Spine Intact, Some Creases

by Victor J. Banis

A legendary name from the Golden Age of Paperbacks, VICTOR J. BANIS spins a witty and exuberant tale of A Thousand and One Knights, flitting blithely from tale to tail, in one era and out the other. Part autobiography, part a history of the Gay Revolution, part writing manual, part juicy gossip, with a few tasty recipes thrown in for good measure, Spine Intact, Some Creases is a summing up -- alternately hilarious and touching, instructive and impassioned, and always entertaining -- of the remarkable life and work of a writer hailed by top gay pulp historian Michael Bronski as ?one of my heroes.? ?Banis' memoir provides a poignant history of West Coast paperback publishing in the Sixties, and one author's journey from small beginnings to critical and financial success as a writer -- but it's far more than that: witty, elegantly written, funny, sad, smart, and even wise. Every penman-apprentice should read this book -- twice!? -- Robert Reginald

Genres: Biography, LGBT, Autobiography, Nonfiction, M M Romance, Gay

325 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 1, 2012

About the author

Victor J. Banis is a writer. http://www.vjbanisauthor.com/

Victor Jerome Banis (May 25, 1937 – February 22, 2019) was an American author, often associated with the first wave of west coast gay writing. For his contributions he has been called "the godfather of modern popular gay fiction

Reviews

[Justin Tate · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'll never forgive myself for not discovering gay pulp fiction before 2020! Less than a year after the death of genre giant Victor J. Banis and mere months after the passing of his long-time editor Earl Kemp. What I would give to have a 15-minute conversation with them now! Even an email exchange would be thrilling.

Fortunately, Banis left behind a trove of hot gossip and historical insight into the world of gay paperback publishing during the Sexual Revolution. Spine Intact, Some Creases is a monumental work documenting the era. It solves numerous mysteries about the authors, publishers and context. There's also many behind-the-scenes stories involving the most important works of gay fiction. While these works are important largely because they were first, many also hold up for their quality.

Even better that this history is told from the fabulously gay perspective of someone who wasn't just there, but a dynamo of output. Banis' life and fiction coincided exactly with the gay revolution and he's not shy about his experiences. One of my favorite moments is when he describes smuggling in gay porn through customs. And while he wasn't known to march in the streets, he was responsible for providing much of the literature which fueled a new gay confidence. The kind of confidence needed for the Stonewall Uprising to happen, and the fight beyond.

Perhaps even more important than his own massive bibliography was his ability to push editors to try publishing gay books. At the time, most didn't think there was enough people to buy them. Banis provided the first fiction to prove them wrong, and paved the way for other authors to add their voice to the mix. Soon paperback spinners were filled with joyous gay adventures. Unique for their representation, yes, but also lack of depression, suicide or guilt. Gay characters had sex and got themselves mixed up in all kinds of danger, but homophobia—internalized and externalized—was noticeably absent.

These memoirs also include a number of charming passages on Banis' youth, cruising years, personal philosophy, writing tips, and opinion of enduring gay literary landmarks. We even get his perspective on Brokeback Mountain, which he aptly compares to the massive bestselling gay pulp novel Song of the Loon.

It is terrifying to imagine how much more about this era would remain unknown without Banis' book. Almost every word was breaking news when it was first published and much of the current scholarship on the era still references it.

My only complaint is that Banis offers shockingly little about his career as a gothic romance writer. I found gay pulp fiction through gothic romance when I discovered many of these authors were churning out gay erotica at the same time. Banis could have spilled the tea on gothic publishing as well, but perhaps he didn't consider those books as historically significant. They're not, I suppose, but they're significant to me!

For others interested in learning more about fabulous gay fiction of the 1960s and 70s, it would be difficult to find a more entertaining and enlightening book than Spine Intact, Some Creases. Check it out!

[Aleksandr Voinov]

It's very enlightening and interesting to see the times that Banis has lived through. Well-told, interesting, sometimes gossipy, this really gives you a new appreciation of the fight for freedom of speech and against bigoted "obscenity charges" that decreed that every book featuring homosexuality in a positive light was "obscene" and could land its publisher, editor, and writer in prison.

