Joseph and His Friend: A Story of Pennsylvania
New York: G.P. Putnam & Sons, 1870.
First edition, first printing as per the BAL with only two pages of ads at rear beginning with The New "Household Edition" of Bayard Taylor's Writings. vi, 361, (2, ads with final leaf paged as "3") pp. Original green cloth with gilt spine lettering, tan coated endpapers. Cloth worn at head and tips, hinge at front starting, hinge around p. 263 cracked and some gatherings proud; Good+. An unsophisticated copy of a rare first.
Joseph and His Friend is often called "America's first homosexual novel." Some critics have begged to differ, arguing that the novel portrays an intense platonic same-sex relationship. It was recently reprinted in an annotated edition by LGBT-themed small publisher Lethe Press and has entered the very small canon of 19th-century queer fiction.
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