BOY — A NOVEL THAT WENT ON TRIAL

Hanley, James (1897–1985)

Boy

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1932. First American Edition, First Printing. Hardcover with Dust Jacket.

A BRUTAL COMING-OF-AGE STORY WHOSE TREATMENT OF SEXUALITY, ABUSE, AND LIFE AT SEA WOULD HELP LAND ITS BRITISH PUBLISHER IN COURT.

NO SENTIMENTAL VOYAGE.
James Hanley’s Boy follows a working-class Liverpool youth who escapes an abusive home by going to sea, only to encounter another world of exploitation, violence, sexuality, and disease. Hanley rejected the romantic tradition of the sea story, presenting maritime life from the perspective of those trapped at its lowest levels.

CORNERSTONE OF QUEER LITERATURE.
First published in England in 1931, the novel became notorious after a later British edition was prosecuted for obscene libel. This Knopf edition of 1932 introduced the novel to American readers before the controversy reached its height and presents an early American appearance of one of Hanley’s most discussed works.

A STRIKING KNOPF PRODUCTION.
The American edition is also notable as an object. The bold typographic treatment of the title page carries into the remarkable dust jacket, with its oversized lettering, zigzag ornament, and contrasting spine. Even in its substantially incomplete state, the jacket retains much of the edition’s distinctive visual character.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS: First American Edition, First Printing, with FIRST EDITION stated on the copyright page. Octavo, approximately 7.5 inches tall; 255 pages. Original dark cloth with red lettering and decorative rules to the upper board; top edge stained dark brown. Title page printed decoratively in black and red. Set in Garamond; composed, printed, and bound by Vail-Ballou Press, Inc., Binghamton, New York, on paper manufactured by S. D. Warren Co., Boston. In the publisher’s typographically designed dust jacket, printed in black and red on cream stock. Contemporary complete copies show a $2.50 publisher’s price on the front flap. First American Edition, First Printing.

CONDITION: The bindings are tight and square. Text is clean with light, even age-toning. Moderate shelf-handling wear, with rubbing at the lower spine tip. The price-clipped dust jacket is lacking the entire spine panel, with additional moderate edge wear, small chips, creasing, and losses, particularly around the extremities. The surviving front and rear panels remain visually strong. Now protected in a clear Mylar sleeve.

LITERARY SIGNIFICANCE — THE SEA STORY STRIPPED BARE—A NOVEL THAT PROVOKED THE LAW
Boy occupies an unusual position in twentieth-century British literature because its literary history became inseparable from censorship. A later inexpensive British edition issued by Boriswood attracted prosecution for obscene libel, creating the controversy for which the novel remains particularly remembered. The first American edition predates that prosecution.

THE SEA FROM BELOW DECK
Hanley’s importance lies partly in what he removed from the traditional maritime narrative. There is little of adventure, heroism, or picturesque seafaring here. Instead, Boy depicts the vulnerability of a young working-class sailor within a harsh adult environment. That unromantic perspective connects Hanley with the socially conscious strain of interwar British fiction while giving his maritime writing its distinctive character.

SUBJECTS: James Hanley, Boy, Maritime Literature, Working-Class Fiction, Censorship, Obscenity Trials, British Modernism, Seafaring, Sexuality in Literature, Alfred A. Knopf, Modernist Fiction, Maritime Fiction, Coming-of-Age Fiction, Social Realism, British Literature, Interwar Literature, queer literary history.

Item #22361

Price: $65.00