Gay leather fiction
‘Life, Leather and the Pursuit of Happiness’ by Steve Lenius
If you’re looking to expand your leather library, Steve Lenius’ Life, Leather and the Pursuit of Happiness (CreateSpace) is a great place to begin. The guide is made up of selections from his infamous “Leather Life” column, originally published in Lavender magazine over the span of 15 years, now updated and annotated for the book.
Life, Leather and the Pursuit of Happiness is a wonderful historical text, giving context and background on various aspects of the leather group, from bar tradition and interpersonal relationships to leather contests.
The scope of the book is primarily focused on queer male leather society, with the occasional reference to leather dykes and genderqueer leather folks. However, these references are few and far between, sometimes more tokenized than the fleshed-out representation that is so thoroughly given to men and gay leather men’s community.
That said, Lenius acknowledges his own personal biases, and the way that the column was based on his life as a homosexual man in the community. So, while I would contain liked to view a more diverse representation of leather culture
The Leather Boys (1961)
Dick and Reggie are ‘leather boys’, working-class London teens with an affinity for leather jackets and motorcycles who become friends through their involvement in a gang. For Dick, the capital he gets from the gang’s thefts helps to support his ailing grandmother; for Reggie, membership in the gang provides relief from an unhappy house life and a loveless marriage. When Reggie decides to leave his unfaithful wife and move in with Dick, the two soon discover their feelings for each other are much stronger than mere friendship. As they produce plans for their future together, will they detect the happiness they explore , or is their cherish doomed to end in tragedy?
The first novel to offer an authentic portrayal of love between common, working-class young men, Gillian Freeman’s The Leather Boys (1961) is a groundbreaking classic of gay fiction that remains moving and compelling today. This edition includes a new introduction by Michael Arditti, who situates The Leather Boys alongside other early queer works by women writers like Mary Renault and Marguerite Yourcenar and argues that Freeman’s novel and its 1964 film
ANY NEW BOOK by Jack Fritscher is cause for celebration. In his stellar six-decade career, he has produced four novels, six shorter works of fiction, nine works of scholarly nonfiction, and innumerable pieces of erotic leathersex fiction. He was founding editor-in-chief of the legendary Drummer magazine. (Full disclosure: Fritscher published my first piece of fiction in Drummer in 1979, and we have corresponded since then.) To this reader, his Some Dance to Remember: A Memoir-Novel of San Francisco 1970-1982 is without peer, the definitive novel of gay animation in 1970s San Francisco. His Mapplethorpe: Assault with a Deadly Camera is an insightful, warm examination of Robert Mapplethorpe’s œuvre. As a novelist, limited story writer, essayist, memoirist, pornographer, interviewer, filmmaker, and pop culture archeologist and archivist, Fritscher, along with his husband and artistic collaborator Mark Hemry, has not only reported on gay identity but has shaped it as well.
His latest work, Profiles in Gay Courage: Leatherfolk, Arts, and Ideas is a collection of essays celebrating “authentic leatherfolk founders, icons, and superstars too often under-reported by gatekeeper
They’re Britain’s ‘Wild Ones’ – the motorcycle cowboys who live for gas machines and faster girls – who ton-up along the Motorways, terrorising drivers and defying the law. Who experience sex too immature, marry unthinkingly and inhabit only for the next kick – whatever or whoever it is.
The Leather Boys is a savage, brilliantly told novel of these aimless young men and women. It is also the story of Dick and Reggie and the strange, twisted like that developed between them.
Review by Erastes
First off permit me say that the first cover (with the girl) couldn’t be more erroneous of the title and the content of the book. I couldn’t scan my cover in, and couldn’t find a picture online. The blurb is pretty ghastly too making it sound appreciate a British version of the Hell’s Angel’s books so popular in my girl’s school in the 1970’s. I object hugely to the term “strange, twisted love” because as you’ll see it’s nothing of the sort. The second cover is the original one, when the book was posted in 1961 it was published under a (jokey) masculine pseudonym. Nothing changes, eh?
The b
INTO THE LEATHER HALL OF FAME IN 2022.
The Selection Committee is pleased to announce the nominees selected for induction in the Leather Hall of Fame in 2023:
In 1974 Robert Meijer founded RoB Amsterdam, a popular brand of leather and kinky gear with brilliant, original designs and outstanding quality. Their flagship store and gallery on Warmoesstraat in Amsterdam remains popular today, almost 50 years later. At various times, RoB stores have also been unlock in Berlin, London, Paris, New York City and San Francisco. In 1990, Robert Meijer met an untimely death due to AIDS, but RoB’s legacy and RoB brand gear endure.
John SUTCLIFFE
John Sutcliffe was among the most authoritative fashion designers, entrepreneurs, and kink technological innovators of the 20th century. He published AtomAge (no. 1, 1972), "Magazine of Up-to-date Leather Couture," dedicated to kinky fashion with groundbreaking use of leather, rubber, and vinyl materials. Exceptional during this period, Sutcliffe operated a public store offering fetish clothing and publications in London. His distinctive designs, such as the fetish "catsuit" for women, inspired others and contributed to the popularization of kink styles in