William Lazenby

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William Lazenby (died c. 1888) was an English publisher of pornography active in the 1870s and 1880s. He used the aliases Duncan Cameron and Thomas Judd. His notable publications include magazines The Pearl , which published poems thought to have been written by Algernon Charles Swinburne, [1] [2] [3] The Oyster , [4] The Boudoir [4] [5] and The Cremorne [6] [7] [8] He also published such books as The Romance of Lust , [9] [10] [11] Randiana, or Excitable Tales , [12] [13] The Birchen Bouquet (1881), [14] The Romance of Chastisement (1883), [15] The Pleasures of Cruelty (1886) and The Sins of the Cities of the Plain . [16] [17] He was an associate of Edward Avery and Leonard Smithers. [18] He was prosecuted in 1871 and again in 1881.

After the Post Office (Protection) Act 1884, Lazenby together with other publishers such as Edward Avery, Charles Carrington, and Harry Sidney Nichols, moved much of their business to Paris to sell in the United Kingdom by mail order. [19]

Related Research Articles

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<i>The Pearl</i> (magazine) Pornographic monthly magazine issued in London during the mid-Victorian period

The Pearl: A Magazine of Facetiae and Voluptuous Reading was a pornographic monthly magazine issued in London during the mid-Victorian period by William Lazenby. It was closed down by the British authorities for violating contemporary standards of obscenity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vance Randolph</span> American folklorist (1892–1980)

Vance Randolph was a folklorist who studied the folklore of the Ozarks in particular. He wrote a number of books on the Ozarks, as well as Little Blue Books and juvenile fiction.

Teleny, or, The Reverse of the Medal, is a pornographic novel, first published in London in 1893. The authorship of the work is unknown. There is a consensus that it was an ensemble effort, but it has often been attributed to Oscar Wilde. Set in fin-de-siècle Paris, its concerns are the magnetic attraction and passionate though ultimately tragic affair between a young Frenchman named Camille Des Grieux and the Hungarian pianist René Teleny. The novel is one of the earliest pieces of English-language pornography that focuses explicitly and near-exclusively on homosexuality. Its lush and literate, though variable, prose style and the relative complexity and depth of character and plot development share as much with the aesthetic fiction of the period as with its typical pornography.

<i>Le Sexe qui parle</i> 1975 French film

Le Sexe qui parle is a 1975 French adult film by Claude Mulot. It was the first exclusive hardcore feature film produced and released in France to meet international success, and has been called a cult film. In 1977, Mulot directed the sequel Le Sexe qui parle II, which starts with the "infection" passed by Eric to a prostitute.

The Romance of Lust, or Early Experiences is a Victorian erotic novel written anonymously in four volumes during the years 1873–1876 and published by William Lazenby. Henry Spencer Ashbee discusses this novel in one of his bibliographies of erotic literature. In addition the compilers of British Museum General Catalogue of Printed Books list this book.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Carrington</span> British publisher of erotica

Charles Carrington (1857–1921) was a leading British publisher of erotica in late-19th- and early-20th-century Europe. Born Paul Harry Ferdinando in Bethnal Green, England on 11 November 1867, he moved in 1895 from London to Paris where he published and sold books in the rue Faubourg Montmartre and rue de Chateaudun; for a short period he moved his activities to Brussels. Carrington also published works of classical literature, including the first English translation of Aristophanes' "Comedies," and books by famous authors such as Oscar Wilde and Anatole France, in order to hide his "undercover" erotica publications under a veil of legitimacy. His books featured the erotic art of Martin van Maële. He published a French series La Flagellation a Travers le Monde mainly on English flagellation, identifying it as an English predilection.

<i>My Secret Life</i> (memoir) Erotic memoir published from 1888

My Secret Life, by "Walter", is the memoir of a gentleman describing the author's sexual development and experiences in Victorian England. It was first published in a private edition of eleven volumes, at the expense of the author, including an imperfect index, which appeared over seven years beginning around 1888.

The Boudoir: A Magazine of Scandal, Facetiae etc. was an erotic magazine published in London in the 1880s by William Lazenby. It was a continuation of The Pearl and existed between 1883 and 1884.

Edward Avery was an English publisher of pornography. His notable publications include The Whippingham Papers, including poems by Algernon Charles Swinburne, and a pirated edition of Sir Richard Burton's Kama Sutra. He was an associate of William Lazenby and Leonard Smithers.

The Whippingham Papers is a Victorian work of sado-masochistic pornography by St George Stock and published by Edward Avery in December 1887. It consists of a collection of pieces on flagellation, some of which were contributed anonymously by Algernon Charles Swinburne, including his 94-stanza poem "Reginald's Flogging".

