Rebecca Baumann
@arkhamlibrarian.bsky.social
rare book librarian, book junkie, devotee of the weird, angry queer, friend to all monsters, nonbinary freak.
Pinned
The Palace of Excess
An Introduction to the World of the Nympho Librarian
nympholibrarian.substack.com
nympholibrarian.substack.com/p/the-palace...
I have long been threatening to start a blog and it’s finally here! Please subscribe if you would like to follow my journey to collect, preserve, and analyze the queer pulp of yesteryear. I read smut so you don’t have to!
I have long been threatening to start a blog and it’s finally here! Please subscribe if you would like to follow my journey to collect, preserve, and analyze the queer pulp of yesteryear. I read smut so you don’t have to!
Reposted by Rebecca Baumann
In this in-depth interview Billie Jean Sweeney — a former editor at The New York Times — details how the paper shifted towards openly promoting anti-trans hatred, why this was directed from the very top, how some staff pushed back and the immense damage done by the NYT legitimizing bigotry.
'A directive from above': Former NYT editor lays out how the paper pushes anti-trans bigotry
In this in-depth interview, former New York Times editor Billie Jean Sweeney details how the paper shifted towards openly promoting anti-trans hatred, how some staff tried to stop it, how it's directe...
transnews.network
January 1, 2026 at 6:32 PM
In this in-depth interview Billie Jean Sweeney — a former editor at The New York Times — details how the paper shifted towards openly promoting anti-trans hatred, why this was directed from the very top, how some staff pushed back and the immense damage done by the NYT legitimizing bigotry.
I’ve been a Hard Case Crime fan since day one but never got around to reading these when they were originally published 2006-8. Two writers at the top of their game clearly having a blast together is a joy to read. Utterly filthy, dark, disturbing and fookin’ hilarious.
December 31, 2025 at 7:42 PM
I’ve been a Hard Case Crime fan since day one but never got around to reading these when they were originally published 2006-8. Two writers at the top of their game clearly having a blast together is a joy to read. Utterly filthy, dark, disturbing and fookin’ hilarious.
Fritz Leiber with his wife Jonquil (Johnny) Stephens Leiber, the inspiration for his greatest works, Conjure Wife and (after her death) Our Lady of Darkness. A poet and weird fiction fan in her own right. Bonus cat doodles by Fritz from the Lilly Library’s Leiber archive. 🖤
December 24, 2025 at 5:53 PM
Fritz Leiber with his wife Jonquil (Johnny) Stephens Leiber, the inspiration for his greatest works, Conjure Wife and (after her death) Our Lady of Darkness. A poet and weird fiction fan in her own right. Bonus cat doodles by Fritz from the Lilly Library’s Leiber archive. 🖤
Reposted by Rebecca Baumann
December 23, 2025 at 5:57 PM
Do I watch By Dawn’s Early Light, an otherwise boring episode, just to see Columbo in his slutty little undershirt? Yes, I do.
December 23, 2025 at 7:58 PM
Do I watch By Dawn’s Early Light, an otherwise boring episode, just to see Columbo in his slutty little undershirt? Yes, I do.
Reposted by Rebecca Baumann
2025 Book Censorship Wrapped: Trends, Challenges, & Successes Over The Year.
Dive into this groundbreaking collaborative piece from @amlibraryassoc.bsky.social, @penamerica.bsky.social, @bookriot.bsky.social, @txfreedomread.bsky.social, and @flfreedomread.bsky.social
bookriot.com/book-censors...
Dive into this groundbreaking collaborative piece from @amlibraryassoc.bsky.social, @penamerica.bsky.social, @bookriot.bsky.social, @txfreedomread.bsky.social, and @flfreedomread.bsky.social
bookriot.com/book-censors...
2025 Book Censorship Wrapped: Trends, Challenges, and Successes Over The Year
What were the book censorship trends in 2025? Here are the highs and lows, as identified by five organizations doing the work.
bookriot.com
December 18, 2025 at 1:27 PM
2025 Book Censorship Wrapped: Trends, Challenges, & Successes Over The Year.
Dive into this groundbreaking collaborative piece from @amlibraryassoc.bsky.social, @penamerica.bsky.social, @bookriot.bsky.social, @txfreedomread.bsky.social, and @flfreedomread.bsky.social
bookriot.com/book-censors...
Dive into this groundbreaking collaborative piece from @amlibraryassoc.bsky.social, @penamerica.bsky.social, @bookriot.bsky.social, @txfreedomread.bsky.social, and @flfreedomread.bsky.social
bookriot.com/book-censors...
