Gay Community Pamphlets [Run of Four Issues]

[New Salem, Massachusetts]: [Hop Brook Commune], 1976. Very good. 11" x 8½". Corner-stapled packet of five leaves of mimeographed typescript on paper and one single sheet of thin card stock. Publication sequence: Vol. 1, Nos. 1-3 (1975); Vol. 2, No. 1 (1976)]. All but one issue is a single leaf, printed both sides. Very good: light center crease from old fold; edges lightly toned; tiny corner dogears and a few penciled notations.

This is a group of four consecutive issues of a publication issued by a gay community in rural Massachusetts, the Hop Brook Commune.

The Hop Brook Commune, a self-described "anarchist community," consisted of nine members living in a large farmhouse on 31 acres in New Salem, Massachusetts. They were anti-consumer, anti-business and an ad they placed in the rural gay magazine Rural Free Delivery (RFD) stated: "Rules, we have no rules. If we were to draw up a rule, it would be that no one here will objectify another."

This packet consists of (possibly the only) four issues of the commune's newsletter, Gay Community Pamphlets. The first issue, entitled "Gay Relationship," is an imaginary interview between the author and the author of a book he'd recently read entitled The Nameless Experience. It's a philosophical discussion about love, homosexuality and the self. Two issues detail the commune, including "suggested non-rule rules," tips for those who may be interested in joining and recommended reading materials. A fourth issue promotes the commune's "herb of the week" mail order business, quoting Walt Whitman and deeming the calumus the "Gay National Flower."

OCLC locates twelve institutions with holdings, though not all of them describe which issues are held.