Venus Library, Zebra, Black Circle and Other Erotic Pulp

The inclusion of a full line of "erotic-pulp" (as Barney Rosset liked to refer to the titles he published that most would have labelled "pornographic") into the foremost and most successful avant-guard publishing house in the world had always befuddled many. The covers regardless still stood the test of time and had their distinctive feels in their own right. An excellent essay on the very creation of Venus Library entitled, "One Touch of Venus" tells the story" There is a link to the essay in "Articles". Here is an excerpt.

​"He was in the big-time but money was now cascading out at a greater rate than it was coming in. And he now had tax problems. Releasing editions of his fine erotic and otherwise hardcover titles since the beginning through his Zebra and Black Cat paperback imprints, now he decided to establish a mass-market paperback line devoted exclusively to  erotica to mine the motherlode that had become the pulp-porn marketplace.

It was strictly a money-making idea, literary standards taking a back seat to the urgent need for cash flow. It was a scheme to provide Grove's paperback distributor, Kable News, with eight titles a month - John Hayes, Kable's owner, had been urging Rosset to get in on the porn bandwagon - and provide Grove with a transfusion of green at a time when it is bleeding red and in mortal danger. Kable wanted the deal and Rosset needed it: Grove's Black Cat and Zebra imprints were not issuing enough titles per month to satisfy their contract with Kable News, and Kable was threatening to drop the lines unless Rosset could fill-in with other titles. Venus Library is born."

Venus Library Titles 

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Black Circle Titles 

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