Homosex: Sixty Years of Gay Erotica (Paperback)

by Simon Sheppard (Author) "For many queer young men in mid-twentieth-century America, World War II changed everything..." (more)
Key Phrases: porn writer, gay erotica, sex writing, New York, San Francisco, Glass Mountain (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
Marilyn Jaye Lewis, the Erotica Readers Association, on Hotter Than Hell
"This is by far the very best erotic fiction collection to come out in years. No kidding. Simon Sheppard's storytelling skills as unsurpassed."

Review

Marilyn Jaye Lewis, the Erotica Readers Association, on Hotter Than Hell
"This is by far the very best erotic fiction collection to come out in years. No kidding. Simon Sheppard's storytelling skills as unsurpassed."

San Francisco Magazine
"Our erotica king."

Bill Noble, cleansheets.com
"The best gay writer of utterly slutty stories I know."

San Francisco Bay Guardian
"The most literate and heart-poundingly romantic author to emerge from the naughty queer erotica scene in San Francisco."

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Carroll & Graf/Running Press (July 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786717556
• ISBN-13: 978-0786717552
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #111,958 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Blue Look at Us, July 15, 2007

By	Amos Lassen (Little Rock, Arkansas) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

Sheppard, Simon. "Homosex: Sixty Years of Gay Erotica", Carroll & Graff, 2007

A Blue Look at Us

Amos Lassen and Literary Pride

In the last few weeks I have reviewed several books dealing with our history. "Homosex" is an erotic look at the past sixty years of American gay life and this is a novel way to look backwards. Dealing with 60 years of gay erotic writing, this is one of those books that give us a different look at history.
History as seen in erotic writing is something new. Going back to the Second World War, we learn that the gay erotica that existed was usually on mimeographed paper and smuggled in form Mexico. Today it is relatively easy to read porn just by logging onto the internet.
Famous authors are represented here as well as those that wrote pulp paperback novels. Phil Andros who wrote about "rough trade" has a story from 1953 in this book in which a biker takes a farm boy to the barn. Richard Armory's 1966 classic "The Song of the Loon" is excerpted and it tells of a frontiersman who lives with Native Americans and finds a way to love them. Leather master, John Preston, famous "Mr. Benson" from 1979 in which a submissive guy finds the master e yearns for is also represented. Moving forward there are several stories from the 60's including an orgy at Berkeley, a war story about Vietnam and a story set in Texas.
Sheppard has done well with his selections that spans the 40's, 50's and up to today.
So what can be learned by reading gay erotica? It tells us how we behaved and with whom as well as shows us the changing faces of both gay life and America.
The book contains many approaches and voices but porn itself has been looked at over the ages as a subversive activity--both reading it and writing it. Sheppard states that what he includes is not a definitive look at gay porn and he has used authors who identify themselves as gay or bisexual and male. Because a selection is included does not mean it is necessarily great but what it is, is representative.
In his introduction Sheppard gives his views on the purpose of porn and his essay very much illuminates the subject. It is meant to arouse and this is, in reality, the purpose of all literature. Literature arouses emotions--perhaps not the same emotions that porn does. Erotica is also a means of education, especially in gay life. Those who are curious and have never experience gay sex can learn from porn what it is expected. Porn also carries a message of community. As silly as it may sound, in the early days of our movement, porn brought us and kept us together.
And porn has changed greatly beginning in the 1970's when glossy magazines brought hard core photography out of the closet and onto newsstands and when video became part of almost every household. By the 80's porn had truly found its place and gay authors actually made the bestseller list--David Leavitt, Armistead Maupin and Edmund White. Porn began to reach a larger audience and began to serve a growing gay community as a way to define itself, provide information and as a substitute for sex during the height of the AIDS epidemic.
It seems that porn is here to stay and what better way to understand the new than to look at the old. Simon Sheppard provides us with a way to do just that.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great History & Smut!, May 27, 2008

By	The Porn Librarian (New Haven CT) - See all my reviews

There's no denying that lots of women love man sex - doesn't matter if you identify as straight, queer or somewhere in between, experience tells me a good percentage of you are turned on by the thought of two men ravaging one another.

Homosex has plenty of that, but the fantastic thing about this compilation is that there's more to it than titillating stories. Simon Sheppard has managed to create a poignant, erotic history that touches on many of the major milestones of gay life in America through its erotica.

What makes this compilation amazing, in my opinion, are the editor's notes that proceed each story. Sheppard does a great job of setting the context for each piece and helps to tell this history through his brief, yet informative notes. Without his thoughtful research, this would be just another loosely bound concept of a book that would be hot, but forgettable.

The pieces included in this compilation cover sixty years and countless erotic fantasies. Even if you have little interest in the history lesson, you're sure to get off to the amazing stories!