For those new to the genre of popular erotica, or "vintage sleaze," Greenleaf was the biggest adult book publisher and forged a path alongside Grove Press through the literary censorship battlegrounds of the 1960s.  Its story is an epic one.  Founder William Hamling's publishing enterprises were a fascinating empire of pop-culture interests and literary investigations.    Also notable in the Greenleaf annals was the fact that in the early years, Greenleaf published paperback originals by some well-respected writers under pseudonym.   Earl Kemp was the editor for the Greenleaf literary empire from 1964-1971 and is publishing his accounts and exploits (along with those of contributing writers and artitsts) in his ongoing essential ezine-memoir.   It makes for fascinating reading!

Following the demise of his Sci-Fi digest magazine FASCINATION, Hamling set up a Playboy competitor mens mag, ROGUE, seeing as he and Hugh Hefner were friends and associates in the Chicago magazine trade.  Soon after, Hamling launched Nightstand Books in 1959, and struck gold.  In the following years, Greenleaf diversified its booklines to number in the dozens.     I have organized a selection of the early smaller-format books below.    Initially, Greenleaf operated out of Chicago and used the services of a printer in Sandusky, Ohio.   The off-standard size of the books and the pulpy feel of the covers and interior pages have much to do with the fact that their Sandusky printer was primarily set up to print childrens coloring books.
Greenleaf moved its operations from its original base in Chicago to Southern California in late 1965, early 1966 -- and so the books shown here will run through that earlier period.     From that point on, the books were produced in the larger, more typical paperback-size format.     For post-1967 Greenleaf adult productions, please click here!

And check out a special section of Pleasure Reader books.

Also, check out the Greenleaf Photo-Illustrated series.
and
See the Greenleaf Classics Series of Erotica

Be sure to cross-check the "Writers" and "Artists" and "Themes" areas also!  

New books will be added as they become available.