Greenleaf Classics

Tweet

Yesterday’s entry was suffered from Charlus Interuptus (he got up from a nap so I had to stop so we could watch a weak Joan Crawford MGM musical Torch Song - seeing Crawford in black-face was something akin to a treat).

In 1972 I worked for a short time in a bookstore in downtown Atlanta. Mostly it was your conventional big city mainstream store. But it was owned by the mob than ran the porno bookstores so there was a small section of porn). I read a few volumes of the GreenLeaf Classics, the only porn novels I’ve ever read.

I’ve sometimes wondered if they were typical gay porn. Or even typical Greenleaf Classics. There was lots of pumping and grinding but the plots all revolved around two boys in love. I liked the solicitous passion as much as the sucking and fucking. Weak, silly romantic that I was I probably liked it more and wouldn’t have actually read the books if there’d been nothing more than genital gymnastics.

My aborted interest in 100 Years of Gay Erotica has left me wondering if there’s any gay erotica that I’d enjoy. You can’t search Google for it, all you get are links to sex sites. We have a fair number of gay themed anthologies but I’ve never cared much for the short story. I’ll have to ask one of my more libidinous friends (Marcus, are you reading this?).

The Happy Hustler is a gay book I’ve never seen but have mildly wanted to. Warner Books paid us to run a full-page ad for it in the gay newspaper I worked for in the early 70s. But I’ve never seen a copy. Probably a rare book even if it was a mass-market paperback.

Back then I was also running the first of the callboy services I’d be involved with. One day a guy who’d read The Happy Hustler and found it inspirational called asking for a job. There was a hitch. He was fifteen and I didn’t want to go to prison. Hooker-struck he asked if he could at least meet me. Figuring I’d talk the nonsense out of his head I assented.

He was healthy, handsome with an equally great body and mass of curly hair. And he seduced me. While I knew it was more likely hopes of getting me to hire him than my virile charm I couldn’t think of a good reason to say no. He was afraid to let me fuck him. So he lubricated his belly and I had my first taste of frotting, something that had never occurred to me before. I was afraid I wouldn’t cum but he was very pretty and vigorous.

See also: Gay porn paperback covers.

I'm very much interested in early depictions of of gay guys. If you have a memory or know of something I hope you tell me about it in the comment form below. Thanks, Richard