H. Lynn Womack

Herman Lynn Womack (1923–1985) was an American publisher, and the founder of Guild Press, a Washington, D.C., publishing house that catered almost exclusively to a gay male audience and played a major role in expanding the legal protections for gay publications against obscenity laws in the United States.

Biography Womack was born in Hazlehurst, Mississippi, in 1923 to tenant farmers. His father was an alcoholic who was incarcerated for murdering his best friend. Womack began school at the University of Mississippi, but transferred to George Washington University in Washington, D.C., to complete his degree and to pursue graduate studies. He earned an M.A. in psychology.

By 1946, Womack came to terms with his homosexuality and ended his marriage to his second wife. This coincided with the collapse of one of his business ventures, the Howell Academy, a private boarding school at which Womack reportedly was rarely present. After the closing of the Howell Academy, Womack enrolled in a Ph.D. program in philosophy at Johns Hopkins University, receiving his doctorate in 1955. After completing his Ph.D., he became an adjunct professor of Philosophy at the George Washington University.

After he was dismissed from his position at George Washington University, he gained an appointment at Mary Washington College in Fredericksburg, Virginia, but found it unsatisfying.

In 1957, Womack became involved in a fraudulent investment scheme. Through a holding company, Womack invested in a Maryland start-up, Polytronics Research, whose stock price subsequently soared when it was falsely claimed that it had secured a lucrative government contract. The fraud was ultimately detected by the SEC, but Womack escaped prosecution, as investigators judged that he was merely a "naive academic" who had been roped in by co-conspirators. He made half a million dollars from the scheme, which would serve as initial capital for Guild Press and allow him to leave academia.

He was a heavyset man and an albino.

Manual Enterprises v. J. Edward Day (1962)

Womack appealed his original conviction all the way to the Supreme Court, which granted certiorari, hearing oral arguments in 1962. At issue were three of the Guild Press's publications: MANual, Trim, and Grecian Guild Pictorial. Utilizing an escape clause in the contract, Steward agreed to allowing J. Brian to publish the paperback edition. Womack retaliated by immediately having the unbound books in his warehouse bound, but instead of selling or distributing them to bookstores, had them remaindered which meant that Steward would never earn any royalties.

Later legal problems In 1970, Womack decided to launch a short-lived gay newspaper, The Gay Forum, with national distribution. Womack's new venture into the newspaper business quickly floundered due in large part to renewed prosecution of Guild Press and Womack on charges of using underage models in the increasingly photo-illustrated publications produced by Guild Press. In April 1970, the FBI conducted major raids on adult bookstores up and down the Eastern Seaboard of the United States.

As part of a plea bargain reached in 1971 to reduce Womack's sentence from two-and-a-half years to six months, Womack agreed to legally separate himself from his adult businesses, including the Guild Press. Guild Press ceased nearly all publishing within two years and was bankrupt by 1974.

Later life In the 1970s, after the end of his connection with Guild Press and its ultimate demise, Womack moved to Boca Raton, Florida, where he died in 1985.

Publications

Physique magazines Fizeek Grecian Guild Pictorial Manorama MANual Trim

Book series Black Knight Classics (gay male erotica) Roadhouse Classics (gay male erotica) Stuart House Classics (heterosexual erotica)