An Obscene Diary: The Visual World of Sam Steward

Special Edition of 1,000. Hardcover and softcover in slipcase. Includes two books, both 8.5 x 11 inches. Book 1: Softcover 116 pages. Book 2: Hardcover 200 pages. $150.00

Justin Spring's An Obscene Diary: The Visual World of Sam Steward chronicles the extraordinary visual works of Samuel M. Steward, the talented and largely unknown, writer, artist, photographer, and sexual outlaw who was also known a tattoo artist Phil Sparrow and pornographer Phil Andros. This special edition, limited to 1,000 copies, presents a diverse and powerful collection of drawings, paintings, sculptures, decorative objects, illustrations and photographs that are remarkably varied in style, and often quite contradictory in mood and tone. Bound in two volumes and slipcased, the collection presents more than 700 images. This edition complements Justin Spring's biography of Steward, Secret Historian: The Life and Times of Samuel Steward, Professor, Tattoo Artist, and Sexual Renegade (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2010). The Elysium Press volume presents a wealth of otherwise unknown and unpublished material by Steward, including a large number of sexually explicit polaroids taken by Steward in the early 1950s. Copies may be ordered directly from Elysium Press via its website.

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Fairfield Porter: A Life in Art

This absorbing biography of Fairfield Porter makes clear John Ashbery`s assessment of Porter as "perhaps the major American artist of this century." Justin Spring tells of Porter`s troubled, bohemian life, his struggle to raise a family while dealing with a bisexual identity, his work as an artist producing realist works in the midst of the Abstract Expressionist movement, and his late triumph as a painter and critic.

From Library Journal

The artistic reputation of American artist Fairfield Porter (1907-75) has never quite reached the mythic proportions of many of his contemporaries. Porter's intimate representational works, often portraits of his family and friends, however, hold their own as American contributions to the art of this century. Born to wealth, his life in art encompassed not only his painting but also work as a critic and a poet. Spring (The Essential Jackson Pollock) captures both Porter's tempestuous personal life-mingling the art and literary worlds of the century-and the essence of his art. For those who are just discovering it, this biography will provide an excellent overview of his life and work, this is recommended for all collections with an interest in American Art. Martin R Kalfatovic, Smithsonian Inst. Libs., Washington, DC Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Paul Cadmus: The Male Nude

One of the most accomplished artists of the twentieth century, Paul Cadmus is best known for his provocative satires of American life. He first gained national recognition in 1934 when his bawdy painting The Fleet's In! was barred from a Public Works of Art exhibition in Washington, D.C. For more than six decades following, Cadmus led a career as a meticulous craftsman devoted to Renaissance-era traditions of figurative realism. But his drawings of the male nude, which always formed the heart of his work, were often overlooked.

Here for the first time in one volume are seventy of Cadmus's most stunning tributes to the male form. Cadmus continued to produce these works up until his death at age ninety-four, and this volume includes many drawings that have never been seen before. The artist's most frequent model was his lifelong partner Jon Anderson, and the drawings offer up not just an elegant fluency and technical virtuosity but also a tender emotional resonance. Introducing each era of the artist's career is an illustrated essay by respected critic and writer Justin Spring, placing Cadmus in the context of the rich history of the male nude.

Paul Cadmus reminds us-- poignantly, eloquently, humbly-- of the sincere beauty of the male form and of humanity itself with each masterful rendering. As Guy Davenport wrote in The Drawings of Paul Cadmus, "His drawings of male nudes are of bodies, but of achieved, perfected bodies that serve as symbols, as in ancient Greece, of a perfect unity of spirit and flesh, mind and body. For Cadmus the body is the person."

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