Items

• Moritz! : a comic novel
  A review of this novel described it as “a trashy book” but one that was nonetheless enjoyable thanks to its absurdist and silly humour. This satirical novel follows Jellico Moritz, a “well-endowed” young man, who travels from rural America to a new life and sexual awakening in New York City. The final chapter, entitled ‘Moritz Goes to a Garden Party’, was first published in ‘A True Likeness’ which was edited by Felice Picano. The book was published by Larry Mitchell’s Calamus Books which was one third of the Gay Presses of New York collective.
• Slashed to ribbons in defense of love : and other stories
  Eleven semi-autobiographical short stories of gay love and sex in New York City (and popular gay beach resort, Fire Island). It was published by the collective Gay Presses of New York (Sea Horse Press, Calamus Press and J.H. Press). Felice Picano (1944-) founded Sea Horse Press in 1977 and the Gay Presses came together – with co-editors Terry Helbing and Larry Mitchell – in 1981. An award-winning writer, Picano had published several novels, short stories and a book of poems before this collection, and has been prolific since, producing memoir, plays, screenplays and co-writing ‘The New Joy of Gay Sex’ with Charles Silverstein in 1993. This copy is signed by the author and inscribed on the titlepage, “In brotherhood – and against censorship!”
• Streetboy dreams : a novel
  ‘Streetboy Dreams’ by Kevin Esser (1953-) was published by two out of the three Gay Presses of New York, who note the “controversial and divisive” nature of its subject matter. The novel details the relationship between Peter, a teacher in his mid-thirties, and teenage Gito. Unlike Bruce, the adult protagonist of Wallace Hamilton’s ‘Kevin’, Peter is not presented as a gay character, per se – the novel opens with the end of “another fling at heterosexuality”. Marketed at the time as “a different approach” to what was euphemistically known as “man/boy love”, it is hard to read the novel today as anything other than the story of a grooming – a glorification of unequal power dynamics and dubiously consensual sexual experience.
• Torch song trilogy : three plays
  ‘Torch Song Trilogy’ has three acts titled ‘International Stud,’ ‘Fugue in a Nursery’ and ‘Widows and Children First!’ Each deals with a different phase in the life of Arnold Beckoff, a gay, Jewish drag queen and torch singer in 1970s and 1980s New York. Receiving criticism from some for upholding ‘family values’, for others, the trilogy’s exploration of gay marriage and adoption was radical during a time of conservative backlash. Harvey Fierstein (1954-) won a Tony Award for Best Play in 1983 as well as for Best Performance by a Leading Actor. First published in 1981 by the Gay Presses of New York, this edition was published in the UK to tie in with its West End premiere at Albery Theatre (now the Noël Coward Theatre) in 1985. Fierstein has since blazed a trail for queer representation on stage and screen.