Would You Read This Book?

 

Check out this book cover from pre-Stonewall days. The book is called The Gay Jungle by Donald Evans.  I haven't read it, but even though it was aimed at a gay audience, notice how creepy all the guys on the cover are. Even the boy at the center, presumably the hero, ("Nick Petrie, just 16, but with the face and body of an Apollo") seems vaguely sinister.  Of course, those were different times,  and that generation of gay men was raised to believe, and many did believe, that they were abominations against God, country, and all that is decent.

 

This image comes from a fascinating, very NSFW blog called Homodesiribus.  The blog mostly vintage homoerotica. gay ephemera,  and straight up porn. Some hot stuff there, particularly if you go for big, hairy men, but it also works as a repository of gay social history.  Highly recommended.