Harlan Brown, a top track coach, is torn between his feelings for Billy Sive, a talented gay runner, and his desire to help Sive make the Olympic team

The Front Runner

Warren, Patricia Nell

Literature & Fiction

Plume

The front runner

First published in 1974, The Front Runner raced to international acclaim - the first novel about gay love to become popular with mainstream. In 1975, coach Harlan Brown is hiding from his past at an obscure New York college, after he was fired from Penn State University on suspicion of being gay. A tough, lonely ex-Marine of 39, Harlan has never allowed himself to love another man. Then Billy Sive, a brilliant young runner, shows up on his doorstep. He and his two comrades, Vince Matti and Jacques LaFont, were just thrown off a major team for admitting they are gay. Harlan knows that, with proper training, Billy could go to the '76 Olympics in Montreal. He agrees to coach the three boys under strict conditions that thwart Billy's growing attraction for his mature but compelling mentor. The lean, graceful front runner with gold-rim glasses sees directly into Harlan's heart. Billy's gentle and open acceptance of his sexuality makes Harlan afraid to confront either the pain of his past, or the challenges which lay in wait if their intimacy is exposed. But when Coach Brown finds himself falling in love with his most gifted athlete, he must combat his true feelings for Billy or risk the outrage of the entire sports world - and their only chance at Olympic gold.

Literary

Harlan Brown, a top track coach, is torn between his feelings for Billy Sive, a talented gay runner, and his desire to help Sive make the Olympic team

The Fancy Dancer

Father Tom Meeker must choose between his sacred vows and a secret attraction to a proud, gay half-breed with a criminal record and unlawful desires.

First published in 1974, The Front Runner raced to international acclaim - the first novel about gay love to become popular with mainstream. 
In 1975, coach Harlan Brown is hiding from his past at an obscure New York college, after he was fired from Penn State University on suspicion of being gay. A tough, lonely ex-Marine of 39, Harlan has never allowed himself to love another man. 
Then Billy Sive, a brilliant young runner, shows up on his doorstep. He and his two comrades, Vince Matti and Jacques LaFont, were just thrown off a major team for admitting they are gay. Harlan knows that, with proper training, Billy could go to the '76 Olympics in Montreal. He agrees to coach the three boys under strict conditions that thwart Billy's growing attraction for his mature but compelling mentor. The lean, graceful front runner with gold-rim glasses sees directly into Harlan's heart. Billy's gentle and open acceptance of his sexuality makes Harlan afraid to confront either the pain of his past, or the challenges which lay in wait if their intimacy is exposed. 
But when Coach Brown finds himself falling in love with his most gifted athlete, he must combat his true feelings for Billy or risk the outrage of the entire sports world - and their only chance at Olympic gold.

LGBTQ+ Books

Morrow

Tom Meeker is a handsome rookie priest stranded in a dying rural parish. Vidal Stump is a proud, gay half-breed with a criminal record and unlawful desires. Father Meeker must choose between his sacred vows and his secret attraction to this Fancy Dancer who lures him into forbidden love. 
First published two decades ago, this provocative, hard-hitting novel was the first bestseller to portray a gay priest and to explore gay life in a small town.

The Fancy Dancer: A Novel

Ex-beauty queen Jeannie Colter is a born-again politician who hates homosexuals, and wants to crush them. William Laird is her devoted father - a wealthy financier who has kept a secret all his life. He is gay. When his fervent daughter runs for Governor of New York, and he has the money to get her elected, Bill Laird is trapped between family and fanaticism. A riveting chronicle of politics, religion and gay rights in the 70's.

The Beauty Queen

William Morrow Company Inc

In 1974, The Front Runner was published, a novel of love and loss that became a best-loved classic about gay life. Now, twenty years later, comes the sequel - a story of passion, and victory pulled from defeat. 
After his young athlete lover is assassinated on the Olympic track in Montreal, coach Harlan Brown is forced to enter the race of his life. To survive the hate and violence which threaten his chosen family - Betsy, valiant lesbian mother, Vince, angry activist seeking revenge, Chino, Vietnam vet with a wounded heart, and the secret child of Billy Sive, The Front Runner. 
In time, a second chance at love comes. Vince Matti, 25, a runner who was Billy's best friend, has harbored an unrequited passion for his ex-Marine coach. Handsome, volatile, and passionate, Vince challenges Harlan's stoic and lonely heart in unimagined ways. Harlan must race with the shadow of the past - that memory of the brief idyll with Billy - and reach a present where love is enduring and real. 
Meanwhile, Harlan's ordeal with bias and bloodshed is not over. Snipers often work in pairs, and the Montreal shooter evidently had a cohort who escaped arrest. This mysterious stalker moves implacably into Harlan's world. And yet another stalker is moving into gay life - a disease that has no name. As events move to the climax, Harlan runs the most desperate race of his life - risking everything to win the victory torn from his hands at Montreal.

Harlan's Race: A Novel

United States

Wildcat Press

The Front Runner: A Novel

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Warren, Patricia Nell. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Warren, Patricia Nell

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Warren, Patricia Nell. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Front Runner

The Front Runner

The Fancy Dancer

The Fancy Dancer

The Front Runner

The front runner

The Fancy Dancer: A Novel

The Beauty Queen

Harlan's Race: A Novel

The Front Runner: A Novel