Biography

Early Life

The May family has a colorful history in the founding of the United States. Coming here from Germany in the early 1700s and settling in Virginia, Marilyn’s great-great-great-great grandfather, John, fought in the Revolutionary War. An early uncle was killed on the Ohio River by the great Shawnee Indian Chief Blue Jacket. Her great-great-great grandfather, Thomas May, was a member of Daniel Boone’s scouting party, helping to settle the state of Kentucky. Thomas was one of the founders of Floyd County (originally part of Pike County), in eastern Kentucky, and the first settler on Shelby Creek. During the Civil War, Marilyn’s great-great grandfather, David May, fighting on the side of the Rebels, drowned in the Licking River in the Battle of Cynthiana. Her paternal ancestors lived in Pikeville, Kentucky until the early 20th century, where they then moved to Winchester, Kentucky, and ultimately to southern Ohio. In Portsmouth, Ohio, Marilyn’s grandmother, Cora, was close childhood friends with the boy on the farm next door: Leonard Slye, later known as Roy Rogers. Marilyn is also a distant cousin of Louisa May Alcott, the author of Little Women, through Louisa’s maternal line.

When Marilyn was approximately two weeks old, she was adopted by Marcia (Abramson) and Alan Barck, then residing in Cleveland, Ohio. Her adoptive parents were first-generation American Jews, the offspring of Russian and Polish immigrants. She has an older adopted brother, Adam.

The childhood years spent in Cleveland (1960-1971), have been described by Marilyn as “the happiest years” of her life and as a “near-idyllic childhood” in an era when Americans were experiencing a booming economy along with cultural and social upheavals. In those days, her father owned a drive-in movie theater in Alliance, Ohio, that Marilyn adored going to with her family in the summertime. Another highlight of her childhood was celebrating her 9th birthday just as the Americans’ took their first walk on the moon.

From 1971-1980, Marilyn resided in Columbus, Ohio (with two brief periods living in Cincinnati, Ohio.) In 1973, her adoptive parents divorced. Marilyn’s remaining years in Ohio were plagued by often severe drug and alcohol abuse, and minor brushes with the law (she was arrested for shoplifting in 1974 and nearly arrested for stealing a car in 1976 but the charges were dropped because, she has said, she was “extremely remorseful about stealing the car and also very pretty”). In late 1974, she was attacked and raped by two men after a Christmas party. The attack followed closely on the heels of the tragic death of a very close friend from a motorcycle accident. The combination of the events, along with family turmoil, led to Marilyn’s confinement in a private mental institution after her first suicide attempt in 1975 (there were two attempts between 1975-1979). 

She had an all-consuming passion for the music of the Rolling Stones. For Marilyn, the highlight of the 1970s was “seeing the Rolling Stones at Cleveland Stadium on June 14th, 1975.” The rest of the 70s, she would “really rather forget.”

Although she hated high school, she managed to get very good grades while being “stoned out of her mind” most of the time. She was one of two class Valedictorians at her high school graduation in 1978.  She spent 3 months allegedly studying but “mostly drinking Jack Daniels and watching episodes of M*A*S*H* on a small black & white portable TV set” at the University of Cincinnati, where she was ostensibly majoring in theater.

She enjoyed acting, but she liked writing and singing better. In 1980, she moved to New York City and became a professional singer/songwriter. She played primarily at folk clubs in and around the East & West Villages with such noted singer/songwriters as Frank Mazzetti, Jack Hardy, Suzanne Vega, Tony Bird, Dave Von Ronk, and many others. For nine years, she lived at 511 E. 12th Street, just a stone’s throw from both Richard Hell’s apartment and Allen Ginsburg’s apartment, and frequently received, in error, mail intended for Lydia Lunch. During this period, she also worked for the notorious Ralph Ginzburg, and became long-time friends with the then unknown writer and humorist, Joe Queenan. In 1984, Marilyn studied poetry & songwriting with one of her heroes, the poet & author of The Basketball Diaries, Jim Carroll.

