november-books

new things for march on the site.

Concrete Mama - Prison Profiles from Walla Walla

Brutal and intimate portrait of screws, cons, visitors, prison wives at Washington State Penitentiary, considered at the time to be the worst prison in the U.S. Inside Concrete Mama, as McCoy and Hoffman showed without editorial comment or first-person intrusion, some men worked on and rode motorcycles, kept pets, dressed as women, negotiated shaky arrangements with prison officials and roamed the yards in total leisure. "They went inside the walls, they looked, they listened, they learned, they sought to understand ... ." A real classic in the vein of Danny Lyon. Highly recommended.

The best book on menswear every by a long shot. Around 300 pages of astounding work from Weber, Turbeville, Sims, Meisel, Toscani, Roversi and co. plus Warhol, Barry White, Elton John, Hubert de Givenchy, Picasso, Serge Gainsbourg, Lou Reed and so many more. Amazing!

Extremely rare hardcover issue, this copy being a publishers review copy with slips laid in. Amazing book documenting the panthers in the late sixties. Includes the free Huey rally in DeFremery, lots of Oakland activity, Kathleen Cleaver, Bobby Seal, Huey P Newton etc. A brilliant document of a pivotal moment in history. Scarce.

Wonderful photo documentary of Bertoglio and O'Brien's film Downtown 81, the Fiorucci funded lower eastside masterpiece. Features Basquiat and his very early work, Maripol, Amos Poe, James Chance, Blondie, Madonna and lots of NY post punk faces. A superb document of a place and time that no longer exists.

Beautiful document of Gay life between the wars, before liberation, identity politics, and legalisation. Architect Glover was one of the only people to document homosexuality during the early 20th century, and after his death in 1983 thousands of photographs were found in his home, many of his lover Ralph, plus his other obsessions which were uniforms and rough trade. An accidental menswear classic, and a brilliant insight into life during the inter war years.