Playing the Game: The Homosexual Novel in America – Roger Austen

Condition: Good.
First edition, Bobbs-Merrill, 1977, Large-format Paperback – History and criticism – 240pp. Gift-inscription to Nic [de Jager]

The history of the homosexual novel from its murky beginnings in the dim past into the hesitant 20s, the gay pulps of the 30s, the breakthrough in the 40s, the rising (and hostile) reactions of the critics in 50s, and the decline that began in the 60s.
A literate, perceptive account, laced with dry, iconoclastic humor, describing some two hundred novels written during these decades.