Softcover. New York , powerHouse Books, 1st, 2010, Book: Near Fine, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover. Like new in publishers shrink-wrap. Features photographs of female impersonators who have performed in the gay district of Osaka, Japan, from the '90s to the present, along with an essay discussing the photographer's work and the country's gay culture. Text by Eric Shiner and Simone Fukayuki.
Softcover. NY, Scala, 1st, 2002, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 224 pages. The diversity of New York City's people, cultures, religions, and backgrounds make it the indicator of American sexuality. It is black, white, gay, straight, rich, poor, rough, and tender all at once. From Margaret Sanger's dissemination of birth control to the Stonewall riot of 1969, New York City has repeatedly seen its sexual dynamics changed and American and international culture follow suit. Published to coincide with the much-anticipated opening of the Museum of Sex in New York, NYC Sex features conversations between major cultural figures and historians on sexual topics, including Grady T. Turner on "Sodom on the Hudson"; Martin Duberman and Joan Nestle on queers; Timothy J. Gilfoyle, Xaviera Hollander, and Tracy Quan on whores; Karen Finley, Luc Sante, Gene Simmons, and Art Spiegelman on the underground; and Vanessa del Rio, Legs McNeil, and Annie Sprinkle on porn. And what's a book about sex without pictures? In between the steamy conversation, NYC Sex posts photographs by Mapplethorpe, Ferrato and Gatewood; 19th-century drawings and photographs; film stills; posters; magazine pin-ups; and images of sex symbols past and present. It's a treat the whole family can enjoy. NYC Sex is the official book of the inaugural exhibition of the Museum of Sex, which will open in New York in September.
Softcover. NY, Scala, 1st, 2002, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 224 pages. The diversity of New York City's people, cultures, religions, and backgrounds make it the indicator of American sexuality. It is black, white, gay, straight, rich, poor, rough, and tender all at once. From Margaret Sanger's dissemination of birth control to the Stonewall riot of 1969, New York City has repeatedly seen its sexual dynamics changed and American and international culture follow suit. Published to coincide with the much-anticipated opening of the Museum of Sex in New York, NYC Sex features conversations between major cultural figures and historians on sexual topics, including Grady T. Turner on "Sodom on the Hudson"; Martin Duberman and Joan Nestle on queers; Timothy J. Gilfoyle, Xaviera Hollander, and Tracy Quan on whores; Karen Finley, Luc Sante, Gene Simmons, and Art Spiegelman on the underground; and Vanessa del Rio, Legs McNeil, and Annie Sprinkle on porn. And what's a book about sex without pictures? In between the steamy conversation, NYC Sex posts photographs by Mapplethorpe, Ferrato and Gatewood; 19th-century drawings and photographs; film stills; posters; magazine pin-ups; and images of sex symbols past and present. It's a treat the whole family can enjoy. NYC Sex is the official book of the inaugural exhibition of the Museum of Sex, which will open in New York in September.
Hardcover. Berkeley CA, University of California Press, 1st, 1998, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 361 pages. During the Cold War years of the 1950s, William F. Knowland was one of the most important figures in American politics. As the Republican leader of the U.S. Senate, the wealthy California newspaper heir was recognized and respected by millions. His influence with President Eisenhower led to Earl Warren's appointment as chief justice, and Knowland set in motion a U.S.-China policy that remains part of our international direction today. Yet he committed suicide in 1974, following a personal decline that included political humiliation, a ruined marriage, and the loss of his family fortune. This is the first full-scale biography of Bill Knowland, written by two journalists who came to know him after he left Washington in 1958. Gayle B. Montgomery was a political editor at the Oakland Tribune, the newspaper owned by Knowland's father, the power-wielding Joseph R. Knowland. James W. Johnson was a Tribune editorial writer. Both men worked with Knowland when he returned to the newspaper after giving up his Senate seat in a failed bid to become governor of California. Knowland lost the governorship race to Edmund G. (Pat) Brown; had he won, many observers felt Knowland would have had a clear shot at the White House. This is a book not only about Mr. Republican, but also one that illuminates the strengths and deficiencies of Republican party politics during the years when the party was at its zenith. In portraying the life of Bill Knowland, the authors cast a glaring light both on the machinations of political power and on the Republican establishment's aspirations in the Warren-Eisenhower era. Clean copy.
