THE BLACK BOOK 1992-1993

Published by Bill Brent, San Francisco, first edition, 1992. Softcover, plastic comb binding, 200 unnumbered pages, illustrated in b&w throughout. Very Good Condition: wear to the covers, otherwise tight, bright, clean and unmarked. Uncommon.

Rare first issue of this alternative directory for San Francisco's Leather community.

Bill Brent was involved in the Bay Area bisexual, BDSM, Black Leather, radical faerie, and pro sex literary communities in the 1990s. He published The Black Book which is one of the first queer and alternative sexuality directories. A prolific author of sex-positive literature and a member of San Francisco's alternative sexuality communities, he died during the weekend of August 18-19 by jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge after a long struggle with depression and chronic pain. He was 52.

SERIOUS BUSINESS COMPANY [Scarce 1976 Film Catalogue] Freunde. Published by Freunde, Berkeley, CA, 1976. First edition. Illustrated softcover, 9" x 6", 159 pages, illustrated in b&w throughout. The film catalog of an iconic Bay Area feminist film distributor. GOOD Condition: complete as issued with a few sheets of company ephemera laid in, just some light wear from age and use otherwise tight, bright, clean and unmarked. Scarce.

Freude's extremely rare catalog explores sexual identity and representation, her curated film descriptions are brief but succinct and ultimately preserve a record of films by pioneering women filmmakers of the 1960s-1970s.

Feminist filmmaker and trailblazing film distribution entrepreneur, Freude (1942-2009) was a central figure in the San Francisco Bay Area film community in the late 1960s and 1970s. Freude founded Serious Business Company (1972-1984) to champion and distribute independent, feminist, avant-garde, underground, and experimental films, ultimately establishing a catalogue of 60 artists and over 250 titles. Focusing on personal, animated, and sexuality themed works, she provided early and critical support for the works of such filmmakers as James Broughton, Shirley Clarke, Bruce Conner, Johanna Demetrakas, Tom DeWitt, Barbara Hammer, John Knoop, Kathleen Laughlin, Danny Lyon, Gunvor Nelson, Pat O'Neill, Carolee Schneemann, Penelope Spheeris, and Chick Strand, and ex husband Scott Bartlett. Her company distributed many of the era's most acclaimed independent and experimental films, and created a platform for discovering lesser known works. At the time, no major commercial distributor specialized in avant-garde films or women's film. When her business shuttered, the golden age of independent and experimental film distribution was, essentially, finished. Freude's idea of a feminist identity offer a relevant way to curate the feminist, lesbian, and queer art and film of today.

LEATHER!

Compiled Under the Direction of Avery Willard. Published by Guild Press LTD., Washington, D.C., 1965, first edition. Original illustrated textured wraps, side staple bound, 8.5" x 5.25", 72 pages, illustrated with 64 pages of black and white homoerotic photographs featuring leather, whips, chains, rope, and motorcycles. NEAR FINE CONDITION: tight, bright, clean and unmarked. Scarce, just 9 copies in OCLC collections worldwide.

"Men of Leather," was the first American gay male manifesto of leather Identity, a defining four page essay on leather subculture followed by an archetypal collection of photographs from the 1950s and 1960s from six studios, Chuck Renslow's Kris Studio of Chicago, Avery Willard of New York, Bob Anthony of New York, Scott of London, David of Cleveland, and R. A. Enterprises. Guild Press was a pioneering homomasculine publisher of gay oriented physique magazines in the 1950s. In 1962 Guild won an important legal victory to distribute publications with gay erotic content.

Avery Willard (aka Bruce King) 1921-1999, provocative and groundbreaking New York City artist, photographer, experimental filmmaker, writer, publisher, leatherman, actor, pornographer, publisher, drag historian and gay rights activist. In 1967 he created the classic gay film "Leather Narcissus" starring New York leather icon Fernando, following the Stonewall uprising in Greenwich Village in 1968, under the pen name Bruce King, Willard published "Gay Scene" until 1992. A trailblazer of the queer art movement, Willard produced a lifetime of historically significant work that has remained widely unseen for decades.

TAYLOR OF SAN FRANCISCO Custom Leather, Body Jewelry Free Piercing, 3-Star Aroma, Leather Repairs, Hot Action Art, Toys For The Playroom [At The Brig]

Original 1978 Illustrated Advertising Poster. (I can't find information on the artist). B&W lithograph on heavy paper, 21" x 14.25". VERY GOOD CONDITION: stiff creases, some age toning to the rear, a handsome piece of San Francisco LGBTQ+ ephemera.

Way before the Folsom Street Fair, Leathermen paraded along the streets of SoMa, mostly after dark. Decked out in black or western leather chaps, vests, jackets, belts, harnesses, and codpieces, all that rigging, kink wear, BDSM restraints and body jewelry were made and sold in the fantasy leather and sex toy shops found in SoMa bars like Taylor of San Francisco at the Brig. South of Market was one of the most extensive and densely occupied Leather neighborhoods in the world.

