Publisher's Synopsis
The Original Version of the Cult Classic from the 70s Back In Print At Last! Scorching, bizarre, and flamboyant, a strikingly beautiful blond hustler, Numie Chase, comes to the searing heat of Tortuga, southernmost point in the Continental US—the end of the line. There, he arouses passions in six decadent but vulnerable people, whose lives mesh together under the blood-red sun. There are those who've suggested that Darwin Porter's Butterflies is a potboiling revision of Sweet Bird of Youth. Nevertheless, I'd walk the waterfront for Numie any day. —Tennessee Williams. We know from the beginning that we're getting into a hotbed that has morbid fascination for potential readers. Butterflies in Heat evolves, in fact, into one massive melee of malevolence, vendetta, and e-v-i-l, stunningly absorbing alone for its sheer and unrelenting exploration of the lower depths. —Bestsellers. How does Darwin Porter's garden grow? Only in the moonlight, and only at midnight, when man-eating vegetation in any color but green bursts into full bloom to devour its latest offerings. —James Leo Herlihy, author of Midnight Cowboy. Some commentators suggest that this novel's protagonist, a male hustler-cum-blond-god known as Numie Chase, provided some of the inspiration for the hero in the John Schlesinger film, Midnight Cowboy. Despite this book's provocative subject matter, (sex for hire among the terminally decadent residents of Old Key West), it's a sensitive and tender study of the labyrinthine paths to the human soul. Sometimes described as a cult classic, this book has many fans. Until its sales records were broken by other works by other authors in the mid-1980s, Butterflies in Heat reigned for several years as one of the best-selling underground novels in the history of publishing. Bookstores, please note: This title is available with two different cover designs. 1) A tasteful version of blue butterflies against a blue-violet background and 2) a more controversial version featuring male pinup Diego. We refer to these two designs, respectively, as the blue cover and the Diego cover, and both versions carry the same ISBN number. Both versions of Butterflies in Heat have sold consistently throughout the many printings of this title. Gay bookstores seem to prefer the Diego cover, more mainstream stores usually prefer the more conservative blue cover.
