Garden City: Doubleday, Doran & Co., Inc., 1937. First American Edition. "A terminally ill man decides to murder someone evil, but an innocent man is accused of the crime. The well-meaning killer tries to prove his guilt (aided by Ambrose Chitterwick), and hires a lawyer to prosecute himself" (Bourgeau, p.118)..... More
New York: Random House, 1965. First Edition. Attractive advance copy of Capote's best-known book, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Non-Fiction, an Edgar Award, and basis for the 1967 Richard Brooks film Starring Robert Blake ad Scott Wilson. cf.Starosciak 11a. First Printing, advance issue. Octavo (21cm); publisher's brick red unprinted..... More
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1943. First American Edition. Chandler's fourth novel, basis for the 1947 film noir directed by Robert Montgomery, who played the role of Philip Marlowe alongside Audrey Totter and Lloyd Nolan. Bruccoli A4.1.a. First Printing, one of 6,000 copies. Octavo; lime green cloth, with titling and..... More
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1963. First Edition. A distinguished copy of Coxe's fiftieth novel, a story of murder, indiscretion, and blackmail set in Trinidad. Inscribed to fellow crime fiction author Frederick Lewis Nebel (1903-1967), who, like Coxe, was one of Joseph T. Shaw's "Black Mask Boys." Their combined prodigious..... More
New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1934. First Edition. Wall Street mystery featuring Dr. Hiram Arthur, an engineer-turned-private investigator who serves the upper echelons of Manhattan's financial district. After a financier is murdered in his private office, "wily old Dr. Arthur and his team of voluptuous secretaries tangle with the..... More
London: Robert Hale, 1943. First British Edition. An intriguing intersection of hard-boiled literature, the Hollywood novel, and film noir. The book was purchased by Twentieth Century-Fox prior to publication in 1941 and the film was released the same year. Today it is not only viewed as a foundational film noir..... More
New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1924. Attractive copy of Freeman's first novel, introducing the public to Dr. John Thorndyke, whose scientific approach to detection was something of a departure in the genre during this period. Thorndyke attempts to clear the name of a young man who stands accused of..... More
Philadelphia: The John C. Winston Company, 1914. First Edition. An early Freeman mystery featuring Humphrey Challoner, a specialist in criminal anthropology, who after the murder of his wife dedicates his life to the apprehension and punishment of criminals (and by "apprehension and punishment" I mean he murders them, shrinks their..... More
New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1952. First Edition. Prior to the publication of his first novel, Gault was already a prolific writer for the pulps, publishing more than 300 stories for magazines like Argosy, Black Mask, and Dime Mystery. By the time the 1950's came around, the pulp industry..... More
London: Peter Owen, 1969. First Edition. Well-preserved, distinguished copy of the author's second and scarcest book. Set in rural Tennessee, the novel is centered around two families living in a bleak and sparsely-populated town, who quarrel over a plot of land that separates their farms. "The feud erupts into violence..... More
Cleveland and New York: The World Publishing Company, [1944]. First Hardcover Edition. First hardcover edition of Hammett's "novel" comprised of two stories ("The Big Knockover" and "$106,000 Blood Money") which first appeared in Black Mask in 1927. The Continental Op hunts down the vicious leader of a gang who robbed..... More
New York: The John Day Company, 1931. First Edition. Scarce anthology of horror and weird fiction selected by Hammett himself, for which he provides a 3pp introduction. Notable contributions include William Faulkner's "A Rose For Emily," "The Music of Eric Zann" by H.P. Lovecraft, and Donald Wandrei's "The Red Brain,"..... More
New York: Grosset & Dunlap, [1954]. Mid-1950's edition of the sixth Nancy Drew mystery. Mildred Augustine Wirt Benson (1905-2002) wrote the earliest Nancy Drew and Dana Girls mysteries under the penname Carolyn Keene for the Stratemeyer Syndicate between 1929-1947. The year before her death, she was given a Special Edgar..... More
New York: Grosset & Dunlap, [1948]. Late 1940's edition of the 14th Nancy Drew mystery. Mildred Augustine Wirt Benson (1905-2002) wrote the earliest Nancy Drew and Dana Girls mysteries under the penname Carolyn Keene for the Stratemeyer Syndicate between 1929-1947. The year before her death, she was given a Special..... More
New York: Brentano's, 1909. First American Edition. First edition in English of Leroux's second novel featuring police reporter and amateur detective Joseph Rouletabille, first published in French in 1907 as Le Parfum de la Dame en Noir. A sequel to Leroux's 1908 novel The Mystery of the Yellow Room, featuring..... More
London: Andre Deutsch Limited, 1965. First UK Edition. The first Lt. Clancy novel, and the first to be published under the Robert L. Pike pseudonym. Basis for the Oscar-winning 1968 film Bullitt, starring Steve McQueen, Jacqueline Bisset, and Robert Duvall, in what would produce one of modern cinema's most intense..... More
Chicago: Stone & Kimball, 1894-1895. First Trade Edition. "The most ambitious publishing project of Stone & Kimball, conceived in enthusiasm and carried out with care, this has remained the standard edition of Poe" (Kramer, History of Stone & Kimball, 35). At the time of publication, it was the first complete..... More
New York: Doubleday, Doran & Company / The Crime Club, 1943. First Edition. Woolrich's fifth "Black" book, basis for the 1946 film noir starring Dan Duryea, Peter Lorre, and June Vincent. First Printing. Octavo; black cloth, with titles stamped in white on spine and front panel; 300pp. Spine ends gently..... More