THE DEVIL THUMBS A RIDE
New York: Robert M. McBride and Company, 1938. First Edition. Well-preserved copy of this dark, tautly-written piece of California fiction by Du Soe (1920-1964), in which a murderous hitch-hiker and two young women catch a ride with an unsuspecting lingerie salesman on the way from San Diego to Los Angeles. Du Soe's career began as a writer (under the name Bob Du Soe) for pulp magazines like Black Mask, Strange Detective, Mystery Stories, and Detective Dragnet. Devil was his first book, and his only full-length work of crime fiction. Basis for the 1947 film noir directed by Felix E. Feist, starring Lawrence Tierney, Ted North, Nan Leslie and Betty Lawford. A hard-boiled classic and one of the scarcest film noir source books in dustjacket, with no copies found in the auction record, and only 6 found in OCLC. The Dark Page, Vol.1, pp.82-83; Hubin, p.127; Baird 720. Item #5818
First Printing. Octavo (19.75cm); teal cloth, with titles stamped in dark red on spine and front cover; dustjacket; [ii],[10],11-246,[8]pp. Base of spine gently nudged, else Fine. Dustjacket is unclipped (priced $2.00), gently spine-sunned and lightly edgeworn, with a few tiny nicks, small tears, and attendant creases, and a shallow rectangular chip at base of spine panel; Very Good+ or better. Housed in a custom half-morocco clamshell case.
Price: $15,000.00