Ed Wood Wednesdays: The Ed-Tribution Odyssey, Part Three by Greg Dziawer

Greg said it was okay to reuse this header image from last week. In fact, he requested it.

 

Anyone who has read more than a handful of my Ed Wood Wednesdays posts certainly knows that false claims of Ed's authorship (or mis-Ed-tributions, as I like to call them) really get my goat. First off, when claimed deliberately, it's lying. And lying, as we all well know, is wrong. An infantile ethical hangup. Secondly, it's lying for the sake of material gain, and as we also know, two wrongs don't make a right. Now, of course, there are those who claim that one who does wrong is right, and one who does right is wrong.

This week we're pulling the string and unraveling three current Ebay auctions, all of them mis-Ed-tributing titles credited to Dr. T.K. Peters. All three issue from the same seller, and in the interest of fairness, I will assume he/she makes the claim in ignorant good faith. In other words, I've yet to email the seller. His/her username at Ebay (redboldface) curiously suggests the word baldface, a word I've only ever heard used in conjunction with one other word (begins with L). Make of that what you will.

To cut to the chase, for once - and not repeat the stories of Wood at Pendulum/Calga, and Bernie Bloom, and the T.K. Peters source - here are the auction postings (until the links finally disappear) and who actually wrote them:

1. Everything You Wanted To See And Read About Unusual Sex (But Fully Illustrated), Book Six

The cover of a book.

At a mere 75 bucks, CP-906 is only being listed at roughly 6x the market value of a non-Ed T.K. Peters title. Which isn't to suggest that I am trying to devalue the work of Peters (far from it!), rather simply stating the current median range of non-Ed Peters: 10 to 25 bucks. 

A flat out (with none of those mealy-mouthed "I believe" qualifiers) Ed-tribution, crediting him, with the names on the cover listed as his aka's. Of course it's wrong.

Everything You Wanted to See and Read About Unusual Sex Book Six is not on Ed's own resume, and the copyright is filed under William Jones. Leo Eaton told me he knew him as Bill. His work as a mag staffer at Pendulum circa '70-'71 was Peters-prolific, as we'll soon see. 

The Sexual Enlightenment Series from Calga began soon after the Encyclopedia of Sex series from SECS Press, ultimately producing less than half the amount of titles than the initial series (both totaling roughly 50 titles in all). The Enlightenment series was uniquely different, being a collection of series within a series. It began with the Everything You Wanted to Know... run, and a few titles later the Adult Sexual Hangups run appeared.

2. Adult Sex Hangups, Volume I

Adult Sex Hangups, Volume I

CP-911 for a mere 99 bucks! Now we're getting closer to 8x the market value, because, as you might have guessed, this is not Ed. David Thompson is a pseudonym (per copyright) of fellow Ed mag staffer Robin "Redbreast" Eagle (diminutive per Leo Eaton).

3. Adult Sex Hangups, Volume III

Adult Sex Hangups, Volume III

Eagle again, as David Thompson, CP-913 for 99 bucks. His more-common pseudonym, carried into the mainstream by the end of the '70's, was Robert Elgin. 

The Calga Enlightenment series sandwiched in between Everything and Hangups was CP-907-910, How to Really Make Love to Your Husband, Wife or Lover, all written by Eagle (as Robert and Robin Elgin) and Jones (as D.M.Williams) from the Peters source. 

Some day, I keep telling myself...some day I will find myself a book written by none other than Ed Wood!

Your intrepid Woodologist. Inset: The cover of How To Really Make Love.

Update: The T.K. Peters Marathon 

That's me, your intrepid Woodologist, a grueling 48 hours 42 minutes into the 3rd bi-annual T.K. Peters Marathon. Nearing the finish line. CP-912 is by Bill Jones, as George M. Purcell. I scored it for a little less than 3 bucks.

The goal: a race to read ALL of the Pendulum-family paperbacks rooted in the T.K.Peters source material. As you may or may (more likely) not know, the first two Marathons were held annually, then I decided to step up the pace. At 52 hrs 21 minutes last November, I beat my initial time of 56 hrs 38 mins in the first Annual. 

Going in, I was confident this time around that my training regimen was bullet-proof. I'd effortlessly shatter my previous time. Over the course of the last four months, I escalated from week to week from a Peters book a day to five Peters a day. There is an element of honor built into the very premise of the Marathon, that one shall in reading also comprehend. Having read these books close to 10x each in the previous two years, I felt the groove had been etched in my head. Time and again while training, I found myself putting the book down and joyfully reciting from memory: 

Latent lesbian instincts are often brought to the fore in troilistic encounters!  

(Photo caption from SP-105 Volume X A Study of Orgies & Troilism, by Charles D. Anderson as Charles Andrews from the T.K. Peters source, SECS Press (Sex Education Clinical Series), Encyclopedia of Sex series.) 

A Study Of Orgies & Troilism.

I don't want to relive the gory details of the 3rd bi-annual, from mere weeks ago. It still stings. Not long after the screencap above (the entire event was recorded), I began to withdraw from quitting smoking and putting a stop to drinking beer a mere two days before embarking on the Marathon. A bad idea, and I soon faded and crashed quickly, re-reading sentences half a dozen times over. I finished at 53 hrs 47 minutes, my second best time, but a bewildering disappointment, as the last two and a half books took me five hours to read (and comprehend!).

Yes, it stings. I've yet to begin training for the next bi-annual, but I soon will. I'll be back. Better than ever. I'll be back!

Special Thanks to Leo Eaton.