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NEW BOOK. Publication date: October 2011.
Prometheus Bound by Aeschylus, translated by Thomas Medwin & Percy Bysshe Shelley + Prometheus Unbound by Percy Bysshe Shelley. Edited and with Foreword by John Lauritsen. 211 pages. Trade paperback. $16  ISBN 978-0-943742-19-9. Pagan Press 2011.

This book contains two major works. The first is the Aeschylus play, Prometheus Bound, masterfully translated by Percy Bysshe Shelley and his cousin, Thomas Medwin. The second is Shelley's own poem, Prometheus Unbound, which is considered his masterpiece. This book also includes an appreciation of Prometheus Unbound by John Addington Symonds, and the poem Prometheus, by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, newly translated from the German.
    Editor John Lauritsen demonstrates, through biographical and textual evidence, that Shelley was the chief author of the Prometheus translation, which is a masterpiece in its own right. Shelley worked on it for years, engrossed by the theme of rebellion against tyranny — dominant in the Aeschylus play and the poems by Goethe and himself.
    Comparisons between the Medwin-Shelley translation of Prometheus Bound and Shelley's own Prometheus Unbound show Shelley's amazing versatility at versification; he was the master of more verse forms than any other poet in English. Above all, they display Shelley's gift for dialogue, which he elsewhere demonstrated in his translations from Plato and Goethe; his play, The Cenci; and his novels.
    The unjustly forgotten Medwin-Shelley translation is still unequalled for dramatic power and poetry. It is one of the few translations that could effectively be put on the stage.






NEW BOOK. Publication date: August 2011.
Oresteia: The Medwin-Shelley Translation. Aeschylus, translated by Percy Bysshe Shelley & Thomas Medwin. Edited and with Foreword by John Lauritsen. 192 pages. Trade paperback. $14  ISBN 978-0-943742-16-8. Pagan Press 2011.

    The Aeschylus plays that make up the Oresteia trilogy — Agamemnon, Choëphori (Libation Bearers), and Eumenides (the Kindly Ones) — are among the supreme masterpieces of world literature. This book is the first publication for over 170 years of a forgotten masterpiece of translation, done by Percy Bysshe Shelley, one of our greatest poets, and his friend and cousin, Thomas Medwin.
    When published separately in the 1830s, under Medwin's byline, the translations were critically acclaimed as “by far the best” into English, having “fire, spirit, and general correctness.” But they were not reprinted, and are now known to few, if any, students of English literature.
    Editor John Lauritsen demonstrates, through both biographical and textual evidence, that Shelley must be acknowledged as a full collaborator in the Oresteia translation. Shelley was an extraordinarily gifted translator, rivaled only, if at all, by Pope and Dryden. He was not concerned with slavishly literal, word-for-word translation, but with re-creating the full and entire sense — the energy, wit, irony and pathos — of the original. Shelley was the master of more verse forms than any other poet in English: this translation contains intricate verse forms of his own devising, as well as traditional sonnets, Spenserian stanzas, and odes.
    Shelley's hand is as unmistakable in the dialogue as in the verse passages, for he was a master of dialogue, as shown in his translations from Plato and Goethe, his plays, novels, and verse dramas. While maintaining an Aeschylean formality, the language is idiomatic, and the lines can effectively be spoken. Given actors and an audience accustomed to Shakespeare, Oresteia: The Medwin-Shelley Translation could successfully be put on the stage.
    The Medwin-Shelley translation is still unequalled for dramatic power and poetry.






The Man Who Wrote Frankenstein.
By John Lauritsen. 232 pages. Illustrations, bibliography, and appendices. Trade Paperback: $16.95  ISBN 978-0-943742-14-4.  Also available in a Library Binding (Smythe sewn, case binding): $24.95  ISBN 978-0-943742-15-1. Pagan Press 2007.

Frankenstein is the most famous work of English Romanticism. Victor Frankenstein and the monster he created have entered our collective imagination — through movies, comic books, T-shirts, Halloween masks, etc. They have entered the discourse of erudite scholars, as well as the man on the street.

