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1921:
Born in Florence, Mississippi
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1939 -
1945
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Served in the U.S. Marine Corps in the South Pacific
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1947 -
1961
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Illustrator, Staff Artist, and Unit Chief in the Mississippi Highway Department
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1961 -
1981
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Illustrator, Staff Artist, and Unit Chief in the Louisiana Highway Department
Carl V. Corley is an author and illustrator of a variety of materials such as gay "pulp fiction," comic books, physique art, science fiction, Louisiana history (especially on Cajun folkways), and also books on religious themes.
Corley was born in Florence, Mississippi in 1921. He graduated from Florence High School and served in the U.S. Marine Corps in the South Pacific in World War II. After the war, Corley worked as an illustrator for the Highway Department in Mississippi (1947-1961) and Louisiana (1961-1981). In his official capacities, he designed and drew tourist guides, manuals, pamphlets, road maps, and traffic surveys. In the 1970s and early 1980s, he contributed an illustrated strip on Louisiana folklore to the Eunice (LA) News .
In the 1950s, Corley made a name for himself as a "physique artist," as he contributed drawings of scantily clad men to fitness magazines--a genre that has been identified by cultural historians as early homoerotica. Between 1966 and 1971, he published twenty-two paper back novels of gay male "pulp fiction."
From the guide to the Carl V. Corley Papers, 1930s-1990s, (David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University)
