The Young and Evil

In what has become a classic text of literary modernism and sexual desire. The milieu of young gay artists in Greenwich Village in the twenties is splayed through the mists of more eroticism and amorphous ambiguity than one expects in such a compact novel. I would recommend this to anyone interested in the development of queer literature.

I really wanted this novel to be good, wanted to have found a modernist book of the likes of Henry Miller, Gertrude Stein and company, with a gay bohemian spin. I don't think so. I just stuggled to read it, let alone like it.

Charles Henri Ford (1908-2002), Harrison Parker Tyler (1904-1974) American authors

First edition, a penciled note in my copy says that 2,500 copies were published, while 1,000 of
these copies were destroyed by Customs.

"a groundbreaking 1933 novel ... celebrated as a landmark in gay literature for its frank, non-judgmental of a young, openly gay life in 1930s New York City, particularly in Greenwich Village and Harlem," "was banned for for years in the U.S. and U.K." "A depiction of gay life, including parties, sexual encounters, drag balls, and the challenges faced" by the gay community. The main characters were based on authors themselves.