Thanks to Victor Banis and his editors, publishers and comrades-in-arms, we are now free to read whatever porn/erotica/steamy content we want, can oggle naked people on the internet and in cinema, and last, but not least, enjoy a rich and varied landscape of gay and m/m content that is accessible for everybody.

The book rambles a bit at times - the tone is chatty, warm, sometimes coy, much like, I guess, you'd be talking to Victor in his kitchen, while he mixes you a state-of-the-art "classical" martini.

At times, it could have been tightened a little (there were some repetitions and ramblings that went off on a tangent that I don't think was taken up again). Writers will recognize themselves, readers will discover "the truth" behind books and stories such as "Coming Home", and "The Why Not", which I both really enjoyed.

Definitely recommended to anybody who wonders how m/m and gay romance *really* started.

[Ruth Sims · Rating 5 out of 5]

SPINE INTACT, SOME CREASES
Remembrances of a Paperback Writer
By Victor J. Banis
The Borgo Press 2004, 2007
ISSN 0743-0628

I love good fiction, but I’ve always been partial to nonfiction, especially biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs. I’ve read good, bad, and ick. Being a slow reader with a long book, I just finished Victor J. Banis’ “Spine Intact, Some Creases” which I most highly recommend. There are many reasons to praise this book, not least of them is that Banis was a pioneer in gay writing at a time when that was a hazardous thing to be, an openly gay man at a time before Stonewall, a time when there were no gay pride parades and gay pride itself was almost unthinkable. Homosexual characters in fiction had to be miserable, self-hating, and suicidal.

Well, somebody forgot to tell Victor Banis that he couldn’t create cheerful, brave, happy gay characters. If you’ve never read any of The Man From C.A.M.P. books you should. Banis was young when he wrote them and they are a trip. They’re fall-down funny, and the indomitable hero, Jackie, makes Batman look like a wuss (although in appearance he may be closer to Robin). Banis is a writer who clearly delights in what he does and who he is. A master of the written word, he has written 150 books that he can remember and others he has forgotten, under various names, in a career that stretches across nearly fifty years. He knew everybody. He even talked to Hef inside the Playboy mansion, of all places for a gay boy to find himself. Jackie, of C.A.M.P., would have made the most of it.

Spine Intact is a difficult book to write about simply because of its scope. It encompasses a tremendous amount of political history regarding publishing, censorship, gay people, homophobia, and more. Banis was subjected to spying by the government, and during his writing and publishing years he had the Sword of Damocles hanging over his head in the form of possible arrest, prosecution, and jail time. He saw the McCarthy Era as it happened. He had packages and letters opened by the Post Office. Yet through it all, the reader doesn’t get the feeling of someone who is frightened, bitter, angry, or full of “why-me”. He may very well have been all of those things from time to time; he would hardly have been human if he hadn’t. But Victor Banis is quite possibly the most balanced (he would probably say, with a laugh, that he’s unbalanced) individual around. Banis has become an icon without intending to be, and any author who writes books with gay characters and every reader who reads them, owes Banis and people like him. They took the lumps and the risks, and defended free speech.

Spine Intact has humor, wit, gossip (but not the malicious kind), history, and compassion. He tells stories of a family that lived in poverty in every way except that of spirit. In fact, when you read about the Banis family you feel that you may be reading about the richest family on earth. They’re not a group of Pollyannas and they had their ups, downs, and tragedies but they had each other. There’s a delightful story of him and his mother in a bookstore, with his mom calling out the titles of books (“Here’s Lesbians On Parade.” Is that one of yours?”) to the sound of dropping jaws. He doubts she even knew what a lesbian was. I fell in love with Mother Banis at that moment.

There is so much in this book that a complete review would be as long as Les Miserables. My only complaint, and it’s not really a complaint but just an observation, is that it should have been two separate books, one dealing with the his autobiographical material and gay history aspect, which were so intertwined, and the other with his sprightly comments on writing and the world, comments that are pithy and wise. It’s hard to say if he is amused or bemused by life. Both, I think.

Just as an example of the comments and of his breezy, reader-friendly way of writing, I hope he and his publisher will indulge me in quoting a couple of my favorite lines (there are so many!) “…regret [is] just another…way of flagellating oneself. … If you like yourself what is there to regret?” (page 326) On supposed Biblical condemnation of homosexuality: “ I just know some are dusting off their Sodom and Gomorrah mantelpiece villages at this very moment.” … (page 342) In the last chapter, writing about not worrying about offending someone because you’re going to, sooner or later (he says it much better than that and throws in a great quote from Winston Churchill’s wife) he ends by saying “…serve the cheese balls anyway. Someone will love them.” (page 358). Trust me. There’s a story behind that!

