The Man from C.A.M.P. is a series of ten gay pulp fiction novels published under the pseudonym of Don Holliday. The original nine were written by Victor J. Banis between 1966 and 1968; a tenth by an uncertain author appeared in 1971. [1] The series first emerged during a period when gay paperback titles began spoofing popular genre fiction. As such, they are part of the great gay paperback explosion that "catered to most every taste in men's genre fiction," including detective stories and spy thrillers. [2] According to Banis, the series was inspired by the characters Batman and Robin , and is a spoof of the James Bond series and the television show The Man from U.N.C.L.E. [3] [4]
The series is significant because it offers the first positive portrayal of a gay secret agent in fiction, Jackie Holmes. [5]
C.A.M.P., whose name references the camp aesthetic, is described as "an underground organization dedicated to the protection and advancement of homosexuals." [6] C.A.M.P. works in coordination with law enforcement agencies around the globe, including INTERPOL. The meaning of the acronym C.A.M.P. is never given, but the series' protagonist, Jackie Holmes, a gay, seductive and capable international secret agent, allows that "the C might stand for sucker." [7] The general formula for each book involves Jackie being paired up with a homophobic government agent to investigate a suspicious crime. After any number of twists and turns, Jackie solves the mystery and seduces the formerly homophobic agent. [8] C.A.M.P.'s archenemy organization is B.U.T.C.H. (Brothers United to Crush Homosexuality) headed by the infamous Tiger Bey.
The Man from C.A.M.P. books were written quickly without significant editing, and sometimes were not published as written. As such, the original printings contain a number of typos and scenes reused from other works in the series. In the two recent compilations, the redundant scenes have been removed. [9] The recent compilations are significant because the original copies, by virtue of their obvious sexual orientation, were often disposed of or destroyed so that they would not reveal clues about their owners and their lives. [10] Robert Bonfils produced the paperback cover art for all the novels in the series, except Gothic Gaye, the cover of which was illustrated by Darryl Milsap. [11]
The Man from C.A.M.P. series includes nine original books written by Victor J. Banis [14] and published by Greenleaf Classics under their Leisure Books, Companion Books, Ember Library, and Late Hour Library brands.
In addition to the nine original books written by Victor J. Banis, three related texts by Elbert Barrow, a.k.a. "Lady Agatha," in which Banis had only partly a hand, a 10th novel, Gay-Safe (probably by Samuel Dodson, according to researcher Lynn Munroe), and a short story have appeared. [24]
A spin-off series is in development, Agents of C.A.M.P., on behalf of the Victor J. Banis Family Foundation. The series will begin with The Golden Doppelbangers, being written by the project lead, Lauren Fox. [27]
In 1965 in the newsletter of the Philadelphia homophile organization Janus Society, Allen J. Shapiro, writing as A. Jay, began a comic strip The Adventures of Harry Chess: That Man from A.U.N.T.I.E. (Agents Undercover Network To Investigate Evil). The early strips were collected in The Uncensored Adventures of Harry Chess 0068 7/8: That Man from A.U.N.T.I.E. (1966). [28] Later Harry Chess joined FUGG (Federal Undercover Gay Goodguys); most of the episodes were re-published in the Meatmen comic anthologies published by Winston Leyland out of San Francisco.
The Man from Pansy, a novel very similar to The Man from C.A.M.P., appeared in 1967 and is the first in a short series of three gay-oriented pulp fiction novels written by Don Rico. The series' protagonist is hip secret agent Buzz Cardigan who plays gay to infiltrate an underworld of crime and blackmail. The second book in the series is The Daisy Dilemma, also published in 1967, the third is The Passion Flower Puzzle, 1968. [29]
The City and the Pillar is the third published novel by American writer Gore Vidal, written in 1946 and published on January 10, 1948. The story is about a young man who is coming of age and discovers his own homosexuality.
Victor Charles Buono was an American actor, comic, and briefly a recording artist. He was known for playing the villain King Tut in the television series Batman (1966–1968) and musician Edwin Flagg in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962), the latter of which earned him Academy Award and Golden Globe Award nominations. He was a busy actor from his late teens until his death at the age of 43 and, with his large size and sonorous voice, he made a career of playing men much older than he was.
City of Night is a novel written by John Rechy. It was originally published in 1963 in New York by Grove Press. Earlier excerpts had appeared in Evergreen Review, Big Table, Nugget, and The London Magazine.
Jim French was an American artist, illustrator, photographer, filmmaker, and publisher. He is best known for his association with Colt Studio which he, using the pseudonym Rip Colt, created in late 1967. Thomas parted from the endeavor in 1974 leaving French to continue to build what would become one of the most successful gay male erotica companies in the U.S.
Rogue was a Chicago-based men's magazine published by William Hamling from 1956 until 1965. Founding editor Frank M. Robinson was succeeded by other editors including Harlan Ellison and Bruce Elliott. The magazine was subtitled "Designed for Men."
William Lawrence Hamling was an American writer, science fiction fan, and publisher of both science fiction digests, and adult magazines and books, active from the late 1930s until 1975. He was a lifelong member of First Fandom.
