New York: Harper & Bros., 1928

8vo, pp. 345, 4 pp. advertisements bound in at rear. Original black boards, lettered in gilt on spine. Bookplate to front pastedown, leading edge uncut. Lacking the dustwrapper. Minimal rubbing to spine ends, but a near fine copy.

First edition of Milton's only novel.

Ernest Milton [1890-1974] was better known as an actor. A stalwart of the Old Vic theatre company under Tyrone Guthrie, Milton also played Rupert Cadell in the original London stage production of Patrick Hamilton's Rope, filmed in 1948 by Alfred Hitchcock.

To Kiss The Crocodile, a stereotyped and rambling tale of gay backstage life, is no. 50 in Anthony Slide's Lost Gay Novels: A Reference Guide to Fifty Works from the First Half of the Twentieth Century (Routledge, 2003).

A near fine copy, lacking the very scarce dustwrapper.