Hardcover. NY, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1st, 1994, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. SIGNED BY AUTHOR on title page. "Narrator Kyle Malachi, writing as Stokes Moran, is a syndicated mystery reviewer working on his first mystery novel. His "beautiful agent, " Lee Holland, convinces him to take a $25, 000 assignment from Playboy to find and interview a reclusive bestselling mystery author. The only clue to Seymour Severe's whereabouts is the New Orleans setting of his books. Kyle goes there, spends some time in a dark gay bar, passes out and wakes up in bed next to a naked, dead boy. He flees back to Connecticut, but Lee convinces him he's been hoaxed and must return to the Crescent City where the puzzle finally assembles itself--without any help from Kyle". Clean copy.
Hardcover. Philadelphia, J. B. Lippincott, 1st, 1919, Book: Very Good, Hardcover, pictorial green cloth with large, striking design of a dragon in yellow on front; lettered in yellow on front and spine; 380 pages. Color frontispiece by Gayle Hoskins (Originally published in Munsey's Magazine). Scarce copy of a mystery pulp writers' first book. Clean.
Softcover. New York, Citadel Press, 1st Thus, 1991, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, oblong format, 158 pages. Illustrated with black & white photographs. Diagonal crease across lower left corner of back cover. Clean, tight copy.
Hardcover. NY, Humanities Press, 1st, 1973, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 276 pages. George Lukacs on Appearance and Essence, Erwin Pracht on Socialist Realism, S. Petrov on Realism, Robert Weimann on point of view in fiction, B. G. Zhantieva on Joyce's Ulysses, Werner Mittzenzwei on the Brecht-Lukacs debate, and five other major essays. Clean copy.
Hardcover. NY, W W Norton & Co, 1st, 2003, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 608 pages. A startling anecdotal history of gay life in twentieth-century New York explores the confluence of historical and social factors that made Manhattan a mecca for homosexuals in the second half of this century.
Hardcover. NY, Viking, 1st, 2020, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 244 pages. In Recollections of My Nonexistence, Rebecca Solnit describes her formation as a writer and as a feminist in 1980s San Francisco, in an atmosphere of gender violence on the street and throughout society and the exclusion of women from cultural arenas. She tells of being poor, hopeful, and adrift in the city that became her great teacher, and of the small apartment that, when she was nineteen, became the home in which she transformed herself. She explores the forces that liberated her as a person and as a writer--books themselves; the gay community that presented a new model of what else gender, family, and joy could mean; and her eventual arrival in the spacious landscapes and overlooked conflicts of the American West. Remainder dot on bottom edge, otherwise like new.
Softcover. NY, St Martin's Press, 3rd pr., 1988, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 9 3/4 " - 12" tall. Foreword by Ntozake Shange. 91 full-page plates in black-and-white by Robert Mapplethorpe; from the inside of the front cover: "Mapplethorpe's exquisitely printed pictures of both gay and straight males are explicit and erotic. In their use of flattering lights and lavish deep-toned printing, they openly declare their bold belief in the esthetic equality of the male as model. But Mapplethorpe's pictures ironically confirm the Kenneth Clark doctrine: despite their smart, gleaming finish, they hail the body divine in the most traditional manner--with the sexes swapped." Clean copy
Hardcover. London, Chris Boot, 1st, 2011, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 95 pages, illustrated throughout in color. Clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to dust jacket. Monograph of color portraits shot with a 5x4 camera at the Folsom Street Fair in SF and Easter weekend in Berlin, about 70 nude and semi-nude fetish gear photos of gay men, near fine limited first edition of 1200 copies.