Reposted by Rebecca Baumann
I posted two (TWO!) new blog-galleries. The first is for Sergio "Ser" Leone, an artist who created a high percentage of the covers for one of my fave cheese-sleaze publishers... Kozy Books!
www.paultobin.net/blog-2-1/ser...
www.paultobin.net/blog-2-1/ser...
Sergio “Ser” Leone — Paul Tobin
Well, gonna admit to a little frustration, here. I haven’t really been able to find anything as far as a bio for this Sergio Leone. And very little original art as well. This despite creating a ...
www.paultobin.net
December 18, 2025 at 5:34 PM
I posted two (TWO!) new blog-galleries. The first is for Sergio "Ser" Leone, an artist who created a high percentage of the covers for one of my fave cheese-sleaze publishers... Kozy Books!
www.paultobin.net/blog-2-1/ser...
www.paultobin.net/blog-2-1/ser...
No way I can express my love and appreciation of David Gerrold’s work. The man invented Tribbles. He invented the Sleestaks. He wrote one of the best (sadly unfinished) sf epic series of all time (Chtorr). He was a queer voice in sf whose queerest stories were often butchered, censored, or unfilmed.
The wonderful writer and human David Gerrold needs help, if you can.
www.gofundme.com/f/david-gerr...
www.gofundme.com/f/david-gerr...
Donate to David Gerrold's Health and Leukemia Fundraiser, organized by David Gerrold
Here is a thank you just for coming this far, a link to a short collec… David Gerrold needs your support for David Gerrold's Health and Leukemia Fundraiser
www.gofundme.com
December 18, 2025 at 5:12 PM
No way I can express my love and appreciation of David Gerrold’s work. The man invented Tribbles. He invented the Sleestaks. He wrote one of the best (sadly unfinished) sf epic series of all time (Chtorr). He was a queer voice in sf whose queerest stories were often butchered, censored, or unfilmed.
I love book history and book historians so much. We get to ask the weirdest questions.
I have a weird question for the #bird people on here. Do you think someone could tell that a book was pooped on specifically by a sparrowhawk (or perhaps hawks generally) just from the feces? I'm looking at a 16th c. case where witnesses claim books were pooped on specifically by sparrowhawks!
December 18, 2025 at 3:57 PM
I love book history and book historians so much. We get to ask the weirdest questions.
A good mail day for Nympho Librarian. I am dying to finally see a proper restoration of Behind the Green Door, and I have long been trying to track down a copy of this zine that includes an article by legendary pulp collector B. Astrid Daley about the elusive pulp cover artist Doug Weaver.
December 17, 2025 at 4:38 PM
A good mail day for Nympho Librarian. I am dying to finally see a proper restoration of Behind the Green Door, and I have long been trying to track down a copy of this zine that includes an article by legendary pulp collector B. Astrid Daley about the elusive pulp cover artist Doug Weaver.
Reposted by Rebecca Baumann
RIP John Carey. This book changed my life, and I wouldn’t say that if it wasn’t true. 🙏
December 12, 2025 at 6:03 PM
RIP John Carey. This book changed my life, and I wouldn’t say that if it wasn’t true. 🙏
Reposted by Rebecca Baumann
I was asked yesterday if I thought that English might benefit from a governing academy, like French, and noted that a language that, to date, supports dreamed and dreamt, dove and dived, and pleaded and pled, is not a language you can govern.
(And I wouldn't want to.)
(And I wouldn't want to.)
December 11, 2025 at 8:27 PM
I was asked yesterday if I thought that English might benefit from a governing academy, like French, and noted that a language that, to date, supports dreamed and dreamt, dove and dived, and pleaded and pled, is not a language you can govern.
(And I wouldn't want to.)
(And I wouldn't want to.)
Massive (but typical) failure of the publishing industry to recognize the demand for queer books and for PHYSICAL PRINT COPIES of books. #BookHistoryLive
NEW: It’s not just readers that suffer due to Harlequin’s mismanagement of the' Heated Rivalry' books. Reid misses out on royalties, & booksellers miss out on commissions—which is especially painful during the holiday season when many small businesses make the bulk of their money.
was ‘heated rivalry’ failed by its publisher?
everyone's devouring the new TV series, so why can't people buy a copy of the book the show is based on?
www.thefrankiedlc.news
December 11, 2025 at 8:10 PM
Massive (but typical) failure of the publishing industry to recognize the demand for queer books and for PHYSICAL PRINT COPIES of books. #BookHistoryLive
Reposted by Rebecca Baumann
Funny you should mention that arstechnica.com/ai/2025/06/w...
