Mar15

More Ado About Fanny Hill

by debrahyde on March 15th, 2011 at 10:21 pm
Posted In: Erotomania, Libris Eroticis

In February, I documented what I thought was strange case about Fanny Hill.  Or more precisely, a certain edition of the book.  Within a week of making a post, another copy of that same addition appeared on eBay, this one with its illustrations found into the book — satisfying proof that the unbound illustrations accompanied my copy did indeed belong to this edition.

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The edition in question.

Left completely unsatisfied was the question: Was the book actually and Isidore Liseux edition?  I remained suspicious. The illustrations look nothing like what appeared in erotic fiction at the turn-of-the-century, and something about the art style reminded me of early 20-century cartooning, more along the lines of Prince valiant from the funny pages than anything else.

I don’t know why I didn’t think to do this earlier, but this time around I consulted Sheryl Straight’s website Erotobibliophile, a treasure trove of bibliographic details.  Sure enough, she had listings of both English and French languaged Fanny Hill editions. And there, as well, she had my answer.

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Citation from Eroticabibliophile.com

The addition that puzzled me was, as I suspected, a pirated version, attributed to the “Miller Brothers.”

The Miller Brothers were obscure contemporaries of Sam Roth, Esar Levine, and Ben Rebhuhn, all clandestine erotica publishers in New York City during the Great Depression.  Little’s known about the brothers, other than their preference for pirating and printing well-known works and populating them with explicit illustrations.

I realized after the fact that I had another work attributed to them, namely one of the two volume of The Modern Evangeline.

So mystery solved!  Next time this happens, I better remember to dig a little deeper and mine a little harder because the data was just one vein away!

Although, I wonder… that three-volume set of The Pearl.  The one that I learned from a noted book dealer was likely from the 1920s edition of that famous magazine?  I wonder if the Miller Brothers had anything to do with it?  A new mystery ensues…

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Feb02

Ravenous Nights!

by debrahyde on February 2nd, 2011 at 9:48 am
Posted In: Uncategorized

Or why the snow won’t keep me from NYC this Friday night (and why I hope it won’t hold you back either!).

RAVENOUS ROMANCE™ LAUNCHES NEW YORK CITY READING SERIES
Publisher of erotic fiction to launch Ravenous Nights at Lower East Side venue

[Boston, MA – February 1, 2011] – Ravenous Romance™, a leading online publisher of erotic romance novels and short stories has announced a collaboration with New York City literary hot-spot Happy Endings Lounge to host a monthly erotic reading series on the first Friday of every month called Ravenous Nights. Happy Endings, a funky 2-story club that was once a massage parlor, is located at 302 Broome Street. The first Ravenous Night is scheduled for Friday, February 4 from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m., and it is free of charge.

The lineup for February 4 includes:
Cecilia Tan, best-selling erotic author of the Magic University series
Caridad Pinero, New York Times best-selling erotic romance author
Mo Beasley, founder of Urban Erotika, a spoken word performance series
KT Grant, author of The Princess’ Bride
Debra Hyde, acclaimed writer of BDSM erotic romance and author of the BDSM classic, BLIND SEDUCTION.

In celebration of Ravenous Nights, Barnes & Noble has announced that they will offer free copies of the Ravenous Romance anthology Once Upon a Threesome to the first 100 people to download it. In addition, Ravenous Romance will give each attendee a free Ravenous Romance drink coaster to each attendee and the Happy Endings Lounge will create a special “Ravenous” cocktail which will only appear on the menu during Ravenous Nights.

Ravenous Nights
Friday, February 4, 2011
8 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Free of charge
Location: Happy Endings Lounge
302 Broome Street (at Forsyth St)
(212) 334-9676

In the name of all things erotic, let’s party!

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Nov15

Much Ado About Fanny Hill

by debrahyde on November 15th, 2010 at 3:19 pm
Posted In: Erotomania, Libris Eroticis

In erotica, Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure is something of a bible. More popularly known as Fanny Hill, it has since its debut in the late 1740s rarely been out of print, much pirated, and (well, unlike a bible,) often prosecuted for obscenity.

Among the first pirated books in America, Memoirs first saw print around 1814 and prosecution not long after. Its original British publisher, Ralph Griffiths, was reputed to have earned 10,000 pounds from the book during his lifetime. Many book historians dismiss that figure as an exaggeration born of professional jealousy by his competitors, but it shows what a high profile book Memoirs was in its day.

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Detail of a Fanny Hill illustration

Similarly, book experts often argue among themselves over what constitutes a rare book and despite the many printings Memoirs saw since its introduction, supposedly its earliest editions are considered quite rare. British book expert Roy Harley Lewis wrote in his 1978 book, Antiquarian Books: An Insider’s Account, that “when many respected collectors died certain items were removed and destroyed by well-meaning executors. A good first edition of John Cleland’s Fanny Hill (1748) is a good example.”

It’s trivia like this that prompts me to buy various editions of Cleland’s famous work. I’ve got a couple of Isadore Liseaux’s editions from the 1880s as well as newer editions that caught my fancy through the years. Not too long ago, I came across a Liseaux edition that included a dozen illustrations packed between its covers. They weren’t native to the edition and there’s no evidence that they were ever tipped into any edition. But they do look like they were sized for a 20th-century hardcover edition.

Why do I suspect 20th-century? For one thing, they look nothing like the more famous Avril or Becat illustrations. Nor do they at all resemble illustrations from the late 18th and early 19th centuries. If anything, they remind me of whimsical magazine illustrations from the 1920s and 30s, all explicitness aside. At times the young women’s hair fall into a near-bobbed look while the young men sport ridiculous Prince Valiant cuts. The surroundings seem romanticized as well.

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Detail, illustration from an early edition

Beyond my assessments here, I have no clue who produce these illustrations or what edition they were destined for. But it’s fascinating little tidbits like these that make me a bibliophile and keep me curious.

As usual, you can see all of the illustrations at my Flickr page. Fair warning: regardless of their charm, they’re NSFW. And take a close look at the last one in the series. That’s quite the tree they’re doing it under!

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