Gay pulp fiction, or gay pulps, refers to printed works, primarily fiction, that include references to male homosexuality, specifically male gay sex, and that are cheaply produced, typically in paperback books made of wood pulp paper; lesbian pulp fiction is similar work about women. Michael Bronski, the editor of an anthology of gay pulp writing, notes in his introduction, "Gay pulp is not an exact term, and it is used somewhat loosely to refer to a variety of books that had very different origins and markets". People often use the term to refer to the "classic" gay pulps that were produced before about 1970, but it may also be used to refer to the gay erotica or pornography in paperback book or digest magazine form produced since that date.
Robert Louis Peters was an American poet, critic, scholar, playwright, editor, and actor. He held a PhD in Victorian literature. Born in an impoverished rural area of northern Wisconsin in 1924, his poetry career began in 1967 when his young son Richard died unexpectedly of spinal meningitis. The book commemorating this loss, Songs for a Son, was selected by poet Denise Levertov to be published by W. W. Norton in 1967. Songs for a Son began a flood of poetry.
Earl Kemp was an American publisher, science fiction editor, critic, and fan who won a Hugo Award for Best Fanzine in 1961 for Who Killed Science Fiction, a collection of questions and answers with top writers in the field. Kemp also helped found Advent:Publishers, a small publishing house focused on science fiction criticism, history, and bibliography, and served as chairman of the 20th World Science Fiction Convention. During the 1960s and '70s, Kemp was also involved in publishing a number of erotic paperbacks, including an illustrated edition of the Presidential Report of the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography. This publication led to Kemp being sentenced to one year in prison for "conspiracy to mail obscene material," but he served only the federal minimum of three months and one day.
Victor Jerome Banis was an American author, often associated with the first wave of West Coast gay writing. For his contributions he has been called "the godfather of modern popular gay fiction." He was openly gay.
This is a list of notable events in the history of LGBT rights that took place in the 1960s.
Mary Wings is an active American cartoonist, writer, and artist. She is known for highlighting lesbian themes in her work. In 1973, she made history by releasing Come Out Comix, the first lesbian comic book. She is also known for her series of detective novels featuring lesbian heroine Emma Victor. Divine Victim, Wings' only Gothic novel, won the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Mystery in 1994.
Christopher Michael Carp is an American former professional baseball first baseman and left fielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Seattle Mariners, Boston Red Sox and Texas Rangers.
Michael Shernoff was an American openly gay psychotherapist who specialized in serving the mental health needs of gay, lesbian, and bisexual people and was author of several influential publications on the topics of HIV/AIDS prevention and the mental health concerns of gay men.
Ken Krueger was an American publisher and retailer. Krueger co-founded and organized the first San Diego Comic-Con convention, then called "San Diego's Golden State Comic-Con," in 1970. Krueger co-created the annual convention with a group of San Diego friends, including Shel Dorf, Richard Alf and Mike Towry.
Dirk Vanden, was an American author and illustrator. He is considered the first gay Mormon writer and has been called a "pioneer of gay literature" by the Lambda Literary Review. A graduate of the University of Utah, his work appeared in ONE Magazine, Vector, and California Scene, as well as in Latter-Gay Saints: An Anthology of Gay Mormon Fiction. His novel I Want It All was the first book to explore San Francisco's leather subculture. His greatest success was his All trilogy: I Want It All,All or Nothing, and All Is Well. Vanden received a Lambda Literary Award for Gay Erotica in 2012 for the revision of this trilogy, All Together.
Richard Amory, born Richard Wallace Love, was an American writer from Halfway, Oregon. He obtained a bachelor's degree in sociology from Ohio State University, a M.A. in Spanish from San Francisco State University, and began an uncompleted Ph.D. in Spanish at University of California, Berkeley. A high school teacher by profession, he achieved success as a novelist in the late 1960s while still a graduate student and before coming out.
Peter Tuesday Hughes was an American science fiction and mystery author. He was an early exponent of the "gay gothic" subgenre. Though published primarily by Greenleaf Classics, a firm known for insisting that its authors include graphic sex in their works, his novels "[depict] gay relationships with a depth surprising for the markets he published for." However, some of his contemporaries objected to the pessimism Hughes occasionally expressed.
The Man from O.R.G.Y. is a 1970 comedy film directed by James Hill and starring Robert Walker Jr., Louisa Moritz, Slappy White, Lynne Carter and Steve Rossi, based on the 1965 novel of the same name by Ted Mark. It was filmed in Puerto Rico and New York City. The film has elements of espionage and sex.
Harry Chess is the central character of the first gay-themed ongoing comic strip, first appearing in the mid 1960s. He was created by Al Shapiro under the pseudonym "A. Jay". He is a parody of the secret agent trope popularized in the 1960s, as exemplified by The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and the James Bond franchise. Rather than the heterosexual romantic themes common to the source material, the adventures of Harry Chess were openly homosexual, intended to appeal to gay male readers.