First published in 1950, The House of Breath quickly became an American classic among serious readers. In 1975, however, the book was reprinted with changes that downplayed the novel's erotic charge, and since then the original has been out of print.. "Readers can now rediscover one of William Goyen's most important works in this restoration of the original text. The book is written as an ethereal address to the people and places the narrator remembers from his childhood in a small Texas town called Charity. More than a story, The House of Breath is a meditation on the nature of identity and origins, memory, and time's annihilation of life. This fiftieth anniversary edition includes an afterword by Reginald Gibbons, professor of English at Northwestern University and the former editor of TriQuarterly magazine.