Books

New York: The Dial Press, 1956. First Edition. Near Fine/Very Good. First edition, first printing. Bound in publisher's marble effect boards over black cloth backstrip, spine lettered in silver. Near Fine with tide mark to bottom of textblock edge, light-dust soiling and contents tanned with offsetting to endsheets. In a Very Good unclipped dust jacket with chipping to crown, toning and edge wear. Baldwin's second novel, which dealt with gay issues long before they were considered acceptable fodder for literary fiction by mainstream America. Set in Paris and narrated by an expatriate American who becomes smitten with an Italian bartender named Giovanni.

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.