The conventional belief is that Frankenstein was written by a teenaged girl, Mary Godwin (later Mary Shelley), who took part in a ghost-story contest in Geneva, had a nightmare, and was inspired to write a story “which would frighten my reader as I myself had been frightened that night!”

John Lauritsen's new book, The Man Who Wrote Frankenstein, explodes the Mary Shelley myth, demonstrating that Frankenstein is not just a scary story, but a work of profound and radical ideas, written by one of the greatest poets in English, who deliberately concealed his authorship.  The book has three theses:


According to Lauritsen, male love, as romantic friendship, is a central theme of Frankenstein. Sometimes the expressions of male love are remarkably direct, but at other times they are expressed in coded language or references known only to the “initiated”. He uses his skills as a gay historian to decode and interpret these references.

The Man Who Wrote Frankenstein has nine appendices, which include full texts of the following:

• Percy Bysshe Shelley's Preface to Frankenstein.

• Shelley's review of Frankenstein.

• The Introduction to the bowdlerized 1831 edition of Frankenstein — which was written, at least in part, by William Godwin.

• The 1824 Knights Quarterly review of Valperga.

• Richard Garnett's essay on Mary Shelley from the Dictionary of National Biography.

There is also an annotated Bibliography.

For Camille Paglia's Salon.com review click here.

For Jim Herrick's review in Gay Humanist Quarterly click here.

For Richard Labonte's “Bookmarks” review click here.

For Tom Elliott's Mensa Bulletin review click here.

For Jesse Monteagudo's review in the South Florida Express click here.

For Hubert Kennedy's review in The Guide click here.

For Ian Young's review in Torso click here.

For Andrew Calimach's review click here.

For Douglas Sadownick's review in Gay & Lesbian Review click here.

To visit The Frankenstein Pages, devoted to illustrations and essays on Frankenstein, click here.






The Banquet. By Plato, translated by Percy Bysshe Shelley. 96 pages. $8 Trade Paperback. ISBN 0-943742-12-9. Pagan Press 2001.

Witty, sexy and radiantly beautiful, the Shelley translation of Plato's great Dialogue on Eros, The Banquet (or The Symposium) is by far the best in English. It has been described as conveying “much of the vivid life, the grace of movement, and the luminous beauty of Plato” — “the poetry of a philosopher rendered by the prose of a poet”.

Although a masterpiece in its own right, the translation was suppressed and then bowdlerized for well over a century. In 19th century England, male love — at the heart of the dialogue — was unmentionable. The Banquet and Shelley's accompanying essay, “A Discourse on the Manners of the Antient Greeks”, were not published in their entirely until 1931, and then in an edition of 100 copies intended “for private circulation only”.

For many years, the Shelley translation has been unobtainable, new or used. Pagan Press now offers a new edition, which is complete and authentic. It is the most readable edition even published.

For William A. Percy's review in the Gay & Lesbian Review click here.

For Jim Herrick's review in New Humanist click here.






A Freethinker's Primer of Male Love.
By John Lauritsen. 96 pages. $6.95.  Trade Paperback. ISBN 0-943742-11-0  Pagan Press 1998.

The main essay in this book, “A Freethinker's Primer of Male Love”, is a celebration and defence of male love from a secular humanist perspective. Its leading thesis: Male love is good; the opprobrium suffered by gay men is a product of Judeo-Christian superstition.

A companion essay, “Paradigms For Gay Liberation”, recounts the ideas that have informed the movement. The author analyzes how the present-day movement has lost its bearings, and he indicates a way out of the thicket.

There are eight Excursus: Male Beauty, The Golden Legend, Gay Christian Revisionism, Pluralistic Ignorance, Freethought, Circumcision of the Spirit, The Aster Epigrams of Plato, and A Pagan Prayer. An annotated Bibliography provides guidance for further reading.

For Jack Nichols' review in Gay Today click here.

For William A. Percy's review in Journal of Homosexuality click here.

For Ian Young's review in Torso click here.






