AFTERTHOUGHTS ON BOYS FOR SALE BY DREW AND DRAKE

The following is the conclusion to Boys for Sale. A Sociological Study of Boy Prostitution by Dennis Drew & Jonathan Drake, published by Brown Book Company in New York in 1969.

Afterthoughts

The study you have just read, represents an intensive effort to analyze in depth the history and present status of the prostitution of boys. To complete a really exhaustive survey of this topic would require several volumes. Admittedly, the authors have but scratched the surface of this fascinating subject. This is partly because only a few people were involved in the preparation of this text. Information on such a topic is by nature, somewhat exclusive. It often comes as a surprise to one boy-lover to learn that there are many other men equally interested in boys from a sexual point of view. The sharing of such information is risky. Because of this, the authors have been obliged to rely on information gathered from relatively few people. Not many of these individuals were trained observers so the conclusions that the authors could draw from their experiences are somewhat limited. They have also drawn from the little existing written material dealing with boy-love and boy prostitution, but, for a book such as this one, fresh, current first-hand experiences are always more desirable.

It has been quite a task to assemble the contents of this volume. It is certain that there will be much more new material available, once the authors and editors can locate other sources of valid experience. There is more research to be done, but one fact is definitely established — the prostitution of boys is an actuality and one which interests many people. By nature, it is a phenomenon which exists largely on the fringes of society. Not only is sexual love of boys normally illegal, it is also considered highly immoral in most of Western culture. Condemning judgements are largely emotional — ardent disapproval of boy-love has little foundation other than personal taste. Nevertheless, until dispassionate research demonstrates forcibly to a larger segment of the public that love between man and boy is not the seriously damaging relationship that many imagine it to be, the subject will remain taboo.

The salient fact remains — boys are for hire, and there are men who wish to and do hire them for a variety of reasons.

In order to investigate the whys and wherefores of boy-love and boy prostitution, the editors of Boys for Sale would like very much to have further material which can be adapted to book form. We hope that, among our readers, there are some of you who may have already written theses on boy-love in one or more of its manifestations. If not a finished piece, you might have in your possession copious notes which can be turned into a valuable and interesting book in the near future. We would like very much to hear from those of you who could help us in this quest. We are also constantly looking for interesting visual artifacts of general interest to those whose lives touch closely the lives of youngsters.

Not only are we interested in additional material on countries dealt with in this book, but, much more urgently, we require information on areas we have not as yet been able to cover. We would like to publish a second volume dealing with England, Scandinavia and South America, among others. Also of particular interest to American readers would be a treatment of boys’ prostitution in Mexico and Canada, both of which are, by geographical proximity, quite significant to the majority of our reading public. We most earnestly request, therefore, that if you can be of assistance to us in these matters, you get in touch with us at the address on the bottom of this page.

In the meantime, we hope that you have enjoyed this work. We also hope to be able to bring you its sequel in the very near future.[1]

The Editors

[1] This hope was never realised. However, under his real name of Parker Rossman, Jonathan Drake wrote one of the three only book-length general studies of Greek love in English, Sexual Experience Between Men and Boys (1976), in which he had some more to say about boy prostitution, though not about the particular countries mentioned in the preceding paragraph.

Comments

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