[JOSEPH OLIVER · Rating 4 out of 5]

This isn’t an autobiography in the strictest sense of the word. If you are looking for a linear unfolding of his life then you will be disappointed – but only disappointed in that it didn’t start from being born at ‘a very early age’ and the gradual unfolding of his life to where he is today. He makes the point at the very beginning of the book that he has chosen to have an eclectic approach to writing his autobiography and as it is his work he will include whatever he feels like including.
It reminded me of Agatha Christie’s preface to her own autobiography where she explains that she had written it over ten years in snatched time and that she would include parts of her life and leaves others unrecorded. She would go off on tangents and include subjects that had really nothing to do with her life i.e. domestic servants and their foibles. It is none the worse for these idiosyncrasies.
The book was obviously left alone and without undue interference from an editor. Banis writes quite highly of good editors but because this book is an indulgence and not a necessity the incisive mind of a good editor wasn’t let loos on it. Perhaps this wasn’t such a good idea as it needs tightening up. The writing style comes across as the transcription of tapes to text. It probably isn’t but there are a lot of ‘extras’ which are in the written word which work really only in speech and they are more often accompanied by gestures or intonation. Without these the paragraphs can be stilted or repetitive. That doesn’t make the book dull. It’s never dull. I found only one chapter – and you can never tell what the next chapter will be about – dull. This is personal. It is the ‘kiss and tell’ chapter (without the kissing!). As a European I really didn’t know who a lot of these former TV stars were. The shows certainly never reached the highways and byways of rural Ireland anyway in any decade. Nor the UK but the reader can skip the chapter and it makes no difference.

He devotes three chapters to the writing experience and he warns the reader that you can skip these chapters if you have no interest in how he went about writing his books or the day to day life of a writer. He is none too kind to creative writing courses anyway no more than Stephen King. It comes down to King’s adage “A writer writes”.

It’s a good read about the cutting edge of nascent gay rights in the 1950s and 60s. He maintains, and I concur, that Stonewall was not the beginning of the gay rights movement. That happened in myriads of small events in the US in the trials for obscenity that gay pulp writers and photographers had to endure at the hands of the Federal government or the Post Office. They made a stand at great personal expense but the publication of their works joined thousands of disconnected men across the US (and further possibly) who realised that they were not alone – even down to the small town where these pulp fiction books could be bought at a news vendor. It’s interesting reading and his style is very easy on the mind.

[Angela Benedetti · Rating 5 out of 5]

Victor Banis is arguably one of the founders of modern gay fiction in the US, and his memoir is a very readable look at the formative period of the gay rights movement, coupled with (and arguably built upon) the fight for writers and publishers of gay fiction to be allowed their first amendment rights. This would be a rewarding read even if it were a struggle to get through, but Mr. Banis's style is light and entertaining. Even when discussing incidents which are anything but pleasant, the book never drags or gets preachy.

As a recent beneficiary of that first amendment fight, I learned a lot from this book. I knew people were harassed and even imprisoned for publishing gay fiction in the sixties and thereabouts, but I'd always assumed there was some sex in those books, or at least some making out. Actually, there wasn't; there was nothing in those books you couldn't show on TV on a broadcast network at 3pm these days. The idea that people were sent to prison -- for twenty-five years in two cases mentioned -- simply for writing or publishing novels where gay characters didn't either repent and convert, or come to a bad end, is horrifying. Happy Gay = Obscene according to far too many people who had much authority but little intelligence in those days. That level of vicious bigotry in those in power is what's obscene, moreso than anything in any book.

Any writer who wants to feel like a slacker should read the chapters on writing, where Mr. Banis casually mentions how quickly he wrote most of his novels. Seriously, I'll just go crawl under a rock now.... O_O The writing advice is commonplace, but useful; it's always good to hear the basics again, particularly since he's one of those who recognizes that there are no absolutes, only suggestions which might be helpful.

