Manchester University Press
Olympia, Paris
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Barry Reay
Abstract
In Paris from 1953 to 1966, Maurice Girodias, his Olympia Press and their collection of writers produced a steady stream of English-language erotic and pornographic literature, just under two hundred titles in all. Girodias’s strategy was to use his pornography to subsidise the publication of more experimental literary works, what was considered avant-garde, modernist literature. Thus, the work of Samuel Beckett, William Burroughs, J. P. Donleavy, Lawrence Durrell, Jean Genet, Henry Miller, Vladimir Nabokov and Alexander Trocchi stood alongside unadulterated porn – dirty books, or ‘dbs’. This chapter examines the fascinating relationship between the avant-garde and the erotic.
Abstract
In Paris from 1953 to 1966, Maurice Girodias, his Olympia Press and their collection of writers produced a steady stream of English-language erotic and pornographic literature, just under two hundred titles in all. Girodias’s strategy was to use his pornography to subsidise the publication of more experimental literary works, what was considered avant-garde, modernist literature. Thus, the work of Samuel Beckett, William Burroughs, J. P. Donleavy, Lawrence Durrell, Jean Genet, Henry Miller, Vladimir Nabokov and Alexander Trocchi stood alongside unadulterated porn – dirty books, or ‘dbs’. This chapter examines the fascinating relationship between the avant-garde and the erotic.
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- Acknowledgements vi
- Introduction 1
- Beginnings 4
- The syndicate 35
- Olympia, Paris 62
- Repurposed pornography 97
- Dirty books 121
- Sexual revolution 153
- Literature or pornography? 187
- Conclusion 221
- Notes 227
- Index 290
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- Acknowledgements vi
- Introduction 1
- Beginnings 4
- The syndicate 35
- Olympia, Paris 62
- Repurposed pornography 97
- Dirty books 121
- Sexual revolution 153
- Literature or pornography? 187
- Conclusion 221
- Notes 227
- Index 290
