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Giovanni's Room (signed edition)

Out of Stock

James Baldwin

Giovanni's Room (signed edition)

£140

Illustrated by Lela Harris

Introduced By Hilton Als

James Baldwin’s tender, fearless novel of love, shame and longing is a defining work of modern literature. With intimate charcoal portraits from Lela Harris, this Folio captures every aching heartbeat of this timeless story. 50 copies of this edition have been signed by Lela Harris and Hilton Als.

● Only 0 Left in Stock

Book Details

Production DetailsQuarter-bound in blocked cloth with printed paper sidesPrinted slipcase

Dimensions8 ¾ inches x 5 ½ inches

PagesSet in Garamond with Octavian as display

AuthorJames Baldwin

Illustrated byLela Harris

IllustrationFrontispiece and 5 illustrations including one double-page spread

Publication Date192 pages

Editor's Notes

First published almost 70 years ago, Giovanni's Room is a literary masterpiece and an essential work of queer fiction. It is by turns deeply moving, bitterly heartbreaking and formative. In this Folio edition, an introduction by the erudite writer and critic Hilton Als sheds light on the novel's themes and its characters, its flaws and its beauty – and the life and mind of the author behind it. The story of David and Giovanni is rendered in intimate and expressive charcoal illustrations by the artist Lela Harris. A study of Paris by night, tender portraits and a dining room still life – newspapers, wine bottles and all – capture the essence of this modern classic.

Synopsis

David has always known the life he’s supposed to want – a respectable future, a woman by his side. But in the shadowed bars and winding streets of 1950s Paris, he meets Giovanni, a barman with a restless spirit and a room that becomes their entire world. As desire ignites, so does David’s fear – of himself, of love, of a truth he cannot escape. Baldwin’s haunting novel is a story of longing and loss, of the devastating cost of denying who we are, and of a love consumed by the fear of being truly seen.

Few writers have captured the complexity of race, identity, and sexuality in America as masterfully as James Baldwin. Born in 1924 in Harlem, Baldwin’s early life was shaped by poverty and religious fervour, themes that would later permeate his work. His novels – including Go Tell It on the Mountain (1953), Giovanni’s Room (1956, Folio 2025), Another Country (1962), and If Beale Street Could Talk (1974) – broke ground with their exploration of race and queerness. His essays solidified his role as a searing social critic. Living between the US and Europe, Baldwin was both an exile and a voice for civil rights, his words as urgent today as they were in the 20th century.

Hilton Als is a Pulitzer Prize-winning staff writer and theatre critic for the New Yorker. He has curated numerous exhibitions, teaches at Berkeley and Columbia universities, and is a former staff writer for the Village Voice as well as a contributor to many other publications, including the New York Review of Books. Als’s own books include White Girls (which was shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award) (2013) and, most recently, My Pinup: A Paean to Prince (2022). Long associated with Joan Didion, he curated the Didion exhibition at the Hammer Museum in LA and has written extensively about her.

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Giovanni's Room (signed edition)