Olympia Press was a Paris-based publisher, launched in 1953 by Maurice Girodias as a rebranded version of the Obelisk Press he inherited from his father Jack Kahane. It published a mix of erotic fiction and avant-garde literary fiction, and is best known for issuing the first printed edition of Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita.
In its heyday during the mid-fifties Olympia Press specialized in books which could not be published (without legal action) in the English-speaking world. Early on, Girodias relied on the permissive attitudes of the French to publish sexually explicit books in both French and English. In the late 1950s, the French authorities began to ban and seize the press's books.
A total of 94 Olympia Press publications were promoted and packaged as "Traveller's Companion" books, usually with simple text-only covers, and each edition in the series was numbered. The "Ophelia Press" line of erotica was far larger, using the same design, but pink covers instead of green.
Olympia Press was the first publisher willing to print William S. Burroughs's avant-garde, sexually explicit Naked Lunch, which soon became famous. Other notable works included J. P. Donleavy's The Ginger Man; Samuel Beckett's French trilogy Molloy, Malone Dies, and The Unnamable; Henry Miller's trilogy The Rosy Crucifixion, consisting of Sexus, Nexus and Plexus; A Tale of Satisfied Desire by Georges Bataille; Story of O by Pauline Réage; Terry Southern and Mason Hoffenberg's Candy; Alex Austin's The Blue Guitar and Eleanore; and a critical book on Scientology, Inside Scientology/Dianetics by Robert Kaufman. The South African poet Sinclair Beiles was an editor at the publisher. Other authors included Alexander Trocchi, Iris Owens (Harriet Daimler) and John Stevenson (Marcus Van Heller).
Girodias had troubled dealings with his authors including copyright issues. Nabokov was dissatisfied with the copyediting, assignment of copyright and the press's literary reputation. The press engaged in a long-running dispute over the rights to The Ginger Man, which ended with Donleavy's wife Mary buying out Girodias at what was intended to be a closed auction. Forced to leave France in 1963, Girodias briefly reestablished Olympia Press in New York in the 1960s, and in London in the early 1970s.
Grove Press in the U.S. would later print The Olympia Reader, a best-selling anthology containing material from some of Olympia's most popular works, including material by Burroughs, Miller, Trocchi and others. Another well-known collection was The Best of Olympia, first published by the Olympia Press in 1963 and reprinted by New English Library in 1966.
Other incarnations of the company, some with Girodias' support, emerged in Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom. Olympia Press has been re-established and is currently operating out of Washington, London, and Frankfurt.
Works in the Traveller's Companion Series No. Title Author 1The Enormous BedHenry Jones (pseudonym for John Coleman) 2RapeMarcus Van Heller (John Stevenson) 3School for SinFrances Lengel (pseudonym for Alexander Trocchi) 4The LibertineRobert Desmond 5Play This Love With MeWillie Baron (pseudonym for Baird Bryant) 6Tender Was My FleshWinifred Drake 7The Ginger ManJ. P. Donleavy8An Adult's Story Robert Desmond9The Whip AngelsXXX (Dianne Bataille) 10What Frank Harris Did Not SayAlexander Trocchi 11The Loins of AmonMarcus Van Heller (John Stevenson) 12The Chariot of FleshMalcolm Nesbit13The Sexual Life of Robinson CrusoeHumphrey Richardson 14White ThighsAlexander Trocchi15Rogue WomenNicholas Cutter16With Open MouthMarcus Van Heller (John Stevenson) 17Fanny HillJohn Cleland 18How to Do ItGustav Landshot 19DarlingHarriet Daimler 20The Small Rooms of ParisEzra de Richarnaud 21Until She ScreamsMason Hoffenberg 22The ItchSteven Hammer 23Roman OrgyMarcus Van Heller (John Stevenson) 24Heaven, Hell and the WhoreRobert Desmond 25ThongsAlexander Trocchi 26Who Pushed Paula?Akbar Del Piombo27SkirtsAkbar Del Piombo 28Sarabande for a Bitch Mickey Dikes 29Helen and DesireAlexander Trocchi 30Cruel LipsMarcus Van Heller (John Stevenson) 31Kama