Try for Elegance

(price-clipped) [very slight bumping to lower corners, a touch of soiling to bottom tip of text block, no other significant blemishes; the jacket has a some minor paper loss at upper corners of spine, one tiny chip at top edge of front panel, a few tiny holes along the flap-folds (insect nibbles), light dampstaining to bottom half of spine with slight extension into front and rear panels]. New York-set novel about "a salesman in a large and venerable Madison Avenue men's store" -- unnamed in the book, but known at the time to have been modeled after Brooks Brothers, for the pretty obvious reason that the author was employed there (as, yes, a salesman) -- he was even interviewed "on the job" for a New Yorker profile around the time the book was published. (And the New York Times review of the book noted that it would have "a special attraction, beyond its literary appeal, for readers curious about the muted but substantial world of quality clothing for men, odd insights into the fashions of the clientele rather than fashions, per se, and the human routine within a store having that unquestioned imprimatur.) Loovis (1926-2008) clearly moved in post-World War II gay intellectual circles -- his alumni information page on the Colgate University website states that in his travels as a young man he "establish[ed] lasting relationships with Tennessee Williams and Gore Vidal," both of whom encouraged his writing. (The book, in fact, is dedicated to Vidal, who provided an admiring quote for the jacket blurb.) Although Loovis's career as a novelist sputtered out after just one more book ("The Last of the Southern Winds," 1961), he became an increasingly outspoken supporter of gay rights, and in the 1970s published two important and influential books, "Gay Spirit and Straight Answers About Homosexuality for Straight Readers. (But what I really want to know is: did Vidal get his suits at Brooks Brothers)

Product Info

Publisher: Charles Scribner's Sons

Year: (c.1959)

Type: Used

Binding: Hardcover

Seller Info

ReadInk

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Country: United States