The Agency is the story of a super-secret, Orwellian sexual network, rife and seething in an America consumed and dehumanised by a lust for power. It explores issues of erotic dominance and submission with an immediacy and frankness previously unseen in American literature.
Meltzer's landmark novel confirmed him as one of America's early masters of the erotic - or, as he dubbed it, 'agit-smut'.
David Meltzer was a poet associated with both the Beat Generation and the San Francisco Renaissance. A pioneer of jazz poetry readings, Meltzer also formed a psychedelic folk-rock group. He performed with the music and poetry review, "Rockpile." He edited many anthologies, including San Francisco Beat: Talking with the Poets (City Lights, 2001), and published 11 erotic novels. He taught for many years in the poetics program at New College of California.