STRANGE ARE THE WAYS OF LOVE

Greenwich, CT: Crest / Fawcett Publications, Inc, 1959. First edition. Fine.. First printing of Lawrence Block's first published novel, the derivative but accomplished product of the 19-year-old author's studious reading of "every other lesbian novel I could lay my hands on." Nearly out of his teens and desperate to publish a novel, Block temporarily laid aside detective fiction to produce this sad story of an Indiana girl in Greenwich Village, longing for "the beautiful Lesbian who could bring her the pleasure she wanted but was afraid to accept." In a memoir of his writing career, Block explains the novel's genesis: "The sensitive novel of female homosexuality was a popular category in the fifties and I suspect I read the books more for information and titillation than anything else. [...] I sat down and wrote the thing start to finish in two weeks flat, finishing four days before my twentieth birthday. It sold to Fawcett, the first publisher to see it, and I was a published novelist just like that." 7'' x 4.25''. Original pictorial wrappers by Barye Phillips. Crest s336. 144 pages. Very slight edgewear, faint vertical crease to front cover.