RFD. A Country Journal for Gay Men Everywhere. No. 59, Fall '89

Liberty, TN: Short Mountain Collective, 1989. Wraps. Fine. 8-1/2 x 11" stapled glossy wraps printed in red and grayscale. 72 pages exclusive of the covers, illustrated throughout in b/w. But for a single scratch on the rear wrap, clean, bright appearing as new. Founded in 1974 as a publication for gay country-living and alternative lifestyles, RFD has been edited by different communities in various locations since its inception; the title originally evoked the well-known abbreviation for Rural Free Delivery, the residential mail service provided by the USPS beginning in the early 1900s, reflecting the "country living" aesthetic of the magazine. Later, as the magazine came to be associated with the counterculture Radical Faeries movement, the name became widely presumed as an abbreviation of Radical Faerie Digest (itself an ironic take on the mainstream Reader's Digest). In reality the publishers have adopted the practice of assigning a new expansion of the initials to each issue, such as Really Feeling Divine (issue 3, Spring 1975), Rejoicing in Flamboyant Diversity (issue 50, Spring 1987), or Resist Fascist Demagogues (issue 80, Winter 1994). "Riotous Fags Descend" is the expansion in this issue, which features Gay Miss Charleston (SC) on the front cover, and a report from the Faerie Action Gathering in NYC.