H. Lynn Womack papers

Collection

Identifier: 7441

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COLLECTION DESCRIPTION

Series I. of the H. Lynn Womack papers consists of correspondence, business records, newspaper clippings, and briefs, transcripts, and records of court cases pertaining to pornography and obscenity; also, manuscripts, correspondence, and photographs pertaining to the Guild Book Service and its affiliated enterprises, including the Guild Press, Potomac News Company, Central Sales, the Grecian Guild, Village Books, Village Press, and Media Arts. Included is the correspondence of the editors of these enterprises, including Rick Sampson, Ronnie Anderson, J.J. Proferes, and Ralph Church. Additional Guild Press records from Womack's estate include correspondence between Womack and various photographers and publishers including Randolph Benson of Trim magazine, model releases and related publication papers, photographic negatives and proofs of pictures published in various Womack magazines, and transparencies of similar material. Also, seals for Potomac Associates (1958) and Howell Academy for Boys, Inc. (1945). Series II. is an extensive collection of pornographic mail order catalogues, brochures, advertisements, and other mailings.

Dates

1945-1994

Language of Materials

Collection material in English

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

H. Lynn Womack (1923-1985) was a headmaster of a boys' school in the 1940s and then a professor of Philosophy at George Washington University. In 1952, he bought the small company Guild Press, and as publisher, editor, and distributor, turned it into a profitable gay publishing company with numerous affilated enterprises. The United States Postal Service tried to stop the circulation of MANUAL, TRIM, and GRECIAN GUILD PICTORIAL, but he took them to court and won the case on appeal in the U.S. Supreme Court (Manual Enterprises Inc. v. J. Edward Day) in 1962. This ruling changed the definintion of obscenity and its relationship to gay pornography.

Extent

5 cubic feet. (5 cubic feet.)

Additional Description

Abstract

The H. Lynn Womack papers include business records of the Guild Press, the Guild Book Service, the Grecian Guild, the Potomac News Company, and Village Books and Press, all of an erotic and pornographic nature. Also, correspondence with Richard Schlegel and others, gay periodicals, manuscripts of erotic and pornographic stories, and an extensive collection of pornographic mail order catalogs.

COLLECTION ARRANGEMENT

Series I. is maintained as it arrived, in no particular order. Materials in Box 5 were added to the collection in 2009, several years after the original acquisition. Series II. is arranged in alphabetical order.

SERIES LIST

Series I. Womack and Guild Book Service Files: Boxes 1-2, 5-9
Series II. Mail Order Catalogs and Advertisements: Boxes 2-4

PROVENANCE

Gift of George Fisher.

Physical Description

Correspondence, business records, newspaper clippings, court records, manuscripts, photographs, catalogues, brochures, advertisements.

General

Contact Information:: Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections 2B Carl A. Kroch Library Cornell University Ithaca, NY 14853 (607) 255-3530 Fax: (607) 255-9524 rareref@cornell.edu http://rmc.library.cornell.edu
Compiled by:: P. McCray
Date completed:: June 1991
EAD encoding:: Mireille Lee, March 2000Sarah Keen and Sara McDermott, July 2009