Out of print for over seventy years, Gentleman Overboard by Herbert Clyde Lewis is being rescued for today's readers to launch Boiler House Press's new series, Recovered Books. Halfway between Honolulu and Panama, a man slips and falls from a ship. For crucial hours, as he patiently treads water in hope of rescue, no one on board notices his absence. By the time the ship's captain is notified, it may be too late to save him... Rediscovered in 2009 by Brad Bigelow as part of tireless research for his popular Neglected Books website, Gentleman Overboard has since achieved the status of a cult classic and even become something of an international phenomenon, having seen translations into Spanish, Hebrew, and Dutch. The newspaper Ha'aretz has called it 'A miniature masterpiece that emerged from oblivion'; the Spanish magazine El Cultural dubbed it 'una perlita': 'a little pearl'. A masterful piece of narrative tension, and way ahead of its time, Gentleman Overboard sets the question of existence in its most basic terms. The story speaks fiercely to the contemporary moment and for all who share a sense of loneliness through having found themselves isolated by politics, disease, economics -or indeed just sheer accident and bad luck. The fate of the novel's hero even has ironic parallels with that of the author, Herbert Clyde Lewis, who died forgotten and alone in 1950, a victim of Hollywood's black list, and who has since slipped beneath the waves of fashion and time, but now hopefully is to be recovered from the murky depths for the readership he posthumously deserves. -- Herbert Clyde Lewis was born in New York City in 1909. After working as a reporter in Shanghai, China, he returned to the US in 1933 and began writing fiction while working as a reporter for the New York Journal. In 1937, he published his first novel, Gentleman Overboard, a black comedy about a Wall Street banker who falls overboard while travelling on a freighter in the South Pacific and drowns. Time magazine's reviewer wrote of the book, "His hair-raising little tour de force is the more effective for being so quietly, matter-of-factly written." He published two other novels then moved to Hollywood to work for 20th Century Fox. He earned an Academy Award nomination for his original story for the 1947 film, It Happened on 5th Avenue, but was then blacklisted for his political activities. He returned to New York in 1949 and was working as a contributing editor of Time magazine when he died of a heart attack in 1950. George Szirtes (Introduction) is a poet whose many books of poetry have won prizes including the T. S. Eliot Prize (2004). His translation of Satantango by Laszlo Krasznahorkai was awarded the Best Translated Book Award in the US. He is also the translator of Sandor Marai and Magda Szabo. The Photographer at Sixteen (2019), a memoir about his mother, won the James Tait Black Award in 2020. Brad Bigelow (Afterword) is the editor of the Neglected Books Page.

Introduction by Sheila Liming, author of Hanging Out: The Radical Power of Killing Time We Too Are Drifting is a landmark in American literature; the first mainstream novel that dealt with lesbian relationships in a straightforward, unapologetic manner. Written in spare, precise prose, it relates sculptor Jan Morale’s affair with the married Madeline and her love for Victoria, a younger woman torn between her attraction to Jan and her promise to marry the man approved by her family. The novel has been cherished by generations of readers for its frank account of queer love free of any suggestion of judgement or prurience. Gale Wilhelm takes her characters and their desires at face value, conveying deep emotions with unusual intensity. Out of print for almost forty years, we have made the novel available again, along with four never-before-collected short stories by the same author. “Probably the major novel of the thirties to deal with lesbians; perhaps the best of all time.... Exceptional literary merit.” Marion Zimmer Bradley “This is quite an extraordinary first novel.” Los Angeles Times “We Too Are Drifting has that telling simplicity which is as difficult to achieve in books as it is in clothes. Miss Wilhelm's writing is beautifully explicit and pointed, cleared of inessentials.” Books

Introduction by Catherine TaylorAfterword by Valerie Waterhouse ‘It is difficult to put this book into any category except that it is one of those friendly books that should be on one’s bedside table, where it will scare away into serenity the bogeys that sometimes come in the lonely hours.’ — Leonora Eyles, Times Literary Supplement In 1939, Malachi Whitaker was living with her family in the Yorkshire manse she had coveted since childhood. After years of poverty, her life of comfort — and success as a writer — had been hard-won. With war looming in Europe and worried about her ability to continue writing, she feared that this pleasant existence could vanish overnight. Aiming to capture the moment, she began keeping the journal that would become And So Did I. Spanning the years 1937-1938, And So Did I is both a record of daily existence and an impressionistic account of Whitaker’s life told through memories, speculations, and daydreams. Decades ahead of its time, it is a precursor to the genre-bending work of writers like Annie Ernaux and Deborah Levy. ‘What is the use of life?’ when danger lurks all around, Whitaker asks. Her determination to find joy in plants, insects, children, music, food and books will resonate with readers asking similar questions today. ‘It is delightful. Not an autobiography, not quite a journal, it combines in a most original way the qualities of both.’ — G.W. Stonier, New Statesman

A fascinating and long-neglected novel about the experiences of a German Jewish woman from the end of the First World War to the mid-1930s, her growing awareness of the rise of Nazism and her search for a home as a refugee. The story of the struggle to establish an identity in an unstable and intolerant world, told in an unforgettable voice. Makeshift traces the story of Charlotte Herz, a German Jewish woman, from the end of the First World War and the time of the Weimar Republic to the rise of Nazism and Hitler's takeover as Reichs Chancellor. Campion details Charlotte's struggle to establish her identity in the midst of increasing anti-Semitism and violence against Jews. Finally, driven into exile, she roams from England to South Africa and Australia before settling, uneasily, in New Zealand. Charlotte's stubborn, irascible outlook makes her a caustic and often bitingly funny observer and her unique voice becomes an irresistible narrative voice. A unique account of the experience of exile that makes for an unforgettable novel.

