Larry Townsend’s 1972 classic is back!

Still vital after 50 years—not to mention an epidemic, a pandemic, and tumultuous change in the LGBTQ+ and fetish communities—The Leatherman’s Handbook still reigns as the classic introduction to a community that was once hidden behind mail-order catalogs and dark bars with no signs on the outside.

Townsend’s book is both didactic and smutty, interspersing a tour guide’s critical observations with vignettes that put all of the words into action. From basic attire, to social groups, to the art of cruising, to in-depth and intense practices, Townsend catalogs the Leather community as he saw it in 1972, updated with commentary from 2000.

For many, Townsend defined the “Old Guard” of Leather. Agree or disagree, there is no understating the impact The Leatherman’s Handbook had on the Leather community.