SERVANTS WITH TORCHES

(New York): (n.p.), 1955. First printing. Good in very good plus jacket.. Rare limited signed first edition of this story privately printed by the author's partner Sandy Campbell and illustrated with a signed and numbered serigraph by Paul Cadmus. Windham was a close friend of Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams and an acquaintance of E.M. Forster, Joseph Cornell, Gore Vidal, Montgomery Clift, and Paul Cadmus - at whose studio he first met Sandy Campbell - among many other notable figures in literature and the arts. His several novels, memoirs, and short stories earned him the admiration of André Gide and Thomas Mann, and his "early and fearless representation of gay characters in his fiction has made works like Two People and the short story "Servants With Torches" essential reading in Queer Studies classes" (The Story of Windham and Campbell, Windham-Campbell Prizes, Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Yale University). Many copies of the already small limited edition were destroyed by water, with most of the few surviving copies showing some signs of water damage, as here. Rare and important. 10.25'' x 7''. Original black pictorial cloth. Black endpapers. In original black paper dust jacket. 24 pages. Original silk screened illustration by Paul Cadmus, numbered 56 and signed by the artist. Tissue guard detached but intact and present. Edition of 117 copies; this copy no. 56. Signed by Windham below limitation statement. Front joint starting, some loss to spine. Water damage to endpapers and gutters throughout, as common. Minor scuffing to jacket.