The AIDS Cult: Essays on the gay health crisis. Edited by John Lauritsen * Ian Young. 224 pages. Photographs and appendices. $15  Trade Paperback. ISBN 0-943742-10-2  Asklepios 1997.

Published in February 1997 under the Asklepios imprint (for health-related books), this is the first book to deal comprehensively with the real reasons gay men are becoming sick in ways that are called “AIDS”.

The editors, John Lauritsen and Ian Young, and the other six contributors to The AIDS Cult, examine psychological and cultural issues — the ways religious intolerance, group fantasies, toxic drugs, pharmaceutical propaganda, deadly counselling, and a Cult of Doom have acted together to destroy the health of gay men.  In his Introduction Ian Young writes: “The orthodox view of our protracted health crisis — as a highly infectious contagion from without — has been found wanting.... We must seek the causes of this and other medical dilemmas in our own society, our own assumptions, our group-fantasies, our regimens, our recreations, and our rituals.”

For Mark K. Anderson's review in the Valley Advocate click here.

For Elizabeth Ely's review in Townsend Letter for Doctors & Patients click here.

For Alex Russell's review in Continuum Magazine click here.

For Henry H. Bauer's review in Journal of Scientific Exploration click here.

Rex Poindexter's review in 4Front has been deleted. For an explanation click here.






The AIDS War: Propaganda, Profiteering and Genocide from the Medical-Industrial Complex. By John Lauritsen. 480 pages. Photographs, graphs, and other illustrations. Name and subject indices. $20  Trade Paperback. ISBN 0-943742-08-0  Asklepios 1993.

The AIDS War is a collection of John Lauritsen's major writings on AIDS, going back to February 1985. Book and author have been featured on Tony Brown's Journal, radio talk shows, and American, Canadian, British, Australian and German television.

There are 35 chapters, including:

• The first interview with molecular biologist Peter Duesberg.

• “Latex Lunacy” (latex gloves, condoms, etc.).

• “Poppers: The End of an Era” — a history of the premier gay drug (nitrite inhalants).

• “The Risk-AIDS Hypothesis” — the real reasons gay men, intravenous drug users, and others are getting sick.

• A comprehensive program of recovery for those with a diagnosis of “AIDS”.

• “The AIDS War: Lies and Censorship in AIDS Coverage”.

• “FDA Documents Show Fraud in AZT Trials”.

• “AIDS Criticism in Europe”.

• “The Incidence Quagmire”.

• “AIDS Organizations” — the real story.

• “The Death of Rudolf Nureyev” — from AZT poisoning.

For Mike Chapelle's review in Bloomsbury Review click here.

For Christopher DeCenzo's review in the Cornell Review click here.

For Jule Klotter's review in the Townsend Letter for Doctors click here.

For Henry H. Bauer's review in Virginia Scholar click here.

For Jerry Terranova's review in Praxis click here.


OUT-OF-PRINT:

The following titles are out-of-print: Ioläus by Edward Carpenter; Male Love: A Problem in Greek Ethics and Other Writings by John Addington Symonds; Death Rush: Poppers & AIDS by John Lauritsen; Poison By Prescription: The AZT Story by John Lauritsen. (The last two books are available online: just click on the titles.)


ORDERING:

Books can be ordered directly from Pagan Press using PayPal.  Just send an e-mail to Pagan Press mentioning the books you wish to buy. We will then send you back an e-mail invoice, which will give the total cost, including shipping and handling. If you wish to purchase the books, click the Pay button on the invoice — which takes you to the secure PayPal site, where you can pay through your PayPal account (if you have one) or through a credit card.

For United States orders postage is free. For overseas air mail, postage will be ₤ 8.5 or € 10 for The AIDS War;
₤ 7.00 or € 8.45 for Oresteia, Prometheus, The Man Who Wrote Frankenstein, or The AIDS Cult; or ₤ 3.50 or € 4.20 for A Freethinker's Primer or The Banquet. Of course, if you use PayPal, you will make payment in your home currency.

Pagan Press books can also be purchased from Calamus Books in Boston or from Amazon.com.