Black Idol

First edition. 8vo. 157pp. Imitation red leather, lettered in gilt to spine.

Signed by de Terán to title page.

Author's fifth novel. A fictionalised account of the life of American poet, Black Sun Press publisher and bon vivant, Harry Crosby as told through the eyes of his mistress, Josephine Rotch Bigelow. As St. Aubin de Terán explained in her Contemporary Authors profile, "There was a two-hour time gap between the time he shot himself and the time Josephine died. My novel occurs during that time gap, on the idea that as a man drowns, his life flashes before him. In those two hours, the whole of Harry Crosby's life flashes before him".

Named as one of Granta's 20 Best of Young British Novelists in its inaugural 1983 list on the strength of her Somerset Maugham Award-winning fictional debut Keepers of the House the previous year. The Slow Train to Milan, winner of the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, followed in 1983. "Compelling." –Martyn Goff, Daily Telegraph

["St. Aubin de Teran, Lisa". Contemporary Authors. Susan M. Trosky, ed. Detroit, MI: Gale Research, 1989. 126: 384–389]