Sixty-nine is a nice round number for the new three-volume History of Pin-up Magazines from TASCHEN Books' "Sexy Books" editor Dian Hanson, an illustrated guide that begins as early as 1900 and moves through to the "golden age" of nudie mags in the 1950s and 60s, ending, but of course, in 1969, the turning point when showing anything and everything officially displaced the somewhat finer and more refined art of the pin-up tease.
Via TASCHEN.com:
Editor Dian Hanson traces the fascinating development of the genre from 1900 to 1969 in three compact, informative volumes. In Volume 1 you’ll learn about the first magazines that appeared around 1900 in France, Germany, and the U.S., and follow the development of the genre through the First and Second World Wars. Covered are men’s magazines masquerading as movie magazines, humor magazines, art magazines, nudist magazines, and “spicy” fiction. Volume 2 documents the proliferation of pin-up magazines following World War II, most notably a little item called Playboy that debuted in December 1953 and spawned dozens of imitators. This volume also charts the emergence of English men’s magazines, fetish magazines, and the top five covergirls of the 1950s. Volume 3 begins with an explosion of new American pin-up magazines following the loosening of U.S. obscenity laws, and continues with French titles in decline, England going pervy; nudists going hippy, and Germany going pervy, hippy and political.
Hanson's history lesson is a nice complement to other recent TASCHEN offerings, from the 365 Day-byDay Pin-up Calendar and 1000 Pin-up Girls (a tribute to publisher Robert Harrison's "never show everything" mantra) to Charles G. Martignette and Louis K. Meisel's The Great American Pin-Up and Gil Elvgren: The complete pin-ups, a 240-page ode to "the Norman Rockwell of cheesecake."
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