HouriAtaullah Mardaan 32The Pleasure ThievesHarriet Daimler 33InnocenceHarriet Daimler34Cosimo's WifeAkbar Del Piombo 35The WantonsMarcus Van Heller (John Stevenson) 36Our Lady of the FlowersJean Genet 37The House of BorgiaMarcus Van Heller (John Stevenson)38Flesh and BloodAnna Winter 39SexusHenry Miller40The OrganizationHarriet Daimler41A Gallery of NudesHume Parkinson 42Deva DasiAtaullah Mardaan 43The Double Bellied CompanioAkbar Del Piombo 44The Story of OPauline Reage45Pearls of the RainbowRobert Desmond46Sin For BreakfastHamilton Drake 47The World of SexHenry Miller 48Sodom, or the Quintessence of DebaucheryJohn Wilmot49The Bedroom PhilosophersD.A.F. de Sade (Marquis de Sade)50120 Days of SodomMarquis de Sade 51The White BookJean Cocteau52Juliette, Part 1Marquis de Sade53Juliette, Part 2Marquis de Sade54Juliette, Part 3Marquis de Sade55Juliette, Part 4Marquis de Sade 56Juliette, Part 5Marquis de Sade57Juliette, Part 6Marquis de Sade58Juliette, Part 7Marquis de Sade59DissolvingTim Harrack60I Hear VoicesPaul Ableman 61The Woman ThingHarriet Daimler 62TelenyOscar Wilde63The Gaudy ImageWilliam Talsman 64CandyMaxwell Kenton (Terry Southern and Mason Hoffenberg) 65Classical Hindu ErotologyRam Krishnanada 66LolitaVladimir Nabokov67JustineMarquis de Sade 68PlexusHenry Miller69The Watcher and The WatchedThomas Peachum 70Two Novels: The Amorous Exploits of a Young Rakehell; The Debauched HospodarGuillaume Apollinaire 71Molloy; Malone Dies; The UnnamableSamuel Beckett 73The Fetish CrowdAkbar Del Piombo 74Zazie dans le MetroRaymond Queneau 75Houses of Joy Wu Wu Ming (Sinclair Beiles) 76Naked LunchWilliam S. Burroughs 77The Black BookLawrence Durrell 78The Thief's JournalJean Genet 79Fuzz Against Junk: The Saga of the Narcotics Brigade, and, The Hero MakerAkbar Del Piombo 80The Young and EvilCharles Henri Ford81Night Francis Pollini82The Hero MakerAkbar Del Piombo83Steiner's TourPhillip O'Connor84Pleasures and Follies of a Good-Natured LibertineRestif de la Bretonne 85The American ExpressGregory Corso 86The Shy PhotographerJock Carroll87PinktoesChester Himes 88The Soft MachineWilliam S. Burroughs89StradellaJames Sherwood90A Bedside OdysseyHomer & Associates (Michael Gall) 91The Ticket That ExplodedWilliam S. Burroughs 92Busy BodiesEd Martin 93Murder vs. Murder: The British Legal System and the A.6 Murder CaseJean. [from old catalog] Justice 94SextetJ. Hume Parkinson 101StradellaJames Sherwood 102I Hear VoicesPaul Ableman 104The Gaudy ImageWilliam Talsman 105The Story of Venus and TannhauserAubrey Beardsley 107The Best of 'Olympia': An AnthologyMaurice Girodias 108The Fifth Volume of Frank Harris's My Life and Loves: An Irreverent TreatmentAlexander Trocchi 109Young AdamAlexander Trocchi 112NightFrancis Pollini 114JunkyWilliam S. Burroughs 115GordonLouise Walbrook (Edith Templeton) 205The Sexual Life of Robinson CrusoeHumphrey Richardson 206A Bedside OdysseyGerald Williams 210Sin for BreakfastMason Hoffenberg 214My Mother Taught MeTor Kung 301The Watcher and the WatchedThomas Peachum 429Crazy Wild Breaks LooseJett Sage 434Bishop's GambolRoger Agile 440Frankenstein '69Ed Martin 450Acid Temple BallMary Sativa 456A Satyr's RomanceBarry N. Malzberg 465SookeyAngelo D'Arcangelo 467ThrustC.S. Vanek 470JyrosJ. Joth 505Run Little Leather BoyLarry Townsend 2218The OrganizationHarriet Daimler 2220Whip AngelsSelena Warfield (Dianne Bataille)
References
Further reading Colette Colligan: A Publisher's Paradise: Expatriate Literary Culture in Paris, 1890-1960. University of Massachusetts Press, 2014, ISBN 978-1-62534-038-2 Maurice Girodias: Lolita, Nabokov and I. In Evergreen Review, September 1965 John De St. Jorre: The Good Ship Venus: The Erotic Voyage of the Olympia Press and Its Writers. Pimlico, 1995, ISBN 0-7126-5944-7 Patrick J. Kearney, Angus Carroll: The Paris Olympia Press. Liverpool University Press, 2007, ISBN 978-1-84631-105-5 Barry Reay, Nina Attwood: Dirty Books: Erotic Fiction and the Avant-Garde in Mid-Century Paris and New York. Manchester University Press, 2023, ISBN 978-1-5261-5924-3
External links Lust in the dust jackets: The Olympia Press and the Golden Age of Erotica at Salon.com