Classics Pet Books: Greenleaf

Between the late 1960s and early 1970s, San Diego-based Greenleaf Classics was the undisputed king of the “adult paperback.” While the company is best known for publishing The Autobiography of a Flea and the legal battles surrounding Fanny Hill , their strangest niche was the line: a series of roughly 60 novellas that mashed up bestiality themes with the era’s rising interest in sexual freedom. The “Adult Pulp” Formula Greenleaf knew its audience. In the pre-home-video era, the $1.95 paperback was the primary vehicle for pornography. But by 1970, standard smut was getting boring. Enter editor Earl Kemp (a legend in the pulp world). Kemp realized that you could sell a book based almost entirely on a single, shocking premise.

For the modern collector, the Pet Books are fascinating for three reasons: Greenleaf Classics Pet Books

The visual design is peak 1970s sleaze-chic. Artists like Robert Bonfils and Darrell Millsap produced paintings that are technically skilled yet utterly absurd—waitresses with cat ears, heiresses leashed to a bedpost. Original Pet Book cover art now sells for hundreds at auction. Between the late 1960s and early 1970s, San