WISTERIA COTTAGE - INSCRIBED
New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1948. First Edition. A novel of obsessive love and murder, "presented as a case history of a psychiatric patient under observation at the Willetstown State Hospital during the three months before his trial" (The Dark Page, Vol.2, pp.34-35). A Haycraft-Queen Cornerstone title, and basis for Robert Gurney, Jr's 1958 film noir Edge of Fury, starring Michael Higgins, Lois Holmes, and Jean Allison - one of the first films to deal with psychopathology from a sympathetic perspective. Hubin, p.84. Item #5000
First Printing. Octavo (20.5cm); gray cloth, with titling and decorations stamped in blue and pale pink on spine; dustjacket; [viii],212,[4]pp. Inscribed by the author on the front endpaper: "To Tania + Jimmy / Stay away from those dunes, folks! Stay away from those dunes! / Bob." Light wear and gentle nudging to spine ends, pinpoint wear to corner-tips, else a fresh, Near Fine copy. Dustjacket is unclipped (priced $2.50), lighlty edgeworn and gently spine-sunned, with shallow loss at crown (not affecting lettering), and some light dust-soil to rear panel; Very Good+.
Price: $500.00