterculture; featuring literature, theory, art, photography, illustration and graphic design from the most innovative and subversive Japanese and international (predominately French) artists, authors and critics, spanning the themes above. As instigator, Tatsuhiko Shibusawa in effect formulated the magazine’s design to be a spiritual and political operative that would weaponize its readers minds. This stance was made clear in the 1969 manifesto text — "My 1969" — in which Shibusawa discuss' how he perceived the ‘60s as being the age of ideas, ideas as weapons, and outlined a distain towards systems of power, moralism, State oppression, sanitised and harmless liberalism, dogmatic academic sciences and an outright distrust for ideological, progressive literary scholars who advocate "freedom of expression", but have never caused friction with the judicial power. The magazine sketched out an aim to push towards a new kind of personal freedom, intellect, autonomy and moral compass. Here, the concept of ‘erotism’ — as discussed by Georges Bataille in his highly influential 1957 book "Erotism: Death and Sensuality" — acts as a critical force. 

Issue no. 1 (1968) sets the scene perfectly, opening with Japanese author Yukio Mishima depicted as Saint Sebastian by photographer Kishin Shinoyama in a pictorial feature "Les Morts Masculines", a photographic homage to Georges Bataille that also features the photography of Eikoh Hosoe, Ikkō Narahara, Masahisa Fukase, and Osamu Hayasaki, with models including Butoh founder Tatsumi Hijikata, actor Akira Mita, author Tatsuhiko Shibusawa, actor Jin Nakayama, playwright Jūrō Kara, and others. Other features include " All Japanese are Perverse" — stories by Japanese writers including Yukio Mishima, Taruho Inagaki, Yutaka Haniya, Shinji Sōya; Henry Miller's letters to Anais Nin; a colour gallery of artwork by Belgian painter Paul Delvaux; articles on Vampire fantasy in the arts (including many original illustrations; Witches (illustrated by James Ensor); Oriental Eros, Ancient Indian poetry; Kama Sutra; female bi-sexuality; the history of gay (Danshoku) theatre in Japan; the full-colour art gallery "Masturbation Machine", featuring avant-garde artists Natsuyuki Nakanishi, Masuo Ikeda, Setsu Nagasawa, Carlos Marchioli, Kuniyoshi Kaneko, Masakazu Horiuchi, Tadanori Yokoo, Koji Suzuki, Tommy Ungerer; the fully illustrated museum supplement "Pain and Pleasure : On Torture" by Tatsuhiko Shibusawa with artworks throughout history; pornographic stories by Guillaume Apollinaire and Nicolas Restif de la Bretonne (who coined the term "Pornographer"); fiction by Pierre Morion (pseudo. André Pieyre de Mandiargues); critic Jin'ichi Uekusa on the controversial writings of Roger Peyrefitte, illustrations by Ernst, Bellmer, Labisse, Fini, Lam, and much more.

Tatsuhiko Shibusawa (1928—1987), was a well-known and controversial Japanese novelist, art critic, and translator of French writers such as Jean Cocteau, Georges Bataille and Marquis de Sade. In 1960 he and his publisher, Kyōji Ishii, were trialled for public obscenity over the publishing of Shibusawa's translation of de Sade's Juliette into the Japanese language. What was to be known as the "Sade Trial" took 9 years and although many of Japan's leading authors testified for the defense, in 1969 the Japanese Supreme Court ruled them guilty and charged. This did not deter Shibusawa, whose essays on black magic, demonology and eroticism were popular reading in Japan, and in 1981 he was awarded the 9th Izumi Kyoka Literature Prize.

Good copy with some spine damage and tanning/wear.

File under: Max Ernst Léonor Fini Felix Labisse Wilfredo Lam Hans Bellmer Paul Delvaux Natsuyuki Nakanishi Masuo Ikeda Setsu Nagasawa Carlos Marchioli Kuniyoshi Kaneko Masakazu Horiuchi Tadanori Yokoo Koji Suzuki Tommy Ungerer Tatsumi Hijikata Tatsuhiko Shibusawa Eikoh Hosoe Ikkō Narahara Masahisa Fukase Osamu Hayasaki Kishin Shinoyama James Ensor Tatsuhiko Shibusawa Jin'ichi Uekusa Roger Peyrefitte Yukio Mishima Taruho Inagaki Yutaka Haniya Shinji Sōya Henry Miller Suehiro Tanemura Guillaume Apollinaire Andre Pieyre De Mandiargues Nicolas Restif de la Bretonne Jūrō Kara Tensei Shuppan / Tokyo Fiction / Poetry Japanese Photography Occult / Esoterica Philosophy Photography Art Illustration / Graphic Art / Bandes Dessinées Fetishism / BDSM LGBTQ+ Eros Ero Guro / Erotic / Grotesque Out-of-print / Rare Periodicals Counterculture Surrealism Symbolism / Decadence / Fin de siècle Transgressive / Visceral / Abject Ancient / Medieval / Gothic