William Levy’s Die Kunst des Flirtens is a compilation of poems and notes translated into German by Gregor Pott for Volksverlag, Linden in 1983. The poems of the Bondage chapter in this editions have been combined with b/w photos by Diana Blok and Marlo Broekmans, which also grace the cover.
Writer, poet and gentleman-provocateur William Levy (1939-2019) was a thorn in the side of the establishment since the early 1960s. Levy settled in London in 1966; by then he had won a reputation in the literary avant-garde as founder of the Insect Trust Gazette, an American poetry journal that published cut-up pieces by William Burroughs and experimental pieces by Antonin Artaud, Max Ernst, Hans Arp and others. In 1970, Levy moved to Amsterdam – his activities as chief-editor of the underground newspaper International Times and as co-founder of the first European sex paper Suck vexed the British authorities. Levy’s activities have included author of The Virgin Sperm Dancer and Natural Jewboy, editor of Certain Radio Speeches of Ezra Pound as well as a number of publications about Otto Muehl, works for radio, the organisation for the transgressive Wet Dream festivals and publishing poetry and prose for various presses large and small.