Toshka

The Toshka project, as it is known, has both domestic and international critics.

Will Stebbins: Dumber Than Mubarak? Will Stebbins 2011

The Toshka project, as it is known, has both domestic and international critics.

Will Stebbins: Dumber Than Mubarak? Will Stebbins 2011

My own life also changed in the grim fifties, and I saw less of Toshka, now Rosetta Reitz, as she closed the shop and devoted herself to having her three daughters.

We Remember - Rosetta Reitz, 1924 - 2008 2010

The character of the bookstore changed at the beginning of the fifties, when Toshka met her future husband, the artist Robert Reitz, a tall good-looking man with fair complexion and blue eyes, in total contrast to her dark Semitic beauty.

We Remember - Rosetta Reitz, 1924 - 2008 2010

He was a Reichian, a follower of Wilhelm Reich, which was the most avant-garde of the schools of psychotherapy, almost a cult, and one which had many followers in the Village, including Toshka.

We Remember - Rosetta Reitz, 1924 - 2008 2010

As reported in the Villager obit, Toshka learned the bookselling trade by getting a job at the ultra-literary Gotham Book Mart, working for the renowned Frances Steloff, who was such a gorgon that no one ever succeeded in working for her for more than a few weeks.

We Remember - Rosetta Reitz, 1924 - 2008 2010

The goal was a 'cosmic orgasm', enthusiastically pursued by Reichians and others in the Village, where Free Love had always been a bohemian rallying cry, and Toshka was a convincing Sex Goddess herself with her own orgone box in the back room of the shop.

We Remember - Rosetta Reitz, 1924 - 2008 2010

But Toshka managed to hang on for six months, taking Miss Steloff's abuse, and learned the bookselling trade, especially the world of avant-garde literature in which the Gotham Book Mart specialized, and that she wanted to feature in her own bookstore.

We Remember - Rosetta Reitz, 1924 - 2008 2010

"Toshka, what did you find behind the one-way street sign?"

Hard to be a god Strugatski, Arkadi & Strugatski, Boris 1973

And the boy felt, as always, that vague joy he experienced whenever he and Toshka stole away from the boarding-school and a whole day of freedom lay before them.

Hard to be a god Strugatski, Arkadi & Strugatski, Boris 1973