Coming to Power: Writings and Graphics on Lesbian S/M was a 1981 book edited by members of the lesbian feminist S/M organisation SAMOIS. It is an anthology of lesbian S/M writings.
It was quickly out-of-print and reached a worldwide audience the following year when it was reprinted by Alyson Publications. The book alternates short stories with advice on techniques, a model that has been used by various other BDSM books since then.
A sequel The Second Coming: A Leatherdyke Reader was published in 1996, edited by Pat Califia and Robin Sweeney.
Many of the authors in Coming to Power characterise sadomasochism as the epitome of eroticism.
It is described in Coming on Strong: Gay Politics and Culture as containing lesbian erotica.
Famous quotes containing the words coming to, coming and/or power:
“What a vast fraternity it is,—that of ‘Hearts that Ache.’ For the last three months it has seemed to me as though all society were coming to me, to drop its mask for a moment and initiate me into the mystery. How we do suffer! And we go on laughing; for, as a practical joke at our expense, life is a success.”
—Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918)
“Coming early is not as good as coming just at the right moment.”
—Chinese proverb.
“Love is the unfamiliar Name
Behind the hands that wove
The intolerable shirt of flame
Which human power cannot remove.”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)