And it's good to know that someone tried to tell the producers of Double Jeopardy that their basic concept was badly flawed. Props to you, Victor; at least you made the attempt. :)

There's more, of course, and it's all worth reading. Keep going through the Acknowledgements and beyond; this is the only book I've ever read where the Acknowledgements ran to multiple pages but were actually worth reading.

Great stuff. Anyone who's interested in gay fiction or the gay rights struggle should read this one.

[Adam Dunn · Rating 3 out of 5]

At the end, I feel a bit robbed by this book. Going back and reading the reviews here on Goodreads, I see reviews for the book I wanted to read. I wanted to read about the sixties struggle for rights and I wanted to read about Banis's writing style. While hints of these things are presented, they are mostly just touched on and the book definitely gets weighed down by a lack of focus.

I think an outline could have helped. I doubt anyone would decide as a plan to write ten pages on martinis as part of the afterward if they had a plan. I think a different editor would also have helped. The introduction to the book is definitely the weakest part, a 34 page long ramble. And this by the man who edited the book itself, it doesn't bode well.

A sentence from the introduction:
It is no accident that histories of pulp are told through these covers and characters, as the stars of a pop cult for the demi-monde that was, insomuch as it was obscene, at once underground and fully exposed, at once bordering on the illegal and evident in the pulp dazzling covers and "points of distribution."

and another:
"The pulp superstar, secondary as s/he is, enacts a parody of "proper" stardom and iconicity, a travesty of celebrity culture and the consumerist economy of exceptionality, originality, iconicity, and emblematic value, that one finds in Oprah and Hollywood culture."

This style is completely at odds with Banis' writing style and the tips he gives for writing within the book. I would honestly suggest skipping the intro entirely.

Once the book stats, Banis becomes easily distracted by fun little stories and it's rather like you're sitting down with him having a chat. It's mostly delightful until the last 10% or so, I despise talk of religion.

The best part really is these early side stories, like how people in the days before liberation found out where the gay bars were. Everyone had a different method. Just like when it comes to picking people up, several methods are revealed with the closing adage "the man who will eat anything rarely goes hungry."

Another highlight is Banis talking about the days of police raids in clubs and being in one club while it was raided. A lesbian picked him up and threw him around the dance floor to keep up appearances and I laughed out loud.

Another highlight is Banis talking about the history of gay publishing at length and naming off quite a few books I've somehow missed. I think anyone reading these books is into this and these are welcome additions to my "to read" collection.

And Banis' mom and living in the burn house, all great. Can you imagine someone in modern society sleeping in a room where it snows?

These are great times in the book. As the story goes on however, we see more and more:
The story I really started out to tell you, however, is a different one. (This happens to me a lot doesn't it?
And it really kind of does. It starts to get into things not really relevant, like the aforementioned religion and martinis. I don't know that anyone picked up this book looking for say arguments to refuting homosexual activity in the bible. Also there's several instances of "I just know someone is saying..." or someone will write a letter and save the postage, etc. and no one really is doing either of those things. These hypothetical arguments are numerous and unnecessary.

I appreciated the insight into Banis' mind, his family, his mom, and his life. I would have liked more reference to specific books he's written and general gay history and anecdotes. I felt the book lost its way at the end. But as Banis himself says:
serve the cheese balls anyway, someone will love them.

[Chris Cox · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved Loved LOVED this book. A collection of memoirs, history, writing instruction and good fun, this book was a delight to read. I've re-read passages many times. What amazed me most was how the porn industry, gay porn in particular, played such a vital role in freedom of speech precedents in the 1060. Whoever is next-door-neighbor to Victor J Banis is a lucky person. I can tell from his writing that he would be a great guy to be friends with. This one is a keeper because it makes me smile.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Victor J. Banis has quite a tale to tell and does so eloquently. There is humour, but there is also the harsh reality of what life was like, and sadly still is like in many places, for gay men. Some Intact: Some Creases is a marvelous book for anyone who loves writing as well as those interested in social history. I was fascinated from start to finish.

[Judy · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amusing, moving memoir of a gay writer/activist who deserves more attention. Too little is known about the pre-Stonewall struggle, and Banis was there.

[Reggie]

The kindle edition is now $4.39 USA and 2.55 pounds UK amazon!

So I of course bought mine! yay....