(LGBTQ) GAY SUNSHINE A BENEFIT READING

Vintage original  23 x 17 ½” (59 x 44 cm.) poster.  San Francisco: Gay Sunshine, May 27, 1977.   Unfolded, with scattered creasing, light stains, and one small marginal tear, reinforced with archival paper, very good.
One of 75 copies, numbered and signed by all eight of the writers participating in this benefit reading: Harold Norse, John Rechy, Aaron Shuring, Neeli Cherkovski, Allen Ginsburg, William Barber, Dennis Cooper, and Robert Glück.
Founded by Winston Leyland in 1975, the Gay Sunshine Press is considered the oldest LGBTQ publishing house in the US, and, along with the subsequent imprint of Weyland Publications, founded in 1984, the two imprints together have been responsible for the publication of more than 135 books, covering a range the encompassed everything from translations of gay-themed European and Asian literature (in one case, a small volume of previously untranslated poetry of Verlaine and Rimbaud) to contemporary gay erotica.
This poster dates from only two years after the official founding of the Gay Sunshine imprint.  The artwork is portraits of poets Norse and Ginsburg.  The OCLC only records three copies (Emory, Northwestern, and Texas A&M).