Customer Reviews

An Obscene Diary: The Visual World of Sam Steward

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This deluxe compilation of the artwork and photography of Sam Steward is a companion volume to the very fine biography of Steward by Justin Spring, SECRET HISTORIAN. It's an amazing collection of Steward's tattoo flash art, graphic sex photos (we see why the pioneering sex researcher Alfred Kinsey was so fascinated by Steward's activities and his obsessive recording of them), cards from his "Stud Files" detailing his partners in vivid detail, and memorabilia like his icon containing a clipping of Valentino's pubic hair. Beautifully printed and produced, this book will truly grace your coffee table...if you dare to put this sort of book out for company. An amazing historical document, a challenging work of art for the discerning collector, and much more.

Justin Spring's biography of Samuel Steward,Secret Historian: The Life and Times of Samuel Steward, Professor, Tattoo Artist, and Sexual Renegade was deservedly nominated for the National Book Award. While Spring never claims that Steward was by any stretch of the imagination a genius, he does manage to paint a portrait of a quirkily interesting creative soul who wrote "serious" (i.e., literary) and pornographic literature, translated Genet, hobnobbed with Gertrude and Alice (and Thorton), traced Cocteau's erotic line drawings, adorned his home with erotic murals, taught English Literature at Catholic Universities, and helped edit the revision of the World Book Encyclopedia. He also managed to teach himself tatooing, perhaps the one art he truly excelled at.

Although SECRET HISTORIAN is adequately illustrated, readers who enjoyed that book will be fascinated by the many images gathered in AN OBSCENE DIARY. About two thirds of the book consists of poloroid photographs taken of (mostly)sailors engaging in sex acts in Steward's apartment or 3 x 5 index cards from Steward's "Stud Box" that document (with code) his many sexual liaisons. The photographs are surprisingly (or perhaps not so surprisingly) not very erotic; in fact, they seem to carry the same documentary freight as the index cards with their abbreviated descriptions of sexual acts. By contrast, Steward's efforts to emulate artists like Beardsly, Cocteau, Demuth, and Calder, as well as those that anticipate underground artists like Jim French, are playful and imaginative. Although the book includes some of Steward's tatoo designs, there are no photos of his completed work. Given Steward's penchant for documentation, it's surprising that he didn't insist his customers allow him to photograph them once the tatoos has healed.

Spring's essay offers no expansion on SECRET HISTORIAN, but serves as an introduction to people who haven't read the biography and as a focusing statement for those who have. Spring offers no analysis of the art work collected and makes no claims for Steward's artistic talent, but he does put in perspective one man's will to live his creative and erotic life on his own terms. As a portrait of the pre-Stonewall gay subculture, it's about as honest and comprehensive a presentation as we're ever going to see.

I purchased this after reading the biography of Sam Steward that the author wrote. It is INTENSELY interesting. My only complaint is that it lacks a certain narrative. Maybe it is just that I got it while the biography was fresh in my mind, but I believe that the photos could be more arranged to tell Sam's story (or even what might have been an idealized version of it), or issue some sort of commentary, and that maybe some additional text putting some more of the items into context would be welcomed.

That being said, I really do like the book.

Steward had integrity to the max. Today's closet queens, many bent on damaging homosexual life in order to demonstrate their faked straightness, should be outed one by each. In this way, it will be possible for homosexuals to be seen as the historical movenment, even the biblical -type jmovement movement. Why NOT come out? WHY not? VHY KNOT?

eDWARD.