[Stevenson, Edward Ireenaeus.] Mayne, Xavier, pseud.

8vo, first edition, no. 23 of 125 copies, original vertically-grained black cloth boards, red speckled edges, spotting, joints partially split

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing, when appropriate.
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the rare first edition of a pioneering and sympathetic study of modern homosexual practice in europe and america, which concludes that homosexuality is natural, necessary, and legitimate.

The expatriate American-born author Edward Ireenaeus Stevenson (1858-1942) appears to have moved to Europe in 1901, and spent the rest of his life in Eastern Europe, France and Italy. His ground-breaking novel Imre: A Memorandum, was issued in a limited edition in 1906, and has been described as, if not the first American "gay" novel, perhaps the first overtly sympathetic novel of this kind, and definitely the first with a happy ending.

"Before we loathe the homosexual as anarchist against Nature, as renegade toward religion, as pariah in society, as monster in immorality, as criminal in law, let us feel sure that we have considered well whatever the complex mystery of Life presents as his defense .... " (quotation from the book, on the title page)