Pell

Jere Hardesty, Pleasure Reader, 1970

The gay adult publishing business concentrated on the coasts, with New York City and San Diego at the forefront, and while there was no limit to the places where their stories were set — from small towns and mid-sized cities across the United States to exotic locations worldwide — the most well-represented locales were New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco, cities with thriving and prominent gay communities. This 1970 novel — credited to Jere Hardesty and apparently the only book under this name — depicts a specific brand of West Coast gay life of that time, a milieu of particularly restless, and of course libidinous, young men.