Joe Taylor ran his leather goods shop at the back of Brig Bar in 1978 and moved to the Ramrod Bar circa 1982. He also ran a custom leather workshop and private dungeon (featured in the "Dungeons of San Francisco" issue of Drummer magazine, #17) on Clementina in SoMa from the late 70s into the mid 80s. In the style of the times, Taylor billed his business as "Taylor of San Francisco" following the gay icon "Tom of Finland." Taylor was a SoMa icon in his own right and his workshop is listed in the SoMa registry of historic places.

CANTARES - VERSOS. Lyrical verses by ANTONIO BOTTO; Musical Scores by Nicolau d'Albuquerque Ferreira; Illustrations by Antonio Carneiro.

LISBON: Typographia do Annuario Commercial, 1919. First edition. Text in Portuguese.

SIGNED and INSCRIBED by ANTONIO BOTTO on the front free endpaper: "Ao exmo Amigo Correia / agradecendo as suas / belas atenção / oferece / Antonio Botto". [To my dear friend Correia, thanking him for his kind attention, Antonio Botto.]

Hardcovers, no dustjacket as issued, 4to. 9.5x11 inches (24x29 cm), 60 unnumbered pages. Illustrated with reproductions of paintings by Carneiro, each with a tissue guard protector, and with music by Ferreira.

GOOD condition: The covers have some light toning and soiling, the spine covering is peeling and worn, one leather tie is lacking, else the covers are solid and doing their job well. Internally, the pages are just lightly toned at the edges (except the front free endpaper which is more substantially toned), otherwise tight, bright, clean, clear and unmarked. A nice, solid, presentable copy.

SCARCE, especially so with the SIGNATURE & INSCRIPTION of ANTONIO BOTTO.

About ANTONIO BOTTO (from Wikipedia):

******António Botto, b.1897 d.1959, was a Portuguese aesthete and lyricist poet. Botto grew up in a neighbourhood of old shabby houses, the ambiance was one of poverty and promiscuousness. The dirty streets were crowded with workers, housewives shopping, vendors, beggars, tramps, kids playing, pimps, prostitutes and sailors. All of this deeply influenced Botto's work.

His first book of poems Trovas was published in 1917. It was followed by Cantigas de Saudade (1918), Cantares (1919) and Canções do Sul (1920). His book Canções (1921) caused a scandal and gave Botto a notoriety that has lasted until this day. In Canções Botto wrote about same-sex love in a very nonchalant and romantic way; and it featured a photograph of Botto in a languid, partially nude pose.

The journal Comtemporânea praised the author's courage and sincerity for shamelessly singing about homosexual love as a true aesthete. Conservatives branded the book "Sodom's literature" and had it banned. A year later the ban was lifted and Botto became somewhat of a mythical figure.

Botto's mythomania seems to have been a lifelong trait. He talked about unlikely friendships with people like James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, Vaslav Nijinsky, Federico García Lorca or André Gide. On the other hand, he never alluded to his modest background or ever talked about his parents or brothers.

He was a regular visitor of Lisbon's popular bohemian quarters and the docks, enjoying the company of sailors, a frequent image in his poems. In spite of a homosexual fame, he had a lifelong and fully devoted common law wife, Carminda da Conceição Silva Rodrigues, a widow, nine years his elder. "Marriage suits every handsome and decadent man", he once wrote.****** (Read more about Botto on his Wikipedia page and elsewhere on the Internet.)

An EARLY, IMPORTANT and SCARCE Music Composition by Major American Composer NED ROREM. From Virgil Thomson's personal music collection (he had two copies, one is now at Yale).

PRAYER AND PARAPHRASE for Virgil Thomson by NED ROREM

NED ROREM music composition written in his hand. Signed holograph music manuscript reproduced by blue print process with Circle Blue Print Co., New York City printed in the bottom margin. Piano composition, small folio, one folded sheet 11" x 14", opens to 22" x 14", 2 pages. Beneath the last measure of Prayer is the number 9-25-45, and beneath the last measure of Paraphrase is the number 10-45 and are the composition dates, September 25, 1945 and October 1945. This music holograph was made for an early performance of the piece, and is very scarce as such.

GOOD CONDITION: The sheet is toned, lightly foxed, slightly fragile, the fold is tender and starting to split but holding, tiny tears and chips to edges, otherwise the piece is bright, unmarked, completely legible, and remains upright on a music stand. Scarce, OCLC locates only one other copy archived at Yale in the Virgil Thomson Papers.

Ned Rorem (1923-2022) Iconic American Composer and Diarist. He won a Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1976 for his Air Music: Ten Etudes for Orchestra. During the 1950s Rorem refused to hide his homosexuality and was openly gay during a time when being LGBTQ+ was largely illegal and hidden, even among prominent artists.

Virgil Thomson (1896-1989) Modernist American composer and disruptively innovative critic. He was instrumental in the development of the "American Sound" in classical music. In 1949, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music for the score to the film Louisiana Story.

Virgil Thomson (1896-1989) American Composer and Critic. He was instrumental in the development of the "American Sound" in classical music. In 1949, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music for the score to the film Louisiana Story.