Salvador Dalí, Jerome Robbins, Jackie Onassis. Gregory Peck, Mick Jagger—S. J. Perelman—I. M. Pei. Philip Johnson, Josephine Baker, John Lennon: they, and so many more who made New York City the center of the universe in the 1970s, all had one thing in common besides their adopted hometown—they shopped at a legendary palace of books, music and art: Rizzoli Books at 712 Fifth Avenue. There, Kennedys and Rockefellers mingled with tourists and “regular” customers under the watchful gaze of sophisticated employees, themselves a multi-talented, international collection of artists, scholars and rogues.

Nights at Rizzoli is the memoir of Felice Picano, an aspiring but near-starving young writer who in 1971 lucked into a part-time job at the stunningly elegant store via a friend. It metamorphosed into a life-changing experience, one that exposed him to some of the brightest lights in the world’s cultural capital. At the store, he himself became a key player on a stage that opened every night to a new drama that often featured romance, at times violence, and of course always the books and their readers.

And when his shift was over, in this post-Stonewall, pre-AIDS era, the handsome young bookstore manager stepped from one world into another, prowling the piers, bars and very private clubs of a different New York City.

Author: Felice Picano
224 pages, including 5 black & white photographs
Paperback ISBN 978-1-939293-67-1 • E-book 978-1-939293-68-8
$24.95 at Amazon.com Buy it Here

People and Places from My Past

Award-winning author Felice Picano returns with a new collection of memoirs, True Stories Too: People and Places from My Past, expanding his highly praised portraits and anecdotes to reveal histories of his family, friends, and lovers. In this new volume Picano also delights with wonderful new tales of the many places he has lived in and visited, including New York, California, Rhode Island, Germany, and Japan.

Author: Felice Picano
Pages: 278, paperback
Pub Date: June 17, 2014

ISBN-10: 1937627152
ISBN-13: 978-1937627157
Chelsea Station Editions $15.00
Buy it HERE

“Felice Picano, as his name suggests, is both a happy and piquant memoirist. Gifted with a prodigious memory and an inexhaustible curiosity, Picano observes everything—Japan, Berlin, his own family—in a fresh and indelible way.”
          —Edmund White

By Dr. Charles Silverstein & Felice Picano

For a new century and a new generation of readers comes a fully revised and expanded edition of a classic guide to gay sex, love, and life.

Publised by Harper Paperbacks
ISBN: 9780060012748/ 0060012749
Pages: 352
$18.99

 Critical Praise for The Joy of Gay Sex

“The new edition is sure to continue its reputation as the comprehensive reference for gay men. At 25 years old, it’s still here. And where, just asking, is Anita Bryant?”
     — HARTFORD COURANT

A Memoir of Gay Literary Life After Stonewall

A decade after the Stonewall rebellions, a small, all-gay press named Seahorse began along with Calamus Books and JH Press, which all came together to form Gay Presses of New York. Gay Presses of New York was not only the most successful gay press of its day, but the founders had made their move at the right time and place. Gay Presses of New York also played apart in the growth of what is now gay culture, consisting of bookstores, magazines, newspapers, theater companies, and art galleries. Many aspects of the arts, as they swirled around New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco during the 1970s through 1991 were connected to Gay Presses of New York.

Publisher Carroll & Graf Pub
ISBN 0786718137 / 9780786718139
List price $15.95

Praise for Picano's Art & Sex in Greenwich Village

"This is the most complete document of the gay book publishing movement to date."  
    — Publisher's Weekly