David Leddick (1930–2023)

Entertaining narrative about a ballet dancer, Harry Potter, who moves to Greenwich Village to pursue his career. The novel combines insights into the world of ballet with the eroticism of the bedroom. I found the protagonist likable and the prose style more than pleasant.

This gossipy, amusing and informative book, explores the artistic, social and sexual lives of the largely homosexual circle that developed around George Platt Lynes, Paul Cadmus, and Lincoln Kirstein. This group used their considerable good looks, charm, and social skills to meet everybody, it seems, and developed careers that were probably in excess of their true talents. Nor were they shy about borrowing to maintain lifestyles devoted to good living, beauty, and, well, younger men. Based, show more in very large part, on interviews with the participants, this book is a fascinating look into how one prominent group negotiated more-or-less openly gay lives in the years before Stonewall. The "triography" strategy in which each figure is given a few pages in turn (there are also chapters devoted other members of the circle) results in a great deal of repetition as the same anecdote appears in turn as each participant is discussed. The book is somewhat untidily written and under-edited. show less

Little undersized book. Has some wonderful pics. Although now they may seem a bit dated. Think of the Calvin Klein underwear ads of the 90's. Has text that is presented with the pictures but none really seem to fit the pictures. Granted they all do have something to do with sun or beach, they don't have much to do with the pics or vice versa. Nice if you just wanna flip through and look at the pics I guess.

A quick introduction to male photographers and a number of models of the period, 1935-1955. Includes a "where are they now," model information circa 1997. Many wonderful images, good layouts, however too many images printed across the book's gutter. [copyright reason?]