Erotica

Author, Producer, Publisher

In the late 80s, Marilyn began publishing her lesbian & bisexual BDSM erotic fiction in underground zines, under the name Marilyn Jaye.  By the early 90s, she had married Wayne Lewis and became known as Marilyn Jaye Lewis.

She had tired of the folk music scene and was more interested in writing erotic fiction, but uncertain how she might make an actual living at it. She was a passionate fan of Tim Burton’s movies, in particular Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure and Beetle Juice (Batman was the “one and only movie” she ever saw with her biological father, in the “only movie house in the tiny desert town of Fallon, Nevada.”). In an unlikely place for an epiphany, while watching Tim Burton’s movie, Ed Wood, in New York City in October 1994, Marilyn made up her mind to quit the music business entirely and become what others have called, a “full-time pornographer.” She spent the next five years suffering from insomnia; smoking a lot of Chesterfields; drinking alone; watching countless independent movies from all over the world on her VCR; and writing her award-winning erotic novella collection, Neptune & Surf, about two avenues on Coney Island in Brooklyn, circa 1955.

Neptune & Surf and Beyond

First published in trade paper by Masquerade Books in June 1999, Neptune & Surf was glowingly reviewed by The Guardian newspaper in the UK, where the book was selected as one of the Top Ten reads for summer.

Hubert Selby, Jr., author of Last Exit to Brooklyn and Requiem for a Dream, called Neptune & Surf “a stunningly exquisite book...it moved and excited me in just about every area of my life...these people are simply real, understandable, and identifiable. Their humanity is so available...”

Michael Perkins, author of the notorious 1960s erotic classics, Evil Companions and Dark Matter, called Neptune & Surf “erotic writing at its best.”

From there, Marilyn’s erotic writing won many citations and awards and has been translated into several languages, including French, Italian, and Japanese.

She has been a forerunner of quality erotica publishing online, breaking new ground in 1998 with her award-winning web site Other-Rooms.com. On Other-Rooms, she published most of contemporary erotica’s hottest writers, including Michael Hemmingson, Mark Pritchard, Thomas S. Roche, and M. Christian, along with many, many others.

Her award-winning erotic multi-media web site, Marilynsroom.com allowed her to branch out into publishing some of the top contemporary erotic photographers, filmmakers, and painters from all over the world.  That project ultimately led to her co-editing with Maxim Jakubowski the internationally acclaimed, top-selling erotic photo book Mammoth Book of Erotic Photography (now titled simply Erotic Photography).

In the 21st Century, she delved into the erotic romance genre, most notably with her novel When Hearts Collide (currently out of print), called by readers “one of the most passionate books I have ever read” and “the kind of book that you can sit down and read cover to cover without stopping...I enjoyed this book so much that I actually read it twice before sitting down to write this review.” And she also delved into male/male erotic romance, with Zowie! It’s Yaoi! Western Girls Write Hot Stories of Boys’ Love (Thunder’s Mouth Press, 2006).

A highlight of her editing career was Stirring Up A Storm: Tales of the Sensual, the Sexual, and the Erotic (Thunder’s Mouth Press, 2005), where she was honored to include stories by Dorothy Allison, Joyce Carol Oates, Margaret Atwood, and the film actress Selma Blair. Stirring Up A Storm was nominated for 3 Pushcart Prizes for Short-Fiction.

At  the time of this writing, Marilyn Jaye Lewis is focusing less on editing, publishing and short-story writing, and more on writing novels. The upcoming Freak Parade has been called “a big sprawling read with heart and smarts and a near-limitless erotic imagination...” by Molly Weatherfield, and “a compelling and vibrant novel exploring eroticism and the harsh realities of inner city life with genuine authenticity” by Emanuel Xavier.

In 2000, she founded the Erotic Authors Association. She was its Executive Director until early 2007, when she retired and moved back home to Ohio to be closer to her family.

home