Great, man. Of course, you also contributed to SIN-A-RAMA, which is a book I highly recommend to everyone. That's the book that got me obsessed with collecting too. But I've limited myself to collecting artists, like Gene Bilbrew & Eric Stanton ... so mostly First Niter, After Hours, Wee Hours & those cool presses that Bilbrew worked for like Satan Press -- just great shit..... if you wanna check out a portion of my Bilbrew collection so far, Michael, go here:

http://www.richardperez.net/retro-perv-books-bilbrew-thumbnails.htm

I mention your book, Sin-A-Rama, as well.

... When I have more time, I'm gonna list a LOT more stuff. I have more Bilbrews and other artifacts. Retro-kink stuff that's just fuckin' cool.

I'm fascinated with those 42nd Street shops as well. Most which were gangster affiliated. Artists and writers were paid in cash. It was just a lot more informal and off the cuff -- and that's how shit got done. Not so corporate controlled and tight-assed and boring, like today.

 

Actually, when things got mobbed up, that killed the industry -- the mob would not sell books in their stores and stands that weren't owned or in their pocket.  The writing quality went way down.
 

All this stuff is a lot of fun. And I like those artists you mention also. Bonfils, especially. I have a few. (I just don't have the resources to collect everything I love.) You mention a very cool book also: Adios Scheherazade by  Westlake. Also out of print. I came across this book around the time I started reading your stuff, The House of Dreams series. It was like the perfect transition. I'm glad that Olympia Press is reprinting your books. An amazing amount of Grove Press titles are out of print too -- Rosset had that erotic line of books. "Venus Library"? Just a lot of stuff. Sexploitation and literature were all mixed together then; like in back issues of Evergreen magazine from the 60s. Ginsberg and Beckett right next to girlie pics. Thank god for eBay, which provides a window to this whole other era.

 

Yeah, that narrator in Westlake's book -- that's been me. ;)