SMads. [Run of Four Issues]

New York: N.P., 1975. Very good. 8½" x 5½". Stapled self-wrappers. Publication sequence: Issue #s 13, 14, [15], [16] (December 1974-March 1975). 20-24 pages per issue. Very good: moderate wear, occasional minor spots of soiling.

This is a run of several early issues of SMads, a BDSM personal ads service. According to more than one leather history website as well as the Leather Archives & Museum, SMads was edited by Marshall Loeb and was in publication from 1972 to 1987. According to an article in Drummer 41 (November 1980), SMads was, in its time, "the most upfront collection of sexuality available. Every specific sexual desire, from basic S&M to scat and water sports, heavy bondage to shaving and piercing appeared in its pages."

Each issue is filled with exceptionally explicit personal ads, but there is much more here for the careful researcher, e.g. an ad for "an S/M ranch in Texas with barn, corral, cattle, gear and equipment has openings for slaves." There are also ads for more than one LGBTQ+ correspondence club as well as BDSM mail order businesses including R.F.M.

Also important is that the run contains at least 13 drawings, including at least one full centerfold, by Martin Van De Logt, better known as "Martin of Holland." According to Tomoffinland.org,

"Martin of Holland's art appeals to very specific tastes, and to call it extreme might be a bit of an understatement. His passion for the subject matter and his unflinching imagination set him a part from those who crave social approval or critical adulation . . . Though many in his home country are unfamiliar with his works, his impact on one of the most socially progressive countries in the world was profound. As the last individual in the Netherlands to be arrested and incarcerated for producing and distributing his own pornography in the 1950s and 60s , the civil rights ramifications of his multiple year imprisonment helped insure that the generations that followed were free from bias and bigotry hidden behind and inside all acts of censorship."

OCLC shows five institutions with holdings over two entries. Looking at respective library databases, two have one issue each, one has eleven, and two do not list specific holdings. Internet searches find two more issues at Yale's radical sex and leather collection. The copies on offer duplicate none of these holdings and pre-date all of them.


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