Most Popular Gay Novel Celebrates Thirty Years/Thirty Million Readers: "The Front Runner" Marks 30th Anniversary This Year

An internationally revered novel about the love relationship between an ex-Marine track coach and an openly gay athlete will mark its 30th anniversary this year with an estimated thirty million readers worldwide.

Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) January 25, 2004 --Landmark author Patricia Nell Warren will commemorate three decades for her most renowned novel, "The Front Runner," with appearances and book signings across America, including celebrations in New York and Los Angeles in June to coincide with the authors 68th birthday.

In addition, Warren anticipates the release this year, through Wildcat Press, of the 30th Anniversary edition of "The Front Runner," sporting a new cover, historical retrospective and a new authors foreword.

The first contemporary novel about gay love to make the New York Times bestseller list and appeal to both gay and mainstream readers, "The Front Runner" is considered by most literary experts to be the most popular gay novel in American history. Published in 21 separate editions and translated into ten languages to date, "The Front Runner" has sold an estimated ten million copies over three decades, and continues to be one of the top selling gay novels worldwide.

Warren, who has written eight novels and four books of poetry, has attracted an estimated thirty million readers to date with her diverse literary subjects ranging from gay life to Native American philosophy. Her recent novels, "Billys Boy" and "The Wild Man," explore the coming of age for gay youth in different cultures, and have also won her critical acclaim for their authenticity and unusual insight.

However, it was Warren's unique novel about openly gay and lesbian athletes which made literary history and forever sealed her place as a gay icon by cracking the New York Times best-seller list with what Times critic Richard Roberts heralded in 1974 as "the most moving, monumental love story ever written about gay life."

"The Front Runner," which has shepherded countless thousands of gay men and women out of the closet over three decades and marked the gay rite of passage for many of them, has unassumingly become what Update News proclaimed in 1995, the most important piece of literature of the Post-Stonewall era."

Few books in the gay community have so greatly influenced self-esteem, political and social perspectives-even fashion," declares Warrens long-time business partner, Tyler St. Mark, who is producing the long-awaited film adaptation of "The Front Runner."

Most gay people who came out during the 70s and 80s can tell you exactly where they were and what they were doing when they first read this remarkable story," he says emphatically. Many of them rushed out to purchase running shoes and tank tops, inspired by the books athletic theme," he muses.

In an era when the entire sum of gay-themed novels could fit on one library shelf, "The Front Runner" presented mainstream gay characters within an unusual premise: a tough, conservative college track coach, who is secretly homosexual, falls in love with an openly gay runner. Together they confront hatred and prejudice all the way to the '76 Olympics. The reaction by readers worldwide has created a literary legacy few other gay novels can come close to matching.

Thirty years after its premiere, when sales of a gay book are considered a reasonable success at 20,000 copies, "The Front Runner" has never been out of print---a phenomenon for any book much less a gay-themed one.

Perhaps one of the most evident and lasting legacies of "The Front Runner" has been the establishment of over 100 gay and lesbian running clubs under the auspices of the International Front Runners (www.frontrunners.org). Inspired by Warrens novel, the first Front Runner club was founded in San Francisco in 1974, and today there are chapters in most states as well as ten other countries around the world.

Equally noteworthy is the novels unusual cross-ever appeal. "The Front Runner" has managed to attract innumerable heterosexual readers as well over the years and was included as one of the great sport stories of all time in Brandt Aymars anthology, "Men In Sports." Indeed, it was mainstream film producers like Paul Newman and Frank Perry who first scrambled to obtain the motion picture rights due to its mainstream success, and Hollywood has speculated for years which popular actors would be cast in the roles of Coach Harlan Brown and Olympic runner Billy Sive. Several productions have attempted to get past the starting gate amid studio concerns over the first large budgeted gay-themed motion picture.

Over the years, Warren has received thousands of letters from readers around the world expressing gratitude for her having enhanced the quality of their lives with her books; for having set principles by which they could live, for having given them hope--and even for having turned some away from suicide. According to many veteran activists in the gay community, Warrens novels have inspired countless gays and lesbians towards self-acceptance and the courage to face homophobia with pride, dignity and honesty.

Although born out of the tumultuous civil-rights issues of the 60s and 70s, Warrens landmark novel has retained its capacity to inspire and influence young people today. While those who first read "The Front Runner" in high school and college are now in their forties and fifties, succeeding generations have continued to embrace this gay classic, including a growing number of open-minded straight teens.

I think it resonates so deeply with people regardless of age, gender, or sexuality because of its universality," says 19-year-old Jonathan Newman, an openly gay college athlete at Vassar College. It is a deeply moving and important story, perhaps even more impactful today than thirty years ago!" he explains. Newman, a distance runner who hopes someday to audition for the film production, is one of hundreds of new readers who have connected to "The Front Runner" legacy.

"I am always pleased to embrace another generation of readers," says Warren, who now receives more email than hand-written letters from her newest readers. "It is my earnest hope that 'The Front Runner' will continue to inspire people all over the world who, because of their sexuality, must confront hatred, rejection and prejudice every day of their lives," she states fervently.

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For more information on Patricia Nell Warren and "The Front Runner": www.thefrontrunner.com www.patricianellwarren.com or www.wildcatpress.com
Please use the media contact to schedule an interview or obtain a press kit. A review copy of "The Front Runner" is available upon request.