Interracial Romance Pulp "The Night Thorn", 1953

Ian Gordon

First Edition

[African American][Pulp] Gordon, Ian. The Night Thorn. New York: Popular Library, 1953. First paperback edition. A midcentury pulp exploring race, identity, and forbidden desire, The Night Thorn centers on a light-skinned Black woman passing as white in 1950s Harlem to retain her romantic relationship with a white man. The novel exemplifies the racially charged narratives that occasionally surfaced within genre fiction during the era of Jim Crow. The tagline, “The Night Never Ends in Harlem,” and the sensational back-cover description—"A girl who was a negro—but passed for white to keep the man she loved!"—signal the book’s preoccupation with racial passing, white supremacy, and the sexual politics of interracial desire.

The narrative follows Mimsey Howard, whose ambiguous racial identity drives a tale of tragic passion and social tension, and Bobby Deering, a white Texan newcomer shaped by the ideology of segregation. Their relationship, marked by secrecy and defiance, probes the deep contradictions of midcentury American racial politics. Mimsey’s decision to pass as white is not only an act of personal survival but a sharp critique of a society that polices love through racial boundaries. Gordon situates Harlem as both setting and symbol: a place where nightlife masks deep cultural fissures and mixed-race identity becomes a double-edged form of liberation and self-erasure. Despite its genre trappings, the novel’s engagement with themes of racial masquerade, sexual agency, and identity makes it a notable example of the intersection between pulp literature and social critique. Moderate wear consistent with age and pulp format. Overall good condition. An uncommon example of interracial representation in 1950s mass-market fiction.

Item #22125

Price: $125.00