MANLIB!

(New York): (Carlyle Communications), 1974. First edition. Very good.. Signed first printing of this sleaze paperback by science fiction writer Andrew J. Offutt writing as John Cleve, the persona and one of several pseudonyms under which he published enormous amounts of erotica over several decades. Following Offutt's death in 2013, his son, writer Chris Offutt, released a memoir assessing A. Offutt's life and works, published and unpublished: "The commercial popularity of American erotic novels peaked during the 1970s, coinciding with my father's most prolific and energetic period. Dad combined porn with all manner of genre fiction. He wrote pirate (truncated) porn, ghost porn, science-fiction porn, vampire porn, historical porn, time-travel porn, secret-agent porn, thriller porn, zombie porn and Atlantis porn. [...] I came to understand that my father had passed as a science-fiction writer while actually pursuing a 50-year career as a pornographer." On the question of pseudonymous authorship, "Dad regarded John Cleve as his alter ego, a separate entity, the persona who wrote porn. Dad was adamant that he did not have 17 pen names. Dad had John Cleve, to whom he referred in the third person. It was John Cleve who had 16 pseudonyms, in addition to his own wardrobe, stationery and signature" (C. Offutt.). 7'' x 4''. Original black pictorial wrappers. All edges tinted yellow. 187, [1] pages, followed by publisher's advertisements. Signed "John Cleve" with final "e" ending "in a circle with an arrow" (C. Offutt) on first leaf. Light edgewear with a small area of heavy creasing along top edge of rear cover, faint sunning to spine. (Inventory #: 53814)