We Only Collect Them for the Articles…Honest!

Erotic adult magazines might seem atypical fare for an archive. Yet these journals will often publish short stories, interviews, and feature stories by and about highly esteemed authors. Both The Dude and Gent reprinted fiction by William Faulkner in 1957. The writer received an influx of cash while the tag line “Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature” presumably lent the publications an aura of erudition and culture.

While preparing for its 25th anniversary exhibit catalogue in 2000, Special Collections received permission from Easyriders to reprint a two-page spread of Larry Brown’s first published short story. In an unexpected turn of events, the magazine subsequently touted its inclusion in such a “highbrow” forum.

Several “lowbrow” journals covered the scandalous life and death of the poet and novelist Maxwell Bodenheim. Born in Hermanville, Mississippi, he became known as the King of the Greenwich Village Bohemians during the 1920s Jazz Age.

Meanwhile, the Playboy galley proof features a reminiscence on Ronald Reagan from Curtis Wilkie’s tenure as a White House correspondent for the Boston Globe.

Featured in this case:

• Gent: The Approach to Relaxation, June 1957. Includes an interview with William Faulkner
• Rogue, February 1963. Includes "William Faulkner's Final Interview"
• The Dude: The Magazine Devoted to Pleasure, March 1957. Includes an interview with William Faulkner
• Playboy, April 1973. Includes an interview with Tennessee Williams
• Playboy, uncorrected proof. "The President as a Comic-kaze" / Curtis Wilkie (published in June 1963 issue)
• Easyriders: Entertainment for Adult Bikers, June 1982. Includes Larry Brown's first published short story, "Plant Growing Problems"
• Caper, November 1963. "Profile of a Character: Maxwell Bodenheim" / Morton Cooper