The Story of Harold

By Terry Andrews and Terry Andrews (pseud.)

Book Overview

Back in print for the first time in decades, this stylish classic of 1970s queer literature follows a Greenwich Village-based children's book author who avidly participates in the era's sexual freedoms while privately nursing a desire for oblivion.

Named one of the "25 Most Influential Works of Postwar Queer Literature" by The New York Times

There may be no one living in Greenwich Village more filled with life than Terry Andrews. He has a thriving career as a children's book author, he frequents the gym and the opera, he has not one but three regular romantic partners. He can spin a yarn; he's irresistible. Yet Terry yearns for oblivion; he is on the hunt for death. Then into his life arrives Barney, an altogether unpleasant young boy who is looking for a father figure--and for more stories about Harold, the hero of Terry's books. Will the grudging friendship that grows between the two be enough to pull Terry back from his flirtation with that ultimate lover--Thanatos?

Terry Andrews, the name of the purported author of The Story of Harold, was in fact the pen name of George Selden, himself the author of the Newbery Honor-winning children's book A Cricket in Times Square. When Selden died in 1989, he left behind this remarkable novel, one that Edmund White called "the earliest document that renders the feel of Downtown Village gay life in the 1970s . . . The voice of the first gay liberation generation: romantic and sexual, unguilty and explicit, nonjudgemental and appreciative, grittily urban."

Long out of print, the book nonetheless has enjoyed an underground following, and in 2023, The New York Times included it on its list of the 25 Most Influential Works of Postwar Queer Literature. To read it is to be seduced.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1590176154
• ISBN13: 9781590176153
• Release Date: May 2027
• Publisher: New York Review of Books
• Length: 408 Pages
• Weight: 0.81 lbs.

Customer Reviews

I Agree: It's A Masterpiece

Yes, I've recommended this to friends. It is about love and is not limited to any kind of love. It is wonderful, unforgettable, one of the best, most touching books I've ever read. Original edition had illustrations by Edward Gorey. The book was openly published under the pseudonym of "Terry Andrews," said on the book's jacket to be a well-known children's book author. Well, the children's book writing in this novel is so close to that of George Selden, author of the best-selling The Cricket In Times Square and other books, that I believe he wrote it. I have corresponded with some authors who agreed, but one told me that "George Selden" is actually a pseudonym and that "Terry Andrews"is the real name of the author. As far as I know, he published no other books, and I believe he is no longer alive.

"Harold" once called me

[Written by a friend who is not internet savvy; submitted by me on his behalf] Years ago, when this book first came on the market, I read it and became immediately enthralled. At the time, I was working in the publishing business. While I gushed my enthusiasm to any and everyone who listened, an acquaintence offered to match me up with the author I so clearly admired. The author's apparent real name was also shared with me, and I began reading those children's stories, which were every bit as haunting as that told of Harold's. Then one day, I got a phone call. "Bruce? This is Harold. I hear you like to read," and I certainly did. A date to meet was proffered but I was speechless. Not clear on how to deal with suddenly being on stage in this new kind of play within a play, I failed to follow up on that offered date. My loss. Instead I bought a case of paperback copies of "Story of Harold" and, over subsequent decades, gave all but one alway. It's now quite dog-eared. I still wonder what I'd do if he ever called again.

A terrifying, moving, funny, cerebral masterpiece.

It's amazing more people haven't found this book! Wry, passionate, aloof, deeply moving and disturbing at the same time. (Perhaps its explicit qualities turn some away, but for once an advertising blurb is profoundly correct: it IS "about everything important that goes on between people". Although it may be categorized as a "gay" novel, it is not narrowly focused on gayness, just as gay people are not "just gay" but have the full spectrum of human concerns. At times painfully funny, at times hauntingly poetic, and times even fierce, unafraid to show its darkest shadows as well as its piercing lights, everyone with a heart and a head should experience this novel.

Brilliant, funny, and definitely twisted

This is one of my all-time favorites. The narrator is an author of children's books (and according to the cover, "Terry Andrews" is the pseudonym of a well-known children's author!) who is in a series of relationships with both men and women. Unfortunately, his one true love (and hottest sex partner) is married and doesn't love him back. This isn't really a "gay" novel, but has some pretty explicit same-sex (and hetero sex) scenes. Oddly enough, it's ultimately a warm, thought-provoking, and pretty funny book.