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White, Edmund.
STATES OF DESIRE: TRAVELS IN GAY AMERICA.
New York City, NY:
E. P. Dutton,
1980.
Hardcover.
First Edition/First Printing.
336 pages.
Fine/Fine.
Collection of essays. One of the greatest American literary texts of the 20th century. The true First Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions. Presents Edmund White's landmark account of America after Stonewall (1969) and before AIDS (1980's), on the verge, as it were, of unprecedented catastrophe. It is not possible to read the book today without thinking "retrospectively" and with more than a twinge of bitter sadness, whether one is homosexual or heterosexual, positive or negative. By the time he wrote the book, Edmund White was established as the finest living openly gay American writer (Gore Vidal, the greatest living American writer, has never called himself gay, and still refuses to do so). White vividly captured the vitality and frenzy as well as the anxieties and disappointments of gay American life. In order to do so, he did what the great French thinker Alexis de Tocqueville ("Democracy In America") did in the 19th century: He travelled throughout the United States, curiously and avidly collecting stories by talking to people he had never met before in cities and smaller towns, which is the reason his book, clever title that it has, is about America, not just its openly gay parts. When it was first published, one of the accusations hurled against White was that he "went out of his way" to find homosexuals in every nook and cranny of the United States, the critics ridiculously implying that certain places were "gay-free". White did not have to look very hard to find his talkative subjects: The stories of these men, who opened up their hearts and spoke their minds to him, are seamlessly woven into a rich narrative tapestry that is so beautifully and eloquently written the book, which deserves a sequel, remains unsurpassed. White's book was read by educated readers, not necessarily gay readers, and that fact alone reinforced one of the points he made about post-Stonewall America: The emergence of gays as a political power in America. Edmund White (and artists like Nan Goldin) asserts today that the Reagan Administration was slow to respond to, indeed did not wish to acknowledge, the very existence of AIDS in order to undermine, if not destroy, the power gays gained in every sphere of American life, notably in Hollywood, the arts, literature, businesses like advertising, and most ominously of all, in Washington itself. Still, White's main (and lifelong) subject is not political power but the power of desire. There is no living American writer who captures what it means to desire another human being and what one is capable of doing, both good and bad, to attain that desire as convincingly and movingly as Edmund White does. A "must-have" title for Edmund White collectors. This copy is prominently and beautifully signed in black pen on the title page by Edmund White. This title has been out-of-print for a very long time and is now highly collectible. This is one of extremely few signed copies of the true First Edition still available online and is in fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright. Many signed copies online have serious flaws yet command up to $500. A very scarce signed copy thus. Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1994 for "Genet". Anointed by Vladimir Nabokov as his American successor. One of the finest living American writers. A fine collectible copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER EDMUND WHITE TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 9998062365. $150.00 |
