Strongman: Vintage Photos of a Masculine Icon by Robert Mainard (Council Oak Books, 2001) is a succulent peek into the past. It's as if yesterday's buff and handsome men have reached across the centuries to mesmerize us with their 19th-century muscles and handsome faces.

From the dawn of the invention of photography, beautiful men have been inexorably drawn to pose before the most primitive camera. The men in Strongman are the best of the best, culled from hundreds of pictures from around the world. They're not necessarily representative of every nation, but nevertheless it's a delicious cultural and racial smorgasbord. Virtually all of the photographs are of European men, primarily from the United States, Great Britain, Germany and Russia, but also from Italy, France, Belgium and Czechoslovakia. There are a couple of pictures, no more than two or three, of African-American bodybuilders.

There's quite a nice action silver print of a relay race, pennants fluttering in the brisk breeze, from the 1913 California State Prison Games taken at the notorious Folsom Prison. A menacing-looking gun turret in the background is a grim reminder that those convicts better not run too fast, or too far! It is surprising that the Prison Games were integrated. We see whites and blacks competing, apparently as equals in the sprint.

There are too many anonymous pictures unattributed in national origin, model's identity, photographer and time frame, which is a shame and a loss. But having the pictures themselves is reward in itself. M

Steve Reeves, from Strongman .

ost of them are strictly-posed muscleman compositions made for use as penny postcards. Several of these postcard-style photos from the Gay 90s feature Eugene Sandow, the Arnold Schwarzenegger of his era. A good minority of the pictures are action snapshots taken at the beach or at some other informal setting such as a park, gymnasium or backyard.

Virtually all of the photos are in black & white, except for a few that are hand-tinted (and none too subtly!), and two more that are in actual glorious living color.

My absolute favorite strongman is the exquisite Luigi Borra, described as a wrestler and strongman in a professional photograph taken in 1894. The photo is so clear and crisp that your thirsty eyes can absorb every subtle nuance of his precious skin and firm body, from his tiny, well-knotted belly button on up. His thick, upturned moustache (like that of contemporary Italian King Vittorio Emmanuel) is the only clue that his is a beauty preserved from another time and place.

The only regret I have concerning luscious Luigi is that we have but one sole photo of him to savor. But that lone print confers upon him eternal youth and immortality.

Virtually all of the subjects in Strongman are unknown to us today, although they might have been celebrities in their time. The only exception might be Steve Reeves, who was immortalized as Hercules in several post-war Italian movies. They were the kind of motion pictures that were dubbed into a dozen languages, where the movements of the lips rarely kept pace with the words pouring out of their out-of-sync mouths.

The photo of Reeves here is particularly enticing, taken about the time he first won the Mr. America title, his dark, wavy hair serving as his crown, a few years before he hit the silver screen. His face still had a boyish charm at this point, but his body was already fully developed, especially his massive torso and incredible arms.

There's nothing in the least bit offensive about Strongman. You could show it with confidence to your mom. There are a few completely nude men, but most of them are wearing swimming trunks, posing straps or even an actual fig-leaf. Some wear laced-up sandals, perhaps evoking the ancient Olympic ideal.

Of course, these photos are from the pre-enhancement era. None of their muscles are the result of steroids or implants. These men earned their muscles the old-fashioned way, through hard work, sweat, and yes, some tears as well.

These vintage photos beg to be presented in poster size. I asked the publisher if they could make posters available and was told that the original pictures were too small to enlarge. But I was able to enlarge my darling Luigi on my own, and the results were superb. About the only ancillary product available is a postcard version of Strongman, which runs from about $10 to $25 on several websites.

Strongman, not to be confused with the movie of the same title, is a classic, an absolute must-see for any admirer of the male physique.