Читать книгу The Why Not - Victor J. Banis - Страница 3

The Why Not was written in 1965 and first published in 1966—not an auspicious time for gay fiction. In 1963, in what was a cause célèbre for advocates of freedom of speech, Fresno publishers Sanford Aday and Wallace de Ortega Maxey were convicted of distributing obscene material and sentenced to twenty-five years in prison. The books for which they were convicted were tepid compared to the writings of, say, Mickey Spillane. It was the homosexual content of some of them, and that alone, that rendered them obscene—and that sent these publishers to prison; and sent a chill throughout the publishing word. At that moment, no one wanted to publish homosexual material.

Well, what did I know? I had already been through a lengthy trial of my own for conspiring to distribute obscene material—four months in a Sioux City, Iowa courtroom for a book, The Affairs of Gloria, that had one “damn” in it and one “go to hell.” It did, however, significantly have some—again, tepid—lesbian scenes.

In for a penny, in for a pound. I wanted to write a gay novel, and write it I did, and it was my great good fortune that it reached the hands of Earl Kemp at Greenleaf Classics, who would be my chief editor for the next several years. Years later, Earl would say of The Why Not:

There were many thousand of paperback novels published under my direction (in the 60s,) and ninety-nine percent of them all started out as original manuscripts. There was a point in time when we were almost inundated with unsolicited submissions by wannabe writers, the proverbial “slush pile.” We also had a very good First Reader named Bill. It was his job to wade through all those novice manuscripts looking for passable material. His word was the first absolute final word in the whole editorial department

From those approximate 4,000 paperback titles that we published I can remember around four manuscripts only of truly significant worth, both as literature and as a viable portrayal of our liberated times. These are manuscripts that almost from the minute they arrived at the office began making ripples of excitement that flowed instantaneously from editor to editor.

Such a day happened when Bill opened the package containing the manuscript for The Why Not. He barely even began his customary quick-eyescan-and-quicker-rejection routine when something grabbed him and he stopped reading. When he realized that he didn’t need to read the manuscript, he brought it directly into my office…the first time he had ever done any such thing. (Actually, office protocol dictated that he follow procedure, and pass anything to me through the editor in chief.)

“I think you need to look at this manuscript yourself,” he told me.

And I did, and I agreed with Bill and I also recognized it was something remarkable, timely and apt to be rather popular. I bought that manuscript right then without even reading it all the way through and I’ve never regretted that decision for a moment.

I feel it was a pivotal book that opened doors too-long closed and one of the major building blocks in (the) ongoing fight for First Amendment realities.

* * * *

The Why Not did indeed open doors to gay writers, and, as Greenleaf’s first gay novel (as well as mine) it is often credited with launching the gay publishing revolution that so changed the gay world in the ’60s and ’70s. It sold well for its publisher and got a glowing review in Publishers Weekly and an even better one from Joseph Hanson writing in One Magazine. I only regret that I do not have those reviews today, so that I could include them here. You will just have to take my word for them; but, if any of you should have them, I would be glad to hear form you.

Over the years since its publication, the book has become a collector’s item; an autographed copy was offered a year or so ago for $175.00—quite a rate of inflation, considering that the original sold for seventy-five cents—and I am routinely asked at book shows and other gatherings to sign copies for those collectors.

The Why Not was modeled after an actual bar, The Castaways, on Commonwealth Avenue, and in its heyday, it was perhaps the most popular gay bar in Hollywood. Incidentally, it was my old friend, Elbert Barrow (who was the model for Lady Agatha in the book) who nicknamed it the Why Not. A typical Saturday afternoon exchange might go, “Are you coming to the bar tonight?” and the answer was usually, “Why not?”

The last I saw, there was a Japanese karaoke bar where once The Castaways stood. The Why Not is long gone, but I am glad the old girl’s stories linger on.

—Victor J. Banis