Description
[H. Lynn Womack] J Guild Book Service. INTERNATIONAL GUILD GUIDE. GIG 67. Washington, D.C.: Guild Book Service, 1967. 21.5 cm x 13.5 cm. 231 pages plus 9 unpaginated leaves for “Notes.” Orange paper covers with red lettering and design on the front cover; “GP”, the Guild Press Ltd. Logo on the back cover. A pre-Stonewall guide for gay men, “published in January of each year at a price of $5.00,” featuring the Guild Press coding system to indicate what types of people frequented the various establishments in their international guide, by country and city.
The first 143 pages are devoted to the United States and United States Territories. The remainder of the listings are for other countries. Condition is fine, almost as new. See: H. Lynn Womack Papers, Cornell University, Collection Number 7441. H. Lynn Womack (1923-1985) was a headmaster of a boys school in the 1940s and then a professor at George Washington University. In 1952, Womack bought the small company, Guild Press, and as publisher, editor, and distributor, turned it into a lucrative gay publishing company with numerous affiliated enterprises. The United States Postal Service tried to stop the circulation of MANUAL, TRIM, and GRECIAN GUILD PICTORIAL, but he took them to court and won the case on appeal in the U.S. Supreme Court (Manual Enterprises Inc. v. J. Edward Day) in 1962. This ruling changed the definition of obscenity and its relationship to gay pornography.
Gender and Equal Rights Pioneer Anna Elizabeth Dickinson Two Signed Quotes and Photo
