Lynne King's Reviews > Venus Bound: The Erotic Voyage of the Olympia Press

Sexual intercourse began
In nineteen sixty-three
(Which was rather late for me)
Between the end of the
Chatterley ban
And the Beatles’ first LP.
Philip Larkin –“Annus Mirabilis” Collected Poems

This is a fascinating biography and social document initially centered in Paris about Jack Kahane, who ran the English-language based Obelisk Press in the thirties and his son Maurice Girodias (otherwise known as the Prince of Porn), the Olympic Press in the fifties and sixties. By their sheer determination, doggedness and devious means they managed to publish authors whose works at the time were considered to be obscene or “dirty”.

Brilliant writers such as Lawrence Durrell (“The Black Book”), Henry Miller (“Tropic of Cancer”), Anais Nin (“Winter of Artifice”), James Joyce (“Haveth Childers Everywhere and Pomes Penyeach”), Vladimir Nabakov (“Lolita”) and many others who were continuously frustrated by their inability to get published, owe their continuing success nowadays to these two remarkable publishers.

Amusing anecdotes stud the book but the most intriguing and annoying individual was the Irish American writer, J.P. Donleavy (“The Ginger Man”). He was like a dog with a bone and had an ongoing feud with Girodias over royalty payments and the like. Donleavy’s second wife Mary, who had remarried into the Guinness family, played a very significant part in the auction of the Olympic Press in France.

The description of the auction is quite fascinating because at the time, it was conducted by using three candles.

The auctioneer sat behind a high desk at the end of the room. On the desk were three unlit candles……Not for the French the singsong chant of the fast-talking American auctioneer or the crude British “Going, going, one”, ending with the whack of a hammer. In France, auctions had an almost religious air. The auctioneer would light the first candle when the bidding slowed. Each candle had a short-burning wick, and when the first one went out, assuming there were no more bids, the auctioneer would light the second candle and then, if nothing further happened, on to the third. The sale was final when the third candle went out.

I actually attended a property auction about ten years ago in France where candles were used. It really was an incredible experience to see the candles being lit. A good memory.

There is so much movement in this book with the comings and goings to the States, books being mailed by clandestine means and more. In fact some of the books were actually split into sections and sent in different mailings.

Girodias is quite a character; charismatic and he loved to womanize, eat well and was quite the flamboyant and dapper individual.

Regrettably for him, in the sixties and seventies, the relaxation in censorship in Great Britain and the States, as well as the sexual revolution at the time, proved to be the undoing of Girodias’ publishing activities.

This is indeed a compelling book that made me smile and even laugh at times.