Queereaders discussion

If you're not familiar with Valancourt Books, we're a micro press that has been in print for 9 years now. We got our start our start by reprinting ultra rare Gothic and Victorian texts, and have since moved on to include modern horror, gay interest titles and literary fiction.

A two person operation, a husband & husband team, our entire focus is reviving works that have fallen out of print and sometimes into complete obscurity. Our titles are reissued in attractive new editions with new introductions by leading authors.

We have revived gay authors such as Francis King, Forrest Reid, Martyn Goff, Kenneth Martin and many more.

A few of the titles we recently reissued:



Check out our website and feel free to add us here on Goodreads or any of our other social networks. We love hearing from fans and what works they'd like to see brought back into print!

--Ryan

Hi Ryan,

Will you be reissuing lesbian titles as well?

Hey Nancy,

I'd like to do We Too Are Drifting: A Novel but we're still waiting to see if it's something we can get the rights to.

We have been looking very hard for some! Almost everything I've come across is still in print, or if it's not, we have been unsuccessful locating the author's estate. The titles of most interest are the earlier titles from the 30s to the 50s, but we'll always be happy to take a look at anything through the late 80s.

If you have any suggestions, you're more than welcome to throw them my way and I'll look into it if we can find a copy and the estate.

I have no suggestions yet, but will let you know as soon as I do.

Hey folks,

I wanted to let everyone know that for the rest of August, we have a neglected classic of gay literature marked down to $2.99 on Kindle:

The Dark Glasses (1954) by Francis King



Book Description

After ten years of marriage, Patrick and Iris Orde have become complacent and passionless in their marriage and in their lives. When they inherit Iris’s father’s estate in Corfu, the change of scenery and the warmth of the Mediterranean sun seem just what they need. Patrick is able to devote himself to his hobbies, while Iris, a doctor, opens a clinic to treat the impoverished peasants. But when a meeting with a former lover reawakens old memories for Iris, and Patrick finds himself drawn to Soula, a village girl whose brother Stavro has a strange fondness for Patrick, a sequence of terrible events is set in motion that will lead to tragedy. . . .

Francis King (1923-2011) ranked The Dark Glasses (1954), the fifth of his more than forty volumes of fiction, as one of his favourites among his own works and believed it was one of his most underrated. This edition, the novel’s first-ever republication, features a new introduction by Jonathan Fryer and the original jacket art.

Learn More

You can read more about the late gay author Francis King on our website and on his Goodreads page. We were fortunate enough to know King for many years prior to his passing and he was a wonderful man and author. He gave us the great privilege of reprinting six of these classic works.

Francis King
http://www.valancourtbooks.com/franci...

New release: Francis King's The Man on the Rock

Our 6th and final Francis King reissue, THE MAN ON THE ROCK (1957), was one of his best-reviewed and most popular, being reprinted several times, most recently as a GMP Gay Modern Classic in the 1980s. It's the story of Spiro, a drop-dead gorgeous young Greek, whose good looks cause an older gay man and two women to fall in love with him, but whose greed and treachery winds up destroying all of them. This edition features a new intro by Prof. Gregory Woods, who also introduced our recent reissue of King's first novel, TO THE DARK TOWER (1946).



BOOK DESCRIPTION

Spiro Polymerides is a con artist, petty thief, and parasite who survives only by means of his youthful beauty and natural cunning. Restlessly, he drifts from one victim to another: Irvine Stroh, an American relief worker and repressed homosexual; Helen Bristow, a wealthy, middle-aged widow; and Kiki, the young daughter of a Greek shipping magnate. As he exploits, betrays, and ultimately destroys each of the people who love him, Spiro will come to find that the final victim is himself . . .

CONTEMPORARY REVIEWS

‘A skilful, confident tale of modern Greece ... brilliantly successful ... There is indeed no fault to find with this book.’ – David Williams, Guardian

‘Mr. King is masterly ... he is exact, moving and funny ... a very enjoyable book.’ – Angus Wilson, The Observer

‘Constructed with unobtrusive mastery ... has the quality of readability which can only be achieved by the highest type of professional skill.’ – Francis Wyndham, The Spectator

‘Serious, skilful, intelligent.’ – Times Literary Supplement

http://www.valancourtbooks.com/the-ma...

*Available only in the US and CA