Dancer from the Dance. A Novel
New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1978. 1st Edition. Octavo, publisher's cream cloth over pumpkin paper-covered boards, spine stamped in bronze, pumpkin endpapers, original illustrated dust jacket.
"Encapsulates the spirit of New York gay life" (Jordan Valentine Tucker in the Los Angeles Review of Books). Inscribed first edition of Andrew Holleran’s cult classic of gay literature, the epic saga of a young man’s search for love. Anthony Malone, the book’s protagonist, remains elusive and opaque to the reader, both voyeur and actor in spectacles of sex and romance played out against the backdrops of Greenwich Village, Fire Island, and various discotheques. Malone is accompanied by Sutherland, a drag queen turned Shakespearean clown, on a journey toward love that becomes a literary and quixotic quest. Holleran, an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer, is known for his post-Stonewall novels and essays on the AIDS crisis. Dancer from the Dance was his first novel - one of the first to depict the gay community on Fire Island - and was followed by Nights in Aruba and The Beauty of Men. Inscribed by Holleran to half-title: "NY 1999 / for Roger H----- / Welcome to New York - / Andrew Holleran." First printing with complete number row to copyright page. Dust jacket designed by prolific illustrator and pioneer of the "big book look" Paul Bacon. Early owner address label to front endpaper. Light foxing and soiling to cloth and edges of textblock; unclipped dust jacket with some toning, light soiling and edgewear. Very good. Item #13395
$800.00