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Beneath Contempt

The Fighting Life of Porn King Al Goldstein

Raucous, unauthorized x-rated tale of unrepentant porn king Al Goldstein, a multimillionaire and the most outspoken leader of America’s sexual revolution, who lost it all.

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The incredible life of Al Goldstein, an overweight cab driver and carny barker who became the most outspoken leader of America’s sexual revolution, is captured in this unauthorized biography in all its X-rated glory.

Beneath Contempt charts Goldstein’s rise to fame as the founder of the pioneering sex tabloid Screw, bizarre offshoots like Death magazine, and his subsequent battles against censorship, political correctness and good taste. In the process he became a king of the sex industry and a multimillionaire, loathed by moral crusaders and feminists alike. The collapse of Goldstein’s empire, his survival as a street bum living in homeless shelters, and his defiant return from the ashes to run for the presidency in 2008 is mapped out in meticulous detail in this highly entertaining and lavishly illustrated profile of America’s last angry dirty old man.

John Waters
“Jack Stevenson is a brilliant filth scholar.”
Bizarre
“You feel dirty reading it.”
Bruno PhilipsErotic Review
“Absorbing ... thorough ... dispassionate ... Beneath Contempt deserves a place on the bookshelves of anyone who fancies themselves a student of contemporary culture.”
Dick KlemensenLittle Shoppe of Horrors
“This is one fantastic, fabulous, fascinating book. I read it in one sitting into the early hours of a Sunday morning and totally recommend it!”
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Jack Stevenson

JACK STEVENSON is an American expat living in Denmark since 1993. He taught at The European Film College between 1995 and 1998 and in 2002 wrote the first biography of Lars von Trier (BFI) to appear in English. He specializes in cult, underground and exploitation cinema with several books in these fields, and has written for Film Quarterly, Film Threat and Bright Lights online. A film print collector, he founded the Station 16 film group in the heart of Copenhagen.

Beneath Contempt