Stud [$tud] a novel

Washington DC: Guild Press, 1966. Hardcover. 295p., very good first edition in black cloth and gilt, unclipped dust jacket. Originally published as separate stories overseas, these semi autobiographical vignettes in the voice of Andros (hustler, leatherman, and biker, immersed in the world of rough trade) were gathered together for publication by H. Lynn Womak's Guild Press. After the books were printed in 1966, however, they remained in a warehouse, not yet bound, while Womak was distracted by legal issues. Steward, increasingly dismayed and desperate, ended up giving permission to a Bay Area publisher, J. Brian, to come out with a paperback version in 1969. Only after the paperback appeared did an infuriated Womak go to the trouble of having the long-stored pages bound and jacketed, but in order to deprive Steward of income, Womak immediately had them remaindered. Thus, the 1969 paperback actually reached the market before this 1966 hardcover edition. Though the delay in reaching the public stole some of Steward's luster as a pioneer in the genre, this work is nonetheless regarded as a landmark of rough trade fiction. The book is dedicated to "Dr. Prometheus," Steward's nickname for his close friend, the sexologist Alfred Kinsey.