Items

• Facing up
  Featuring on the front cover a shadowy photograph of a man in silhouette and only four words, it is not until opening the book that the title and full author name are apparent, and it becomes clear that this is a photography book. The photographer, Arthur Tress (1940-), is described by Yves Navarre in the book’s introduction as a “prowler, voyeur, trickster, devourer, lover of his city and its life”. The backdrop to the sixty-five black-and-white photographs is New York, depicted predominantly as a place of urban decay. Juxtaposed with the cityscapes are (mainly) naked men posed in positions and with objects that explore ideas of male sexuality and power, dreams and the subconscious. Still producing work, Tress was recently described as “one of the most innovative American photographers of the postwar era”.
• Happy endings are all alike
  Uncompromisingly frank from its opening line, Sandra Scoppettone’s (1936-) depiction of the love affair between teenage girls Jaret and Peggy was a much-needed riposte to 1950s lesbian pulp, such as the novels of Ann Bannon and Vin Packer. As one reviewer put it, “The story 1) is not preachy, 2) does not kill off either girl in the end, 3) is not syrupy”. The ground-breaking ‘Happy Endings Are All Alike’, chosen as an American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults, was first published by Harper & Row in 1978, preceding Nancy Garden’s ‘Annie on My Mind’ by four years. Scoppettone is known also for her crime-writing, as a playwright and for her collaboration with Louise Fitzhugh (author of ‘Harriet the Spy’) on the 1961 picture book ‘Suzuki Beane’, a counterculture parody of the ‘Eloise’ books set in Greenwich Village.
• Kevin
  Wallace Hamilton came out in his fifties, moved to Greenwich Village and began writing popular books and plays about the queer community. ‘Kevin’, about a relationship between a teenage runaway and a professional man in his mid-thirties, draws in part on Hamilton’s own experiences. Hamilton died after a fall at his home in 1983, aged 64. Various obituaries note his involvement in the international paedophilia advocacy organisation NAMBLA (North American Man/Boy Love Association). Criticised by one contemporary reviewer for its sentimentality and lack of realism, readers of ‘Kevin’ today may have more serious concerns about the abusive power dynamics at play. Hamilton’s novel ‘Coming Out’ (1977) was also seized in ‘Operation Tiger’.
• Men loving themselves : images of male self-sexuality
  The publisher of this book, Down There Press, was founded by sex therapist and feminist Joani Blank (1937-2016), to publish works advocating for sex positivity. She also edited this book which explores male masturbation, primarily through black-and-white images of men depicted in the act. Jack Morin (1946-2013) photographed twelve straight and gay men in settings of their choosing, alongside statements outlining how masturbation relates to their sexuality. The book ends with a section entitled ‘The Psychology of Male Self-Sexuality' which provides a conceptual framework for the images. It includes a list of recommended readings, and an advert for a poster of the book’s cover, available to purchase. Other books exploring gay men’s sexuality, ‘The Joy of Gay Sex’ and ‘Men Loving Men’, were also seized during ‘Operation Tiger’.
• Parents of the homosexual
  This book was published as part of the ‘Christian Care Books’ series, a set of practical guides which dealt with contemporary social experiences from a Christian pastoral care perspective. The series was edited by Warren E. Oates, a pastor and psychotherapist. This volume is aimed at Christian parents of gay or lesbian children, particularly those who are struggling with their children’s sexuality. Authored by Shirley Switzer, a mental health psychologist, and pastor David Switzer (1925-2015), this book draws on real conversations with the intention of lovingly reconciling families. The book also includes a chapter which critically engages with the Bible and challenges its use as an excuse for homophobia.
• Proust & the art of love : the aesthetics of sexuality in the life, times, & art of Marcel Proust
  Volume four of Marcel Proust’s (1871-1922) seven volume novel ‘À la recherche du temps perdu’ (‘In Search of Lost Time’) is entitled ‘Sodome et Gomorrhe’. Published in 1921/22, volume four is an early literary representation of gay and lesbian sexuality, focussing on characters including the decadent Baron de Charlus. Written by Julius Edwin (J.E.) Rivers (1944-), this book is a scholarly study and critique of Proust’s depiction of homosexuality covering biographical, historical and psychological elements. The book was published by the academic Columbia University Press and is held in multiple UK university libraries.
• Straight hearts' delight : love poems and selected letters, 1947-1980
  Containing thirty years of poetry and numerous letters, this book relates the lives and works of two key figures of the Beat Generation. Documenting chronologically the relationship between Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997) and Peter Orlovsky (1933-2010), the book is not only a record of their love but also of the milieu in which they lived and worked. The book contains previously unpublished poems and is illustrated, including with a Richard Avedon photograph of the authors naked. Edited by Winston Leyland, the authors were involved in the book’s production and contributed footnotes. As with many Gay Sunshine Press (and Fag Rag) publications, it was made possible in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, an independent federal agency established by the US Congress.
• The Kryptonite kid : a novel
  An affecting novel of one-sided letters to Superman from schoolboy Jerry Chariot and his best friend Robert Sipanno. Filled with a mixture of curiosity and naivety (down to the preservation of Jerry’s childlike spelling and grammar), the letters wrestle with everyday problems of homelife, hero-worship and Catholic schooling as well as questions about what “a queer” is and whether Superman pees out of his “Thing”. Joseph Torchia (1946-1996), a journalist for various newspapers on the West Coast of the US, published one other full-length work and a short story, and wrote two further unpublished novels. He turned to photography later in life. His papers are held at Stanford University.
• The Nazi extermination of homosexuals
  This book, which is held in several UK academic libraries, outlines the treatment of gay men in Germany during the Third Reich. Much of the research is based on secondary sources which expose increasing societal homophobia, culminating in the imprisonment of gay men in concentration camps where they were forced to wear a pink triangle stitched to their clothing and undergo horrific, brutal treatment. The final two chapters focus on personal, pseudonymous testimony from men who survived, including an extract from a 1972 German book, published in English in 1980, entitled ‘The Men with the Pink Triangle’. By the 1980s, the pink triangle symbol had been reclaimed by LGBTQ+ activists.