Soho Typescripts

Handmade obscene books in post-war London bookshops

Dados Bibliográficos

ID13086130
AutoresHelen Wickstead (0000-0003-4115-7672, Kingston University, autor correspondente)
Ano2020
Volume7
Fascículo2
Páginas187-211
Data de publicação2020-02-10
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoPorn Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 2326-8743 • E-ISSN: 2326-8751
EditoraTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/23268743.2019.1689842
OpenAlexW2998011080
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas3
Referências citadas14

Soho Typescripts were a distinctive type of handmade pornography associated with London’s Soho in the 1950s and 1960s. Thousands were produced, but only a proportion survive today. This article presents the first dedicated study of Soho Typescripts based on examination of 50 typescripts from the British Library, a private collection and recent acquisitions by the Museum of London. The article summarizes their distinguishing characteristics and discusses their circulation within an alternative economy regulated though informal alliances between bookshop owners and police. Retail innovations allowed a widening cross-section of men to purchase illustrated home-produced books from post-war bookshops. Retailers positioned Soho Typescripts within a spatial hierarchy, categorizing them with folk-sexological labels: ‘Fladge’, ‘Straight’, ‘B/W’, ‘Les’ and ‘Fem Dom’. Common themes of typescript fiction included teenage girls, lesbianism, sadomasochism and interracial sex. Soho Typescripts are under-represented in institutional collections. Consequently, the significance and reach of these hand-crafted commercial products may have been underestimated

Advertising · Archaeology · Art history · Business · Hierarchy · Human sexuality · Movie theater · Political science · Pornography · Sadomasochism · Section (typography · Sociology · Spanish Civil War · TypeScript · Gender Studies · Gender, Feminism, and Media · History · Law · LGBTQ Health, Identity, and Policy · Sexuality, Behavior, and Technology