Giovanni’s Room

New York: Dial Press, (1956). First edition, 1st printing. 8vo. 248 pp. Original eighth black cloth over lime paper-covered boards, stamped in silver, in original unclipped ($3.00) dust-jacket. Consistent edge wear, particular to spine ends and corners, toning, foxing, chips and small tears. Protected in archival mylar. Book is tight, square and moderately firm. Handling, shelf wear present. Mild toning, foxing to endpapers, pages and edges. Light curling to spine ends. Previous owner’s stamp to ffep.

Dust Jacket: Good

Hardcover: Very Good

“Giovanni's Room is a 1956 novel by James Baldwin. The book focuses on the events in the life of an American man living in Paris and his feelings and frustrations with his relationships with other men in his life, particularly an Italian bartender named Giovanni whom he meets at a Parisian gay bar. Giovanni's Room is noteworthy for bringing complex representations of homosexuality and bisexuality to a reading public with empathy and artistry, thereby fostering a broader public discourse of issues regarding same-sex desire. Even though Baldwin states that "the sexual question and the racial question have always been entwined", in Giovanni's Room, all of the characters are white. This was a surprise for his readers, since Baldwin was primarily known by his novel Go Tell It on the Mountain, which puts emphasis on the African-American experience.”