Hardcover. NY, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1st, 1930, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, black cloth with green and gilt stamping. A story of love, murder and suicide, described by one critic as "atmospheric to the verge of mystical." The novel concerns a woman named Felicia Lissell, who travels to Rhodesia with her aunt, to visit the farm of Dick Cardross, but she doesn't suspect that "dangerous social complications awaited her in the gay English colony nearby." The author, born Lilian Julian Webb in London in 1862, was a resident of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) from 1896. She achieved international recognition with the publication of her story collection "Virginia of the Rhodesians" in 1904, and went on to great success as the author of numerous novels. Owner's signature inside front cover otherwise clean. No dust jacket.
Hardcover. Boston, Beacon Press, 1st, 1998, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 283 pages. The story of a faith healer (who before that was a rock star manager and a beautician) told in the rich language and texture of a Southerner who can draw you continuously into the world she weaves. Her first novel after a 20-year hiatus.
Hardcover. NY, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1st US, 1971, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover in decorated cloth, 32 pages illustrated in color by Mahood. Enjoying the last few days of summer,The Emperor of Japan was about to eat his morning egg when suddenly out jumped a little smiling dragon. He seemed very friendly, so the Emperor decided to call him Hojo and keep him as the Imperial Pet. Hojo soon became a great favorite with everyone by making himself useful around the palace. He made delicious soups, had a very light hand with pastry, and the Emperor loved his pancakes. In addition he was always gay and cheerful, could sing, play chess, enjoy a joke, and his hot breath kept the palace warm, which was a great comfort to the Emperor who suffered from cold feet. Name on front fly leaf, otherwise clean and bright copy.
Hardcover. NY, W. W. Norton , 1st, 2000, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. After the Second World War, a newly affluent United States reached for its own gourmet culture, one at ease with the French international style of Escoffier, but also distinctly American. Enter James Beard, authority on cooking and eating, his larger-than-life presence and collection of whimsical bow ties were synonymous with the nation's food for decades, even after his death in 1985. In the first biography of Beard in twenty-five years, acclaimed writer John Birdsall argues that Beard's struggles as a closeted gay man directly influenced his creation of an American cuisine. Starting in the 1920s, Beard escaped loneliness and banishment by travelling abroad to places where people ate for pleasure, not utility, and found acceptance at home by crafting an American ethos of food likewise built on passion and delight. Informed by never-before-tapped correspondence and lush with details of a golden age of home cooking, The Man Who Ate Too Much is a commanding portrait of a towering figure who still represents the best in food. Clean copy.
Hardcover. NY, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1st, 1906, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, blue cloth with gilt stamping on spine and front cover. Hardcover. Light overall wear, very good, clean & sound condition without dust jacket. 443 pages with maps and a facsimile reproduction, all excellent condition. Publisher's promotional flyer jaid in. Clean copy.
Hardcover. NY, Knopf, 1st, 1964, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a nice, unclipped dust jacket with light tanning to spine. 290 pages plus index. Clean copy. THE ENLIGHTENMENT has long been the victim of uninformed or hostile criticisms. Even so respected a source as the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary defines the Enlightenment as "shallow and pretentious intellectualism, unreasonable contempt for authority and tradition," thus collecting in one sentence most of our current prejudices. In this provocative book--at once a scholarly study and a vigorous polemic--Peter Gay sets out to shatter old myths, to sort out illusion from reality, and to restore the men of the Enlightenment--Voltaire, Rousseau, Diderot--to the esteem they deserve.