Scientists once hoarded pre-nuclear steel; now we’re hoarding pre-AI content
Newly announced catalog collects pre-2022 sources untouched by ChatGPT and AI contamination.
arstechnica.com
December 11, 2025 at 6:13 PM
Funny you should mention that arstechnica.com/ai/2025/06/w...
Nothing better than finding an amazing book in your own collection. When I did my deep dive on Richard Geis (aka Peggy Swenson) a few months ago, I forgot I owned this. College lesbian corruption is one of my favorite subgenres of queer pulp.
December 11, 2025 at 5:00 PM
Nothing better than finding an amazing book in your own collection. When I did my deep dive on Richard Geis (aka Peggy Swenson) a few months ago, I forgot I owned this. College lesbian corruption is one of my favorite subgenres of queer pulp.
Reposted by Rebecca Baumann
Holiday spirit has evaporated.
Trying to stay positive.
1 like = 1 attempt to summarize a classic Mythos story in a single skeet
Trying to stay positive.
1 like = 1 attempt to summarize a classic Mythos story in a single skeet
December 11, 2025 at 1:57 PM
Holiday spirit has evaporated.
Trying to stay positive.
1 like = 1 attempt to summarize a classic Mythos story in a single skeet
Trying to stay positive.
1 like = 1 attempt to summarize a classic Mythos story in a single skeet
Reposted by Rebecca Baumann
“The keeping of records remains itself a kind of warfare. The keepers, whether they wish to or not, cannot be neutral.”
Currently reading Graham’s longer book about librarian spies, Book and Dagger, and can’t recommend it enough!!
www.publicbooks.org/the-spy-who-...
Currently reading Graham’s longer book about librarian spies, Book and Dagger, and can’t recommend it enough!!
www.publicbooks.org/the-spy-who-...
The Spy Who Came In from the Carrel - Public Books
In Nazi Europe, countless books were banned. So those who saved books—whether university archivists or Jewish scholars—became smugglers.
www.publicbooks.org
December 4, 2025 at 6:30 PM
“The keeping of records remains itself a kind of warfare. The keepers, whether they wish to or not, cannot be neutral.”
Currently reading Graham’s longer book about librarian spies, Book and Dagger, and can’t recommend it enough!!
www.publicbooks.org/the-spy-who-...
Currently reading Graham’s longer book about librarian spies, Book and Dagger, and can’t recommend it enough!!
www.publicbooks.org/the-spy-who-...
Reposted by Rebecca Baumann
kind of obsessed with this custom binding for Moby dick by Susan and Chaim Ebanks at Exeter Bookbinders
December 4, 2025 at 2:05 PM
kind of obsessed with this custom binding for Moby dick by Susan and Chaim Ebanks at Exeter Bookbinders
I don’t have a lot of P.E.C. lesbian titles, but the ones I have live up to the promise of “The finest in adult reading.” I’ve been working hard on my Substack and you’ll see one of these soon!
November 17, 2025 at 8:50 PM
I don’t have a lot of P.E.C. lesbian titles, but the ones I have live up to the promise of “The finest in adult reading.” I’ve been working hard on my Substack and you’ll see one of these soon!
Titles from P.E.C.’s French Line, the publisher’s gay imprint. One of the reasons I can’t find much about P.E.C. is that, unlike their competitors Greenleaf and Milton Luros’ Parliament empire, they weren’t involved in any legal battles that I can find.
November 16, 2025 at 5:45 PM
Titles from P.E.C.’s French Line, the publisher’s gay imprint. One of the reasons I can’t find much about P.E.C. is that, unlike their competitors Greenleaf and Milton Luros’ Parliament empire, they weren’t involved in any legal battles that I can find.
Im trying to find more information about P.E.C. (Publisher’s Export Co.). It was a 60s/70s San Diego smut publisher founded by Donald Patrick but I’m really stuck trying to find out anything about him or the company. I know lots of you have P.E.C.s in your collections but does anyone know more?
November 14, 2025 at 11:47 PM
Im trying to find more information about P.E.C. (Publisher’s Export Co.). It was a 60s/70s San Diego smut publisher founded by Donald Patrick but I’m really stuck trying to find out anything about him or the company. I know lots of you have P.E.C.s in your collections but does anyone know more?
Boys don’t make passes at girls who wear glasses and conduct sacrificial blood rites. #DailyPaperback
November 12, 2025 at 6:44 PM
Boys don’t make passes at girls who wear glasses and conduct sacrificial blood rites. #DailyPaperback
This whole novella is stunning but this passage stopped my heart for a second with its raging truth. #BookStdies #Disability
October 27, 2025 at 4:20 PM
This whole novella is stunning but this passage stopped my heart for a second with its raging truth. #BookStdies #Disability