Books for Us. Spring 1981.

£750 · Offered by Maggs Bros Ltd

The rare inaugural catalogue from the UK’s oldest specialist LGBT+ bookshop , established in 1979, and still thriving on Marchmont Street in Bloomsbury. Founded by members of a gay socialist group, the introduction gives a sense of the shop’s mission statement: “Over the past two years our stock has grown dramatically as we have found more and more titles - both present and past. It ranges from first editions of rare classics, through basic documents of gay liberation, to the latest novels by current and popular gay writers. We have imported over six hundred titles - mainly from the US - which are not published in this country. We have aimed to create a different kind of gay bookshop - somewhere relaxed and pleasant to be in, where gay people can sit and have a coffee, can meet others and chat. “Gay’s The Word does not stock any material which is racist, sexist or which presents negative perspectives on gay and women’s liberation. We do not stock pornography or religious material since we believe that both, in their different ways, put us down. We do stock all material which reflects our proud heritage, pleases us, entertains us, teaches us, liberates us and motivates us to be gay, proud and angry” (p.2). This policy of importing hard to find titles from books shops like Philadelphia’s Giovani’s Room in the US would be the catalyst for a 1984 raid by Her Majesty’s Customs and Excise, in which thousands of pounds worth of stock (about a third of the shop’s inventory) was seize

• Binding: Hardcover

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