Dark Entries Editions, via Artbook | D.A.P., is excited to announce a new edition of Clark Henley’s iconic 1980s instructional The Butch Manual: The Current Drag and How to Do It, back in print after 40 years.

Born in San Francisco, Henley (1950–88) was a writer, model, artist and activist known for his playful illustrations Alligator Oz: Tails of the City (1976) and A Butch LOOK at America (1982), which mapped queer counterculture in his hometown and the US.

Written in the style of a women’s magazine, complete with a problem page featuring Gertrude Stein as a fictional agony aunt, The Butch Manual advises gay men on how to appear more masculine. (Henley himself doubles as a model in the book’s tongue-in-cheek photo spreads.) Whether providing instruction on how to walk, talk, stand and dress or words of warning to those who err on the side of fey (“Do not talk with your hands!”), this much-loved how-to reminds us that being butch is just another form of drag.

The Butch Manual appeared on multiple bestseller lists and the cover of Christopher Street magazine when first published in 1982. With the support of the author’s family, Dark Entries Editions is proud to reissue this cult classic for a new generation of readers.

Clark Henley (1950–88) was a writer, model and artist, born in San Francisco. He was known for his illustrated maps A Butch LOOK at America and Alligator Oz: Tails of the City, which reimagined his home country and city as raunchy gay paradises. In 1979, Henley moved to Los Angeles with the ambition of further pursuing his career. After being diagnosed with HIV in 1986, he returned to his native San Francisco to live with family and spent his final years as an HIV/AIDS activist before his death in 1988.