Larry Townsend

Larry Townsend (born October 27, 1930 ; † July 29, 2008 ) was an American author (non-fiction, novels) with a focus on BDSM . The two books Run Little Leather Boy (1970) and The Leatherman's Handbook (1972) achieved cult status .

Life

Townsend was stationed in the Air Intelligence Service of the US Air Force in Germany in the first half of the 1950s . In 1956 he returned to the USA and began his studies at the University of California in Los Angeles .

In the 1960s he was an officer candidate in the Air Force | He then switched to youth work for difficult to educate adolescents in forest camps and finally works as a psychologist on a secret industrial project. During this time, because of the general social circumstances, but also because of his employer, he could only pursue his passion, homoerotic writing, in secret.

These circumstances began to change with the emergence of liberalization , the emerging American gay political movement, and the Stonewall demonstrations in the summer of 1969. The small publisher Greenleaf Classics in San Diego was so brave and dared to co-publish the book Song of the Loom in 1970 - which by the standards of the time contained explicit hardcore formulations ( sex , bondage , domination, BDSM ). And suddenly, to the astonishment of those involved, there was no more censorship . In retrospect, that was the breakthrough for pornographic literature on the gay leather scene. The mailing of gay and pornographic books and magazines was also no longer blocked by the state from the mid-1970s. This made Townsend possible his literary work.

At the end of July 2008, the author died in his home above the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles.

plant

Townsend, now a budding journalist , published 13 b / m-oriented novels for Greenleaf Classics in 1970/71 , including: Run Little Leather Boy and Run No More .

At the same time he wrote the manuscript for an unusual non-fiction book : The Leatherman's Handbook , the world's first systematic guide for gay leather men and S / M fetish. It was published in 1972 by the US publisher Olympia Press . The book became a sensation and an international success under the abbreviation “TLH” . A second edition appeared in 1974, a third then published by LeSalon in 1978/79 with an updated foreword and a specialist index. Instead of a fourth edition, a completely new version was created in 1981 with a modified dictus under the title: The Leatherman's Handbook II by Mandate . The second edition appeared in 1983. In the third edition in 1989, the then new topic of AIDS was mentioned for the first time - with appropriate warnings for relevant sexual practices. The book was published in 1993, 1995 and 2000 in updated new editions. Both TLH books proved to be a global success. Therefore, in 1997, for the 25th anniversary of the first manual, a special The Leatherman's Handbook - Silver Jubilee Edition was printed.

Due to the continued high demand, the second handbook for the 20th anniversary in 2001 came on the English-speaking market as a special edition ( The Leatherman's Handbook II - New Millennium Edition ) . At the same time a German version was published by the Berliner Querverlag as Das Lederhandbuch II with a cover picture by the German photographer Henning von Berg .

Townsend's monthly column Leather Notebook , which appeared in fetish magazine Drummer from 1980 to 1992 and which he continued in Honcho magazine until his death in 2008 , received good reviews . His last novel Time Masters was published in April 2008.

Townsend has written dozens of s / m-oriented non-fiction books, novels and short stories and is a renowned cult author , especially in the USA .

Literature (excerpt)

• Run, Litte Leather Boy . 1971, without ISBN.
• The Other Traveler 1971 . Without ISBN.
• 2069 or friends on Alpha Centauri . Carré-Verlag Cologne (approx. 1980), without ISBN.
• Master and opponent . 1st edition. Pullenreuth 1992, ISBN 978-3-88677-951-2 ; 2nd edition: Berlin 2003, ISBN 978-3-86187-331-0 .
• Master against idiot . Pullenreuth 1992, ISBN 978-3-88677-954-3 .
• The beheaded . Cologne 1996, ISBN 978-3-932117-25-1 .
• Hot cases for Sherlock Holmes . Berlin 1997, ISBN 978-3-86187-040-1 (English original title: The sexual adventures of Sherlock Holmes ).
• The kiss of death . Cologne 1997, ISBN 978-3-932117-34-3 .
• The leather manual . Querverlag , Berlin 1998, ISBN 978-3-89656-032-2 (English original title: The Leatherman's Handbook . 1st edition. Olympia Press, 1972, ISBN 1-881684-19-9 ).
• The leather handbook II . Querverlag, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89656-068-9 (English original title: The Leatherman's Handbook II . 1981, ISBN 0-503-09999-6 ).
• Master of his trade . Berlin 2003, ISBN 978-3-86187-834-6 (English original title: One for the master, two for the fool ).

Web links

• For Townsend's death
• Cover The Leatherman's Handbook
• List of Townsend-books (English)
• Total list of Townsend-books (English)
• Interview with Larry Townsend, 1996