The Cremorne was a pornographic magazine published by William Lazenby in London in 1882. The title alludes to Cremorne Gardens which had by that time become a haunt of prostitutes. The magazine was a sequel to The Pearl. The Cremorne folded in 1882.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Private Case</span> Collection of erotica at the British Library

The Private Case is a collection of erotica and pornography held initially by the British Museum and then, from 1973, by the British Library. The collection began between 1836 and 1870 and grew from the receipt of books from legal deposit, from the acquisition of bequests and, in some cases, from requests made to the police following their seizures of obscene material.

<i>The Memoirs of Dolly Morton</i> Pornographic novel published in London in 1899

The Memoirs of Dolly Morton: The Story of A Woman's Part in the Struggle to Free the Slaves, An Account of the Whippings, Rapes, and Violences that Preceded the Civil War in America, with Curious Anthropological Observations on the Radical Diversities in the Conformation of the Female Bottom and the Way Different Women Endure Chastisement is a pornographic novel published in London in 1899 under the pseudonym Jean de Villiot, probably Hugues Rebell or Charles Carrington who published the work. Another edition was published in Philadelphia in 1904.

Sadopaideia: Being the Experiences of Cecil Prendergast Undergraduate of the University of Oxford Shewing How he was Led Through the Pleasant Paths of Masochism to the Supreme joys of Sadism is a pornographic novel published in 1907 by "Ashantee of Edinburgh": probably Charles Carrington in Paris. It was later published in the United States by Grove Press (GP-421). In two volumes, it is the story of a man who experiences both dominance and submission. It was written anonymously but Anthony Storr attributes it to Algernon Charles Swinburne.

The vagina loquens, Latin for "talking vagina", is a significant tradition in literature and art, dating back to the ancient folklore motif of the "talking cunt". These tales usually involve vaginas talking due to the effect of magic or charms, and often admitting to their unchastity. Another tradition is a vagina that acquires the power of speech to play the role of informant and reveal a history of previous lovers.

<i>Sex to Sexty</i>

Sex to Sexty was a sexually-oriented humor magazine published in Arlington, Texas, by John W. Newbern, Jr. and Peggy Rodebaugh, with art direction by Lowell Davis ), under the respective pseudonyms of Richard or Dick Rodman, Goose Reardon, and Pierre Davis.

References

  1. Frank Bates, "Corporal Punishment in Legal, Historical and Social Context'", Manitoba Law Journal12 (1982-1983), 337
  2. Donald Serrell Thomas, Swinburne, the Poet in his World, Oxford University Press, 1979, ISBN   0-19-520136-1, 216
  3. Thomas S. Weinberg S & M: Studies in Dominance & Submission (Prometheus Books, 1995), ISBN   0-87975-978-X, 226
  4. 1 2 Donald McCormick, Richard Deacon, Erotic literature: a connoisseur's guide (Continuum, 1992), ISBN   0-8264-0574-6, 61
  5. Vance Randolph, "Unprintable Ozark Folksongs and Folklore: Blow the candle out" in Gershon Legman, ed., Roll Me in Your Arms: Unprintable Ozark Folksongs and Folklore, vol. 2 (University of Arkansas Press, 1992), ISBN   1-55728-237-4, 898
  6. Paul Giles, Atlantic Republic: The American Tradition in English Literature (Oxford University Press, 2006), ISBN   0-19-920633-3, 149
  7. Michael Matthew Kaylor, "Secreted Desires: The Major Uranians: Hopkins, Pater and Wilde" (Michael Matthew Kaylor, 2006), ISBN   80-210-4126-9, 15
  8. Sigel, 64, 73-74
  9. Gaétan Brulotte, John Phillips, Encyclopedia of Erotic Literature (CRC Press, 2006), ISBN   1-57958-441-1, 1048
  10. Kearney, 9-10
  11. Donald Serrell Thomas, A Long Time Burning: The History of Literary Censorship in England (Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1969), 273
  12. Nelson, Claudia; Martin, Michelle H. (2004). Sexual pedagogies: sex education in Britain, Australia, and America, 1879-2000. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 30. ISBN   1-4039-6350-9.
  13. Mendes (1993) p.300
  14. Sigel (2005) pp.73-74
  15. Sigel (2005) pp.73-74,95-96
  16. Matt Cook, London and the Culture of Homosexuality, 1885-1914 (Cambridge University Press, 2003), ISBN   0-521-82207-6, 19-22
  17. Melissa Hope Ditmore, Encyclopedia of Prostitution and Sex Work (Greenwood Publishing Group, 2006), ISBN   0-313-32968-0, 442
  18. James Nelson, Publisher to the Decadents: Leonard Smithers in the Careers of Beardsley, Wilde, Dowson (Pennsylvania State University Press, 2000)
  19. Sigel, 116