The Heart In Exile

RODNEY GARLAND

Publication: Coward-McCann, Inc, 1954, New York

First U. S. edition. 8vo. Two-tone quarter cloth and decorated paper over boards, titles stamped in blue on the spine, [8], 3 - 314 pp.

An attractive copy of Hungarian-British author's noir thriller – the first gay detective novel – originally published in London by W. H. Allen in 1953. "Julian Leclerc, a handsome and talented young barrister, has been found dead of an apparent overdose of sleeping pills. The verdict is accidental death, but his fiancée, Ann Hewitt, suspects there's something more to the story. As the grieving woman recounts the details of Julian's tragic end to psychiatrist Dr. Tony Page, he listens with acute interest – but not for the reason she thinks. Years earlier, he and Julian had been lovers, and now, disturbed by the circumstances of his friend's demise, Tony sets out to uncover the truth. His quest will take him from the parties and pubs of the gay underworld of 1950s London to Scotland Yard and the House of Commons as he uses his shrewd and penetrating insight to find who or what was responsible for Julian's death" (from the Valancourt Books edition). The book lived a somewhat longer life into the mid-1960s as a mass market paperback before going out of print for decades, now recently reissued by Valancourt Books in 2014. An attractive copy of an important debut in the genre.

Fine in a bright dust jacket with minor wear to the spine ends and corners and with a tiny chip to mid-spine. Overall a near fine copy.