[Scrapbook]: Gay Man's Scrapbook in the 1960s

New Jersey, 1960. Hardcover. Very Good. Quarto measuring 12" x 12.5". String-tied brown paper boards with "scrapbook" stamped in gilt on the front board. Slight mustiness and edgewear thus very good.

A scrapbook kept by New Jersey native, William Saupe, during the 1960s. From the contents it seems Saupe identified as gay and often discusses his love for a man named Frank. The album contains letters, cards, drawings, photographs, and other ephemera from Saupe's life and his relationship with Frank. Many of the pages include transcriptions of letters or captions that explain the included contents. Some of the photos and letters are from when Saupe was serving with the Army in the late 1960s. Saupe often includes drawings of male bodies one of which features a uniformed cartoon man ogling a male chest. The same drawing also features images of anatomically correct male genitalia and sperm with the caption "don't ask what cause I don't know." In the same letter he writes, "I have a very good friend here his name is Bill too and is also gay too." He goes on to explain that this friend went "to the chaplain and yelled queer" and now he's leaving the army. Saupe says that after this he too spoke to the chaplain and his "C.O. called me into his office and asked me if I was gay. And a whole mess of other stuff like that. Now the paper work and more questions to make sure I am. I can't wait til I am home again." Some of the pages feature romantic or humorous flirting cards William often signs as Madame Butterfly, in one letter he mentions he's considering getting a tattoo of a butterfly and asks Frank's opinion. One of these cards has an elephant saying "you don't have to write me but at least dip your snoot in the ink and leave a nose print here." Where it reads "nose" it's been crossed out and replaced with "prick." In another letter he talks about wanting a wedding and asks Frank if he's ever been to a "gay wedding."

After his discharge from the army Bill perused an art career in New York. His drawings can be seen throughout his letters to Frank, including images of famous characters such as Batman, as well as his own ideas, many of which were erotic in nature. One flyer featured here advertises an erotic art show at a gallery in New York's Greenwich Village. In some of his letters from this time Bill signs his name as "Bil Bike" and shows an interest in biker leather fashions.

An interesting collection of ephemera following a homosexual man in the 1960s.