Hardcover. London, Unicorn Publishing Group, 1st, 2019, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. Starting in 1966, Thea Porter designed clothes for the rich and famous for nearly two decades. Her creations were made from sumptuous fabrics that drew inspiration from the Middle East, combining richly patterned silks with antique fabrics. Her clothes were a must for music and film stars such as Pink Floyd, Crystal Gayle, Elizabeth Taylor, and Barbra Streisand. Porter soon became a key member of an innovative group of British designers that included Ossie Clark, Zandra Rhodes, and Jean Muir, and her place in the history of British fashion was ensured when she was named Designer of the Year in 1972. Thea Porter's Scrapbook is her story in her own words, an unpublished autobiography she put together before her death in 2000. Edited by her daughter Venetia and with an essay by fashion historian Amy de la Haye, it reveals Porter's further talents as a keenly observant and descriptive writer. This book, which includes working drawings, sketches, snapshots, and manuscript notes, serves as a memoir of her early life and career, charting many memorable episodes, including the dramatic surge of American interest in her clothes and the opening of her shop in Paris as she pursued her ambition to create dresses "beyond trend and tat, that thirty years from today will still be beautiful."
Hardcover. NY, Grosset & Dunlap, 1st, 1937, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Slim, square hardcover in color illustrated paper covered boards. Illustrated endpapers. 32 pages. Illustrated with color drawings. Pencil name on front fly leaf, covers with mild soil, paper chipped on spine. Otherwise clean. The charmingly illustrated escapades of Toby and Sue and Cinder (the cat) and Chalky (the little white dog).
Softcover. NJ, Rutgers University Press, 1st, 2003, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 244 pages. The story of westering Americans in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries has been told most notably through photographs of American Indians. Unlike this vast archive, produced primarily by male photographers, which depicted American Indians as either vanishing or domesticated, the lesser-known images by the women featured in Trading Gazes provide new ways of seeing the intersecting histories of colonial expansion and indigenous resistance. Four unconventional women-Jane Gay, who documented land allotment to the Nez Perces; Kate Cory, an artist who lived for years in a Hopi community; Grace Nicholson, who purchased cultural items from the Karuk and other northern California tribes; and Mary Schaffer, who traveled among the Stoney and Metis of Alberta, Canada-used cameras to document their cross-cultural encounters. Trading Gazes reconstructs the rich biographical and historical contexts explaining these women's presence in different Native communities of the North American West. Their photographs not only record the unprecedented opportunities available for Euro-American women eager to shed gender restrictions, but also reveal how women's newfound mobility depended on the increasing restrictions placed on Native Americans in this era.
Hardcover. New York, Norton, 1st, 2015, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 458 pages, b&w illustrations. Sam Wagstaff, the legendary curator, collector, and patron of the arts, emerges as a cultural visionary in this groundbreaking biography. Even today remembered primarily as the mentor and lover of Robert Mapplethorpe, the once infamous photographer, Wagstaff, in fact, had an incalculable-and largely overlooked-influence on the world of contemporary art and photography, and on the evolution of gay identity in the latter part of the twentieth century. Born in New York City in 1921 into a notable family, Wagstaff followed an arc that was typical of a young man of his class. He attended both Hotchkiss and Yale, served in the navy, and would follow in step with his Ivy League classmates to the "gentleman's profession," as an ad executive on Madison Avenue. With his unmistakably good looks, he projected an aura of glamour and was cited by newspapers as one of the most eligible bachelors of the late 1940s. Such accounts proved deceiving, for Wagstaff was forced to live in the closet, his homosexuality only revealed to a small circle of friends. Increasingly uncomfortable with his career and this double life, he abandoned advertising, turned to the formal study of art history, and embarked on a radical personal transformation that was in perfect harmony with the tumultuous social, cultural, and sexual upheavals of the 1960s.
Softcover. New York, Grey Art Gallery and Study Center, 1st, 1980, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 117 pages, b&w illustrations. Very light edge wear; else a very clean, tight copy. 10 color, 99 bw plates. Issued in conjunction with a 1980 exhibition featuring works of American artist Walter Gay (1856-1937). With a substantial illustrated essay by Gary A. Reynolds, a brief chronology and selected bibliography. The annotated and illustrated catalogue addresses 90 pieces.