Anyone who hasn’t yet had the chance to check out Jennifer Suger and Jill C. Nelson’s fantastic biography, John Holmes: A Life Measured In Inches, now has the chance to win their very own copy courtesy of Bear Manor Media and AV Maniacs!
Win your copy by clicking here!
Clocking in at a whopping 581 pages an including many photos from throughout Holmes’ life and career, this ridiculously well researched book features interviews with Holmes’ family and friends such as Sharon Holmes and Dawn Schiller as well as co-workers like Bob Chinn, Jamie Gillis, Bill Margold, Annette Haven and many, many, many more. Careful not to choose sides over the various controversial aspects of Holmes’ life, the book starts with a look at Holmes’ early years and follows him throughout the early days of his adult career in the sixties through to his rise to stardom as porndom’s main marquee star in the seventies with the advent of the Johnny Wadd films. From there we learn of his struggles with substance abuse which lead to the controversial ‘Wonderland Murders’ and his subsequent legal troubles. Of course, from there we learn of his comeback and ultimately his battle with HIV.
The book manages to paint a portrait of a man both troubled and proud. At times sincerely nice and kind, and at other times completely full of shit, Holmes makes for a fascinating subject and the care and attention to detail put into this project, the obvious desire to paint an honest portrait of his life rather than to simply focus on the more sensationlist aspects of it, makes this a book very much worth reading.
Says co-author Jill C. Nelson:
“This project was initiated after Jennifer Sugar (who was 21 at the time) watched Wonderland and wanted to read a bio about Holmes, only to discover that one didn’t exist. She attended “Fit for a King” - an event that would have recognized John’s 60th birthday on August 8th, 2004, in Hollywood California. The book was born out of that trip to Southern California and the connections she made. Without having known Sugar, I rented Wonderland in 2005, and developed a desire to learn more about Holmes, as the film was merely a snapshot of the lowest point of his life. I began to participate in a message board for the movie and that’s where I met Sugar. About a year later, she invited me to co-write the book with her and we began our collaboration by emailing our chapters, interview transcriptions and reviews back and forth. We are both first time authors and neither of us had any connection to the adult entertainment community prior to writing this book. Sugar and I are a generation apart and reside in different countries (I am 51 and live in Southern Ontario, Canada). We are both employed.”
“Over the course of 4 years, Jennifer and I interviewed 35 people for our bio and we also incorporated other resources for the book. Roughly 20-25% of the interviews implemented within our text are from the script material from WADD, The Life & Times of John C. Holmes. Interestingly, a good portion of the WADD interviews utilized in our book did not appear in the original documentary, or in the Special Edition copy of the film. We spent a good portion of the spring watching and reviewing over 200 John Holmes’ feature films and loops, and finally constructed the most current filmography of Holmes’ films/loops to date. We are very proud of the fact that within our three photos sections, we have included some rare nudes of Holmes, as we discovered that many porn bios don’t.”
“The people we encountered through this project championed the biography on by opening up their past lives and sharing with us their personal memories. Some were happy and some were painful. It has been an incredible experience.”
Anyone with a passing interest in the adult film industry or who just enjoys a good biography in and of itself owes it to themselves to check out this meticulous and fascinating study of one of the most infamous and recognizeable adult film icons of all time.
-Ian
For more information, check out the book’s official website by clicking here!
