Author Larry Townsend, whose 1972 book The Leatherman's Journal became a cult classic that put him on the map, died Tuesday, July 29 at Cedars Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles. He was 77.
The cause of death was complications from pneumonia, family members said.
Mr. Townsend, who was born Michael Lawrence Townsend, was active in the gay and leather communities for decades. He was the author of dozens of books including Run Little Leather Boy (1970). He served as the founding president of the Hollywood Hills Democratic Club, the first gay-oriented Democratic club in Los Angeles County. Mr. Townsend also served on the board of the Whitman Radclyffe Foundation during a time when the gay movement in California was making its first attempts to produce a united political and philosophical front.
A longtime resident of Los Angeles, Mr. Townsend was something of a celebrity in San Francisco leather circles years ago, when crowds packed into A Different Light Bookstore to hear him read from his books, recalled his friend Jack Fritscher.
"The audience loved seeing him make an entrance into the bookstore with a nearly naked young leather slave on one leash and his Doberman dog on another," Fritscher said. "When both of them 'sat' at his stern command, Townsend brought down the house."
In 1980, he began writing his monthly "Leather Notebook" column for the legendary Drummer magazine (1977-1999). He also was a popular panelist at safe-sex leather conferences and a lascivious judge at many Mr. Drummer contests, Fritscher added.
Tracy Tingle, Mr. Townsend's niece, told the Bay Area Reporter that she was close to her uncle.
"Despite what would by most seem a very non-traditional lifestyle, he was in many ways quite traditional," she wrote in an e-mail. "He really loved celebrating holidays, Christmas in particular was a favorite. He loved decorating his tree, and putting out all his Christmas knickknacks."
Tingle said that she could also claim to be one of two women to see Mr. Townsend's dungeon, which used to be in the basement area of his house (the other woman was a dominatrix who lived up the street, she added). Tingle said that she happened to be at Mr. Townsend's house for a party with "Bob Jones, Rick Bolton, other guys from Bob Jones Productions, and a lot of older gentlemen who were greatly enjoying the company." A group went down to see "the famous Larry Townsend dungeon," and he asked Tingle if she wanted to join them.
"It was small, and dark �" not a gothic as I had imagined or wanted it to be, I suppose," she wrote. "He did have a collection of some antique restraints there."
Born October 27, 1930, Mr. Townsend attended the prestigious Peddie School, and was a staff sergeant with the U.S. Air Force in Germany (1950-1954). Completing his tour of duty, he entered into the 1950s underground of the LA leather scene. With his degree in industrial psychology from UCLA (1957), he worked in the private sector and as a probation officer with the Forestry Service. He began his pioneering activism in the politics of gay liberation in the early 1960s. In 1972, as president of the Homophile Effort for Legal Protection, which had been founded in 1969 to defend gays during and after arrests.
His last novel, TimeMasters, was published April 2008. Fritscher's leather-heritage book Gay San Francisco: Eyewitness Drummer that was published in June also includes Mr. Townsend's "Eyewitness Introduction," his last published writing.
Tingle said that Mr. Townsend's archives would be going to the Brown University special collections.
At the time of his death, Mr. Townsend was involved in a lawsuit alleging copyright infringement against several bookstores that stemmed from a dispute over unpaid fees allegedly owed the author by his distributor, Oklahoma-based Nazca Plains Corporation, according to an article in Publisher's Weekly.
Mr. Townsend was preceded in death by his domestic partner of 43 years, Fred Yerkes, who died July 8, 2006.
In addition to Tingle, Mr. Townsend is survived by his sister Alta, nephew Ralph, nieces Donna and Lynne, as well as two great-nieces and great-nephews, and many dear friends.
It was Mr. Townsend's request that he be cremated and that there be no funeral or memorial service. Tingle said that people could sign the online guest book at http://www.legacy.com/LATimes/GB/GuestbookView.aspx?PersonId=114605320.