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Olympia Press
Olympia Press was a Paris-based publisher, launched in 1953 by Maurice Girodias as a rebranded version of the Obelisk Press he inherited from his father Jack Kahane. It published a mix of erotic fiction and avant-garde literary fiction, and is best known for issuing the first printed edition of Vladimir Nabokov's ''Lolita.'' In its heyday during the mid-fifties Olympia Press specialized in books which could not be published (without legal action) in the English-speaking world. Early on, Girodias relied on the permissive attitudes of the French to publish sexually explicit books in both French and English. The French began to ban and seize the press's book in the late fifties. Precisely 94 Olympia Press publications were promoted and packaged as "Traveller's Companion" books, usually with simple text-only covers, and each book in the series was numbered. The "Ophelia Press" line of erotica was far larger, using the same design, but pink covers instead of green. Olympia Press was t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Georges Bataille
Georges Albert Maurice Victor Bataille (; ; 10 September 1897 – 9 July 1962) was a French philosopher and intellectual working in philosophy, literature, sociology, anthropology, and history of art. His writing, which included essays, novels, and poetry, explored such subjects as eroticism, mysticism, surrealism, and transgression. His work would prove influential on subsequent schools of philosophy and social theory, including poststructuralism. Early life Georges Bataille was the son of Joseph-Aristide Bataille (b. 1851), a tax collector (later to go blind and be paralysed by neurosyphilis), and Antoinette-Aglaë Tournarde (b. 1865). Born on 10 September 1897 in Billom in the region of Auvergne, his family moved to Reims in 1898, where he was baptized. He went to school in Reims and then Épernay. Although brought up without religious observance, he converted to Catholicism in 1914, and became a devout Catholic for about nine years. He considered entering the priesthood and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The 120 Days Of Sodom
''The 120 Days of Sodom, or the School of Libertinage'' (french: Les 120 Journées de Sodome ou l'école du libertinage, links=no) is an unfinished novel by the French writer and nobleman Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade, written in 1785 and published in 1904 after its manuscript was rediscovered. Described as both pornographic and erotic, its plot revolves around the activities of four wealthy libertine men who spend four months seeking out the ultimate sexual gratification through orgies, sealing themselves away in an inaccessible castle in the heart of the Black Forest in Germany with four madams and a harem of thirty-six victims, mostly male and female teenagers. The madams relate stories of their most memorable clients, whose crimes and tortures inspire the libertines to likewise and increasingly abuse and torture their victims to their eventual deaths. The novel was never completed; its first chapter was written according to Sade's written plan, but the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New English Library
The New English Library was a United Kingdom book publishing company, which became an imprint of Hodder Headline. History New English Library (NEL) was created in 1961 by the Times Mirror Company of Los Angeles, with the takeover of two small British paperback companies, Ace Books Ltd and Four Square Books Ltd, as a complement to its 1960 acquisition of New American Library in the United States. NEL's top bestseller of the 1960s was ''The Carpetbaggers'' by Harold Robbins. The imprint was sold in 1981 to Hodder & Stoughton, and became part of the merged Hodder Headline in 1993. It has published genres such as fantasy, science fiction, mystery and suspense. They have published the works of Stephen King, Harold Robbins, James Herbert and science fiction authors have included Brian Aldiss, Frank Herbert, Robert A. Heinlein, Michael Moorcock and Christopher Priest. New English Library titles were particularly popular in the early 1970s, when hack writers were hired to work under ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Stevenson (writer)
John "Steve" Stevenson (10 July 1930 – 27 November 2017) was a British writer who, under the pen name Marcus van Heller, wrote erotic fiction for the ''Traveller's Companion'' series of Olympia Press publisher (1955–1961). Later he also wrote under the pen name Stephen John. Career In 1954, at the age of 23, John Stevenson arrived for a sojourn in Paris, where he socialised with the expatriate community behind the modernist literary magazine '' Merlin''. He soon became the business manager for Merlin. As the magazine was not well known to the public, the job consisted mostly of selling copies on the street. Marcus van Heller pen name The main editor of ''Merlin'', Alexander Trocchi, used to write erotic fiction for Olympia Press publisher to supplement his meagre income and suggested to Stevenson to do the same. Olympia Press specialised in books which could not be published (without legal action) in the English-speaking world, making use of the fact that the French wer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Iris Owens
Iris Owens (1929–2008), also known by her pseudonym, Harriet Daimler, was an American novelist. Background Born Iris Klein in Brooklyn, New York, Owens graduated from Brooklyn College. During the 1950s and '60s she lived in Paris, where she was associated with the group of expatriate writers who produced the literary review ''Merlin'', among them Alexander Trocchi, Christopher Logue, John Stevenson, George Plimpton and Richard Seaver. Like Trocchi and Logue, she earned money writing erotic novels for Maurice Girodias's Olympia Press. Owens's four Olympia Press novels, along with a fifth which she coauthored, were published under her pseudonym. Owens returned to New York in 1970, publishing two more novels under her own name. She remained in New York until her death on May 20, 2008. Works As Harriet Daimler * ''Darling'' (Olympia Press, 1956) * ''The Pleasure Thieves'' (with "Henry Crannach," pseudonym of Marilyn Meeske) (Olympia Press, 1956) * ''Innocence'' (Olympia Press, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alexander Trocchi
