New York: Rinehart, (1950.) dj. Hardcover first edition - African American writer's highly praised first novel - set in a small town in West Virginia, where Demby grew up, this is "the story of a white former carnival worker who has lived in self-chosen exile in BeetlecreekÕs black quarter, and of a black Pittsburgh teenager who has been sent to live with relatives in Beetlecreek by his ailing mother Ð both are lost souls looking for acceptance and meaning in their lives, but their tentative friendship leads to tragic consequences for both when the unspoken social code of Beetlecreek is broken" 223 pp. .