General Links

Please note that links related to leather literature and art can be found in all of the sections of this page, whether or not they are labelled "leather."

Sections below:

* Codes for Mature Content
* Other Indexes
* The History of Leather
* The History of Leather Art
* The History of Leather Literature
* Leather Publishing in the Past and Present
* The History of Gay Magazines
* The History of Homoerotic Art and Literature
* Related Articles from the glbtq Encyclopedia
* Related Articles from the St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture

CODES FOR MATURE CONTENT

Links to pages that include mature content are labelled in the following manner:

A = Erotic art.

S = Strong language.

W = Writings that include detailed descriptions of sexual activities (for either educational or erotic purposes).

OTHER INDEXES

The FictionMags Index. A massive site that seems determined to list the tables of contents of every fiction magazine that ever existed. Erotic magazines are included. Not many gay magazines are there yet, alas, but the editor does tell how you can help with the project. See also the links section.

Gay Fiction Anthology Index. An index to the short stories in gay anthologies. Includes some leather stories, such as those found in John Preston's Flesh and the Word and in Simon Sheppard and M. Christian's Rough Stuff. (The latter anthology, confusingly, is listed on the "not indexed" page, but it's indexed.) There is a genre category that includes erotica.

Gay Poetry Anthology Index. One of the anthologies indexed is Between the Cracks: The Daedalus Anthology of Kinky Verse. (Archived. In order to go to the inner pages of the site, plug their URLs into the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.)

GLBT Life. This database, which is available through EBSCO, indexes The Leather Journal and will soon index Leather Times (newsletter of the Leather Archives & Museum). See the next entry for information on accessing the database.

Indexes to Gay/Lesbian Periodical Articles. This list is a bit short on lesbian publications (which can be found in some databases of women's literature), but it gives the fullest listing I've seen of databases that index gay male magazines. Alas, none of the indexes except EBSCO cover leather magazines (which is why this site exists). But they do cover mainstream gay and lesbian magazines that may occasionally publish articles about leather. Some of these databases include full texts of the articles. The databases are available through electronic catalogues at many university libraries and some public libraries. Some university libraries will allow anyone to use their electronic catalogues.

Leather/SM Timelines and Historical Bibliographies. There are too many leather-related bibliographies on the Web to list here, but this section of Leather Culture, 1945-1985 provides links to the bibliographies with most substance.

Our Own Voices: Lesbian & Gay Periodicals 1890s-2000s. A very long list of gay magazines and other periodicals, with basic publication information such as the years when the periodical existed. The best source of information online about leather magazines, though you have to know what you're looking for.

Smutjunkies. A comprehensive index to the models in gay erotic magazines, as well as some information on issue contents. [A, S]

THE HISTORY OF LEATHER

The Development of Sadomasochism as a Cultural Style in the Twentieth-Century United States. It takes a long time to download this 1998 dissertation, but it's worth it if you're interested in the history of heterosexual BDSM or gay leather. The dissertation covers such topics as BDSM publishing, physique magazines, and leather art, as well as supplying a wealth of information on the history of early gay leather groups. [A]

Leather Archives & Museum. [A]

Leather Culture, 1945-1985: A Bibliography of Printed and Online Resources.

Leather Fonds: Archives and Libraries with Collections Related to Leather Culture.

LordSaber's BDSM History Page. Links to a number of articles on the history of gay leather.

THE HISTORY OF LEATHER ART

The 1970s Revisited. (Site's warning page.) Interview with an associate of Bob Opel, who ran a leather art gallery in San Francisco.

THE HISTORY OF LEATHER LITERATURE

S/M: The New Romance. By Michael Bronski. A history and critique of gay leather literature. All of the authors mentioned in the essay wrote for leather magazines. [S, W]

LEATHER PUBLISHING IN THE PAST AND PRESENT

Links related to specific magazines or their contributors can be located through this site's home page.

Aubrey's Playroom. Pansexual. Archives for an online leather/BDSM talk show. Includes interviews with authors, artists, and publishers. [A; may have S and W]

Cuirmale Gay Leather Fetish History. A history of gay leather in the U.S. and Europe, especially in England and the Netherlands. The "Gay Leather" and "Personal Histories" section include information on European and American leather-related magazines from the 1950s onwards. (If you have trouble viewing the site, try the site map.) [A]

Excellence in Club Communications (skip down). Honors given in 2000 by The Leather Journal to leather clubs for excellence in newsletters, etc. [A]

Erotica on the Rocks. An article by Debra Hyde on the decline of leather/BDSM book and magazine publishing.