Eventbrite - UEA Publishing Project presents Virtual Launch of An American Journey by Ethel Mannin - Boiler House Press - Wednesday, June 10, 2026 - Find event and ticket information.

Introduction by Joanna Pocock, author of Greyhound In the spring of 1965, British novelist Ethel Mannin decided to see America "the hard way"— traveling by bus from New York to California and back. What she records in An American Journey is all too reminiscent of today's America: racial discrimination, economic inequality, environmental exploitation, and the treatment of native Americans. Her outsider's perspective provides an eye-opening view on both America's recent past and continuing challenges. Starting out in New York City, Mannin crosses the U.S., noting its eyesores and disgraces along with its grandeurs and glories. Long an advocate of outsiders and the oppressed, she observes the desperate poverty on "Indian" reservations and the hopelessness of the young and unemployed in Watts. She sees the reluctance of America's most privileged people to open the same opportunities to its least privileged. And yet, everywhere she encounters an irrepressible sense of optimism and faith in the American dream. As Joanna Pocock, who recounted similar journeys across America by bus in her book Greyhound, writes, "There are two journeys at the heart of this book: an inner and an outward one," placing An American Journey among the classics of travel literature.

Introduction by Joanna Pocock, author of Greyhound In the spring of 1965, British novelist Ethel Mannin decided to see America "the hard way"— traveling by bus from New York to California and back. What she records in An American Journey is all too reminiscent of today's America: racial discrimination, economic inequality, environmental exploitation, and the treatment of native Americans. Her outsider's perspective provides an eye-opening view on both America's recent past and continuing challenges. Starting out in New York City, Mannin crosses the U.S., noting its eyesores and disgraces along with its grandeurs and glories. Long an advocate of outsiders and the oppressed, she observes the desperate poverty on "Indian" reservations and the hopelessness of the young and unemployed in Watts. She sees the reluctance of America's most privileged people to open the same opportunities to its least privileged. And yet, everywhere she encounters an irrepressible sense of optimism and faith in the American dream. As Joanna Pocock, who recounted similar journeys across America by bus in her book Greyhound, writes, "There are two journeys at the heart of this book: an inner and an outward one," placing An American Journey among the classics of travel literature.

Publishing March 30th - pre-orders will ship slightly in advance of this..."One of the most electrifying and surprising endings in world literature." Erich Maria Remarque, author of All Quiet on the Western Front One morning in November 1940, two men meet on New Jersey dock. One, haggard and haunted, says he’s waiting for 75 refugees from Hitler’s Germany. Every day he waits, and every day he leaves — alone. Over a drink in a nearby bar, he relates the story of his imprisonment in a pre-war Nazi concentration camp. Of the SS commandant who separated out all the Jewish inmates and set about a deliberate program to kill them one by one, by torture, beatings, or suicide. Until the day when one inmate found himself faced with a decision: was vengeance, as it says in the Torah, a matter for God alone? Written in 1943 and never before translated into English, Vengeance is Mine [German title: Mein ist die Rache] is the first work of fiction to predict the Nazi’s final solution, their program to exterminate the Jews. Its story is short, stunning, and unforgettable: a 20th century masterpiece. “When you read it, the world fades into darkness ... and that's how it should be." Max Brod

"One of the most electrifying and surprising endings in world literature." Erich Maria Remarque, author of All Quiet on the Western Front One morning in November 1940, two men meet on New Jersey dock. One, haggard and haunted, says he’s waiting for 75 refugees from Hitler’s Germany. Every day he waits, and every day he leaves — alone. Over a drink in a nearby bar, he relates the story of his imprisonment in a pre-war Nazi concentration camp. Of the SS commandant who separated out all the Jewish inmates and set about a deliberate program to kill them one by one, by torture, beatings, or suicide. Until the day when one inmate found himself faced with a decision: was vengeance, as it says in the Torah, a matter for God alone? Written in 1943 and never before translated into English, Vengeance is Mine [German title: Mein ist die Rache] is the first work of fiction to predict the Nazi’s final solution, their program to exterminate the Jews. Its story is short, stunning, and unforgettable: a 20th century masterpiece. “When you read it, the world fades into darkness ... and that's how it should be." Max Brod

Buy our beautiful Boiler House Press books!

This 1943 novella by the Austrian Jewish writer Torberg—published before the horrors of the Nazi death camps were widely known—describes a brutal showdown between a Jewish prisoner and the German SS officer who calmly tells him he is about to die.

A fascinating and long-neglected novel about the experiences of a German Jewish woman from the end of the First World War to the mid-1930s, her growing awareness of the rise of Nazism and her search for a home as a refugee. The story of the struggle to establish an identity in an unstable and intolerant world, told in an unforgettable voice. Makeshift traces the story of Charlotte Herz, a German Jewish woman, from the end of the First World War and the time of the Weimar Republic to the rise of Nazism and Hitler's takeover as Reichs Chancellor. Campion details Charlotte's struggle to establish her identity in the midst of increasing anti-Semitism and violence against Jews. Finally, driven into exile, she roams from England to South Africa and Australia before settling, uneasily, in New Zealand. Charlotte's stubborn, irascible outlook makes her a caustic and often bitingly funny observer and her unique voice becomes an irresistible narrative voice. A unique account of the experience of exile that makes for an unforgettable novel.

Join us for the launch of Makeshift by Sarah Campion, a remarkable novel that's been forgotten and out of print since 1940.