Fisher, Pete (1944 – 2012). Black Star, edited by Pamela Rose. Unrepressed Press and Shoestring Press, 1983. First edition. 8½ x 11 in; 177 pp. Die-cut cardstock covers. This is the variant with the lower half of the cover only. An unbound copy from the author’s own stock, lacking the plastic spiral binding.

An erotic Star Trek novel by a noted figure in the gay rights movement. Peter Fisher joined the Gay Activist Alliance (GAA) after attending the 1970 Christopher Street Liberation Day march. As he later explained, he had been attending graduate school “but resigned to become a full-time homosexual. I have yet to regret it.” Fisher led “zaps” – targeted protests – occupying the offices of the New York Daily News and Harper’s Magazine after they published defamatory articles against gay people. In 1971 he led a thousand people from a SoHo dance club to the apartment of the politician who was blocking the New York City Council from considering the nation’s first gay rights bill. Fisher was also an outspoken member of the S/M community. With his partner Marc Rubin, Fisher was the author of The Gay Mystique: The Myth and Reality of Male Homosexuality (New York: Stein & Day, 1972), which received the Stonewall Book Award.

Pete Fisher at a meeting of the Gay Activists Alliance, early 1970s (Rich Wandel/ National History Archive, LGBT Community Center)

Fisher reportedly had not been involved in fandom before attending a Star Trek convention in 1976. The experience inspired him to write Dark Star in 1977. Published in 1983 by a press specializing in Kirk/Spock (K/S) erotic fanfiction, the novel centers on Duke Delaney, a gay trucker who is beamed aboard the starship Enterprise while attending a Star Trek convention, and becomes Captain Kirk’s lover. The book is dedicated to William Shatner. Fisher would return to the themes of the novel in Dreamlovers (New York: Sea Horse Press, 1979), a collection of erotic fantasies involving celebrities, including Shatner. Dark Star was edited by Pamela Rose, a prolific author of erotic fan fiction. Reportedly 900 copies were printed, but very few distributed. No copies listed in Worldcat.

Selected References

• Humm, Andy. "Pete Fisher, Pioneering Author of "The Gay Mystique," Dead at 68". Gay City News, August 15, 2012.
• Fanlore. “Black Star.” https://fanlore.org/wiki/Black_Star
• Kroll, John (2012). "In Memory: Peter R. Fisher '66". Amherst Magazine, 2012.
• Peter Fisher Papers. Archive Record #97 New York Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center, 2014.