A Hell of a Run: Leather Publishing and San Francisco. An article by Drummer publisher Robert Davolt on the decline of leather magazine publishing. From LeatherPage.com.

How to Write Leather Erotica and Get It Published. By Cain Berlinger, a leather author.

International Directory of Online Leather Magazines and Newsletters.

Introduction to Lars Eighner's Lavender's Blue: How to Write and Sell Gay Men's Erotica. By John Preston, who both authored and edited leather literature. No specific mention of leather, but the essay provides humorous insight into gay erotica authorship and publishing. More information on those topics are available through Eighner's book.

SCENEprofiles Interviews with BDSM Personalities.
By Sensuous Sadie. Pansexual. Includes interviews with many authors, editors, and publishers, scattered throughout the various categories. [May have A, S, and W]

True Tales: Links. Links page maintained by the Webmaster of this site, covering various topics related to current leather publishing, literature, and art.

The World's First Piercing Magazine. By Jim Ward. The editor of Piercing Fans International Quarterly describes how he drew assistance from a leather artist to start his magazine, then later distanced himself from leather magazines for legal reasons. [A]

THE HISTORY OF GAY MAGAZINES

The Barest Generation. By Michael Bronski. The war between gay and straight magazines in the 1950s over who "owned" images of nude men.

Beefcake Before Blueboy. By Alan Miller.

From Johnson to Nixon: Narrative Shifts in Gay Male Pornography. By Jeremiah Smith.

Physique Magazines: A History of American Male Erotica. By Jesse Monteagudo. [A]

THE HISTORY OF HOMOEROTIC ART AND LITERATURE

Adult Novels of Men in the Womanless World – Gay Pulp Fiction of the 1950's and 1960's. By David Seubert. Includes a brief passage on leather author Phil Andros. [A]

A History of Homoerotica. By Rictor Norton. Covers literature and art from the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries. Includes the chapter "The Beginnings of Beefcake." [S, W]

Gay Art History Links. [A]

Homoerotic Art Museum. From ancient times to the present. [A]

Kilgore Trout Erotic Authors Page: Links List. (Site's warning page.) "This links collection is compiled with the aim of exploring – where possible via the authors' own accounts – the variety of reasons why many serious writers, past and present, have chosen to write erotica, pornography or other sexually explicit works." Includes links to leather authors.

The Leslie-Lohman Gay Art Foundation. Includes leather artists. See also the site's links page. [A]

Tom of Finland Foundation. Devoted to the first leather artist. Covers other gay erotic artists as well, including leather artists. See also the site's links pages. [A]

Guide to Doing Research on GLBT Topics and on Pornography. The links section of Leather Fonds.

The Paperback Explosion: How Gay Paperbacks Changed America. By Ian Young. Includes a passage on leather author Phil Andros. Also linked on this page is a review of a book by leatherman Larry Townsend. [A]

The World History of Male Love. From ancient times forward. Includes sections devoted to art and to literature. [A, W]

RELATED ARTICLES FROM THE GLBTQ ENCYCLOPEDIA

This site includes changing advertising.

Erotic and Pornographic Art: Gay Male.

Leather Culture.

Literature: Erotica and Pornography.

Photography: Gay Male, Pre-Stonewall.

Sadomasochistic Literature.

Subjects of the Visual Arts: Sailors and Soldiers.

Tom of Finland (Touko Laaksonen). Leather artist.

RELATED ARTICLES FROM THE ST. JAMES ENCYCLOPEDIA OF POPULAR CULTURE

Athletic Model Guild.

Bathhouses.

The Cowboy Look.

Gay and Lesbian Press. Includes a history of gay magazines.

Harley-Davidson.

Leather Jacket.

Levi's.

Robert Mapplethorpe.

Rodeo. Includes two paragraphs on gay rodeos.

Tom of Finland.

The Wild One.

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This text, or a variation on it, was originally published at duskpeterson.com as part of The Leather Research Reference Shelf. Copyright © 2004-2005 Dusk Peterson. Some rights reserved. The text is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0). You may freely print, post, e-mail, share, or otherwise distribute the text for noncommercial purposes, provided that you include this paragraph. The author's policies on derivative works and fan works are available online (duskpeterson.com/copyright.htm).