Greenleaf Classics GP555 - Earl Kemp - The Illustrated Presidential Report of the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography
Earl Kemp (editor) - The Illustrated Presidential Report of the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography
Greenleaf Classics GP555, 1970
Cover design uncredited
The illustrated Presidential Report of the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography is the product of curious historical circumstance. Authorized by Congress to investigate the validity of obscenity laws in 1967, during Lyndon Johnson’s presidency, the Commission’s work extended through the Vietnam War and Richard Nixon’s election, events which greatly diminished the Commission’s governmental favor.
When the report was finally released in 1970, it was fractured in two: a majority report recommending that anti-obscenity laws be struck down, and a dissenting minority report that expressed the views of the reigning Republican Party. The majority report was censured by the Senate, discredited by Nixon, and apparently doomed to immediate obscurity, until a copy found its way into the hands of William Hamling and Earl Kemp of the erotic publishing house Greenleaf Classics.
Hamling and Kemp re-released the report, illustrating it with hundreds of explicit pornographic images – images similar to those the Commission had used for evidence in its research. While initial sales were predictably brisk, the unauthorized publication soon came to the President’s attention, and Hamling and Kemp were indicted on obscenity charges and ordered to sell Greenleaf.
As a result, the illustrated report is relatively rare, but copies do survive the political tumult of their creation. The volume’s illustrations, captioned with excerpts from the text, are an exhaustive survey of sexual imagery in American culture, juxtaposed against the report’s survey results, legislative recommendations, and general commentary.
(Modern Books and Manuscripts
Houghton Library, Harvard University)
It is still discussed in reverential tones by those who were working in the business at the time. "Brilliant." "A work of genius." Competitors were in awe at the sheer nerve, the nth degree of chutzpah involved in its conception and publication. It is now scarce, one of the Holy Grails of collectors, one of the most sought-after rare books of modern erotic literature. It is The Illustrated Presidential Report of the Commission on Obscenity
and Pornography edited by Earl Kemp, with an Introduction by Eason Monroe, the ACLU's Southern California Executive Director, a Preface by Donald H. Gilmore; and an additional Preface by Roger Blake, Ph.D. [John Trimble, Ph.D.] and released by Greenleaf.
--Steven J. Gertz, An Amazing Kingdom of Thrills, 2002
Greenleaf Classics GP555 - Earl Kemp - The Illustrated Presidential Report of the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography
Earl Kemp (editor) - The Illustrated Presidential Report of the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography
Greenleaf Classics GP555, 1970
Cover design uncredited
The illustrated Presidential Report of the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography is the product of curious historical circumstance. Authorized by Congress to investigate the validity of obscenity laws in 1967, during Lyndon Johnson’s presidency, the Commission’s work extended through the Vietnam War and Richard Nixon’s election, events which greatly diminished the Commission’s governmental favor.
When the report was finally released in 1970, it was fractured in two: a majority report recommending that anti-obscenity laws be struck down, and a dissenting minority report that expressed the views of the reigning Republican Party. The majority report was censured by the Senate, discredited by Nixon, and apparently doomed to immediate obscurity, until a copy found its way into the hands of William Hamling and Earl Kemp of the erotic publishing house Greenleaf Classics.
Hamling and Kemp re-released the report, illustrating it with hundreds of explicit pornographic images – images similar to those the Commission had used for evidence in its research. While initial sales were predictably brisk, the unauthorized publication soon came to the President’s attention, and Hamling and Kemp were indicted on obscenity charges and ordered to sell Greenleaf.
As a result, the illustrated report is relatively rare, but copies do survive the political tumult of their creation. The volume’s illustrations, captioned with excerpts from the text, are an exhaustive survey of sexual imagery in American culture, juxtaposed against the report’s survey results, legislative recommendations, and general commentary.
(Modern Books and Manuscripts
Houghton Library, Harvard University)
It is still discussed in reverential tones by those who were working in the business at the time. "Brilliant." "A work of genius." Competitors were in awe at the sheer nerve, the nth degree of chutzpah involved in its conception and publication. It is now scarce, one of the Holy Grails of collectors, one of the most sought-after rare books of modern erotic literature. It is The Illustrated Presidential Report of the Commission on Obscenity
and Pornography edited by Earl Kemp, with an Introduction by Eason Monroe, the ACLU's Southern California Executive Director, a Preface by Donald H. Gilmore; and an additional Preface by Roger Blake, Ph.D. [John Trimble, Ph.D.] and released by Greenleaf.
--Steven J. Gertz, An Amazing Kingdom of Thrills, 2002