Alexander Whitelaw Robertson Trocchi ( ; 30 July 1925 – 15 April 1984) was a List of Scottish novelists, Scottish novelist. Early life and career Trocchi was born in Glasgow to Alfred (formerly Alfredo) Trocchi, a music-hall performer of Italian parentage, and Annie (née Robertson), who ran a boarding house and died of food poisoning when Trocchi was a teenager. He attended Hillhead High School in the city and Cally Palace, Cally House School in Gatehouse of Fleet, having been evacuated there during World War II.Sammaddra (16 December 2013)"The Edwin Morgan Papers: Alexander Trocchi – ‘cosmonaut of inner space’" ''University of Glasgow Library Blog''. Retrieved 2 December 2021. After working as a seaman on the Arctic convoys of World War II, Murmansk convoys, he studied English Literature and Moral Philosophy at the University of Glasgow, graduating with second-class honours in 1950. Without graduating, Trocchi obtained a travelling grant that enabled him to relocat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sinclair Beiles
Sinclair Beiles (b. Kampala, Uganda, 1930 - 2000, Johannesburg) was a South African beat poet and editor for Maurice Girodias at the Olympia Press in Paris. He developed along with William S. Burroughs and Brion Gysin the cut-up technique of writing poetry and literature. Beiles was involved with American beat poets Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso and Brion Gysin, and Burroughs at the legendary Beat Hotel in Paris. The photographer Harold Chapman recorded this period in his book ''The Beat Hotel'' (Gris Banal, 1984). He co-authored ''Minutes to Go'' with Burroughs, Gysin and Corso (Two Cities Editions, 1960). Beiles helped edit Burroughs' ''Naked Lunch''. He worked with the Greek artist Takis and read his magnetic manifesto -- "I am a sculpture... I would like to see all nuclear bombs on Earth turned into sculptures"—in 1962 in Paris at the Iris Clert Gallery. At this event he was famously suspended in mid-air by a magnetic field from a powerful magnet in a sculpture develop ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Inside Scientology/Dianetics
''Inside Scientology: How I Joined Scientology and Became Superhuman'' is a 1972 book by Robert Kaufman, in which the author takes a critical look at the Church of Scientology. It was first published in 1972 by Olympia Press. The book was the first to disclose secret Scientology materials. It was also published in 1972 in German, and was the first extensive critical report on Scientology in German. The book has subsequently been revised in a 1995 edition, titled: ''Inside Scientology/Dianetics''. After revising the text of the work, Kaufman gave a copy of the work to a friend to edit and release for distribution on the internet, in 1995. Kaufman died on July 29, 1996. A full-text online version of the 1995 revised edition by Kaufman is freely available on the internet. Reviews Other prominent critical writers on related topics gave the book high marks, including Jon Atack, author of the book ''A Piece of Blue Sky''. Critical writings about the Church of Scientology by William S. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scientology
Scientology is a set of beliefs and practices invented by American author L. Ron Hubbard, and an associated movement. It has been variously defined as a cult, a business, or a new religious movement. The most recent published census data indicate that there were about 25,000 followers in the United States (in 2008); around 1,800 followers in England (2021); 1,400 in Canada (2021); and about 1,600 in Australia (2016). Hubbard initially developed a set of ideas that he called Dianetics, which he represented as a form of therapy. This he promoted through various publications, as well as through the Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation that he established in 1950. The foundation went bankrupt, and Hubbard lost the rights to his book ''Dianetics'' in 1952. He then recharacterized the subject as a religion and renamed it Scientology, retaining the terminology, doctrines, and the practice of "auditing". By 1954 he had regained the rights to Dianetics and retained both subjects under t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Candy (Southern And Hoffenberg Novel)
''Candy'' is a 1958 novel written by Maxwell Kenton, the pseudonym of Terry Southern and Mason Hoffenberg, who wrote it in collaboration for the "dirty book" publisher Olympia Press, which published the novel as part of its "Traveller's Companion" series. According to Hoffenberg, Terry Southern and I wrote ''Candy'' for the money. Olympia Press, $500 flat. He was in Switzerland, I was in Paris. We did it in letters. But when it got to be a big deal in the States, everybody was taking it seriously. Do you remember what kind of shit people were saying? One guy wrote a review about how ''Candy'' was a satire on '' Candide''. So right away I went back and reread Voltaire to see if he was right. That's what happens to you. It's as if you vomit in the gutter and everybody starts saying it's the greatest new art form, so you go back to see it, and, by God, you have to agree. Southern had a different take on the novel's genesis, claiming it was based on a short story he had wr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mason Hoffenberg
Mason Kass Hoffenberg (December 1922 – 1 June 1986) was an American writer best known for having written the satiric novel ''Candy'' in collaboration with Terry Southern. Biography Hoffenberg was born in New York City into a wealthy Jewish family. His father, Isidore Hoffenberg, was a successful self-made businessman. Sent to a military academy, he dropped out, but later attended Olivet College. Hoffenberg was drafted in 1944 and became a member of the Army Air Force. He was stationed in England and later in Belgium, France and Germany as part of the post-war Allied occupation army. He returned to New York and studied at the New School on the G.I. Bill, though he continued to return to Paris, where he used his G.I. benefits to study at the Sorbonne. In New York, he lived in Greenwich Village and was roommates with James Baldwin. Hoffenberg poached girls interested in Baldwin, who told Hoffenberg he was bisexual; the two were not intimately involved. He became part of the Vil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
