Philip Core (1951 - 1989)   A writer as well as a painter of mainly male figures, Philip Core was born in New Orleans, Louisiana and had one sister and one brother. He was the oldest child and showed an early interest in art. Philip was a brilliant student and went on to study at Harvard University.   A solidly gay day for secondhand books with the discovery of two relatively obscure items by gay artists.   Philip Core is probably more well-known as a writer than a painter, author of The Original Eye: Arbiters of Twentieth Century Taste and the masterful Camp: The Lie that Tells the Truth (both 1984 and both out of print, unfortunately). His paintings predominantly feature unclothed men but present these in a far more painterly style than one usually sees from gay artists, the approach too often being a kind of kitsch photo-realism that tends towards soft (or hard) porn. A shame that this volume is rather battered as it seems to be a rare book. Core died of Aids in 1989 but his paintings are still being bought and sold, gay art being one genre that never lacks for an audience.

He was great at doing the type of art the Aubrey Beardsly was famous for and would often draw while attending St. Martin's School in Metairie, Louisiana. He lived in a duplex on St. Charles Avenue.