The Agent

''US poet and novelist whose sf is almost entirely restricted to two sequences of erotic novels published by Essex House at the end of the 1960s, though he published a very few stories earlier. The first sequence, the Agency series -- ''The Agency'' (1968), ''The Agent'' (1968) and ''How Many Blocks in the Pile?'' (1969) -- is a remarkably savage satire of a near-future USA through a plot whose erotic nature (a young man is indoctrinated by the eponymous organization into sexual slavery, and himself becomes an agent for his masters) can readily be seen as a metaphor illustrating the nature of post-industrial society. This vision is even more sharply focused in the Brain Plant sequence -- comprising Brain Plant #1: ''Lovely'' (1969), #2: ''Healer'' (1969), #3: ''Out'' (1969) and #4: ''Glue Factory'' (1969) -- in which cartoonlike characters ricochet surreally through a disjointed USA in a pre-programmed search for theme-park sex, while the secret masters -- in this case the military-industrial complex -- rule on. Most of DM's work, from his first book, ''Poems'' (coll 1957 chap), has been poetry, and he can be seen as a very late member of the Beat Generation; his roots in that tradition help make clear the intersection of erotic excess and political protest in his work'' (John Clute/ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SF). Fine (unread) copy.