Mystery

London: Alfred A. Knopf, 1931. Hardcover. Near Fine. First edition, preceding the American edition, and first issue, with the Knopf imprint (later issues have the Cassell imprint). Attractive engraved bookplate on the front pastedown, slightly cocked, and with a small, not too obtrusive stain on the front board, otherwise near fine, lacking the rare dustwrapper. A very attractive copy of the author's fourth book. This true first, English edition is exceptionally uncommon, and flat out rare in the jacket (which this copy lacks). Knopf published in the U.K. for only a few years, and generally produced very small editions.

LONDON: WARD, LOCK, AND CO. LTD. VERY GOOD WITHOUT D.J.. PUB 1902. FIRST EDITION. HARDCOVER. ISBN: PRINGLE WAS KIND OF A GENTLEMAN THIEF. THIS IS THE QUEEN'S QUORUM TITLE (# 30) OF LEGENDARY RARITY WHICHQUEEN HIMSELF OPINES WAS "DESTINED TO BECOME THE RAREST VOLUME OFDETECTIVE-CRIME SHORT STORIES PUBLISHED IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY." IN1951 QUEEN REPORTED: "BIBLIOPHILES AND BOOKSCOUTS HAVE SCOURED ENGLANDAND AMERICA, SEEKING IN THE MOST LIKELY AND UNLIKELY PLACES; YET AFTERNEARLY FIFTY YEARS OF EAGLE-EYED AND EXPERT EXCAVATING, THE RECORDEDCOPIES TOTAL EXACTLY SIX- NO MORE, NO LESS." THE ADRIAN GOLDSTONE COPYWHICH WAS RESOLD AT SOTHEBY'S IN DECEMBER 2000 HAS BLUE CLOTH COVEREDBOARDS. ONE WONDERS IF THERE WERE INDEED SO FEW COPIES WHY MORE THAN ONECOLOR OF CLOTH WAS USED, BUT AFTER ANOTHER 55 YEARS SINCE QUEEN MADE THEABOVE STATEMENT ONLY A FEW OTHERS SEEMED TO HAVE TURNED UP SO HISORIGINAL INFORMAL CENSUS MAY BE SOMETHING OTHER THAN EXAGERATION WHICHWAS HOW IT WAS CHARACTERIZED IN THE 1981 ADRIAN… Read More

New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1943. First Edition 1st Printing. Hardcover. Good/Very Good. 1943 Houghton Mifflin TRUE FIRST EDITION of this Ultra-SCARCE classic! This is a more than decent but flawed copy and in Good/VG condition. Most importantly this copy has the elusive title page with "1943" on the title page, the only designation of a true first! It is ex-library with a variant or rebound boards in a dark pebbled blue. Inside the end pages have a spiderweb pattern and there are the usual library marks on these. Since it was war time these books were so very cheaply produced with numerous publication flaws. The text however is very tight with very tiny marks on several pages but overall and very clean copy. **THE INCREDIBLY ELUSIVE FIRST STATE DJ is unclipped DJ is a the TRUE first edition and is just a tad larger than the boards. **BONUS** Laid in is a *SIGNED* note by Capsary, " Love and good wishes for all holidays and all year-VERA." Also receive the First Edition of… Read More

New York: McBride, 1938. Hardcover. Fine/Near Fine. First edition. Minute bumps to the crown and foot else fine in a lovely, about near fine example of the scarce dustwrapper with a few rubbed spots and slight loss at the spinal extremities (affecting a couple of letters), and some very neat professional reinforcing at the folds. A lost classic of hardboiled fiction; when it came out it was compared to *The Postman Always Rings Twice* and *They Shoot Horses, Don't They?* An Oklahoma man comes home and finds his wife and child gone, perhaps to California, and he sets out after them. The only mystery novel written by Eric Knight, an excellent and very versatile writer (he also wrote *Lassie, Come Home*) who died in a plane crash during WWII. An uncommon book, and genuinely rare in jacket.

London: Jonathan Cape, 1961. First Edition. Near fine in dust jacket. Presentation copy; inscribed by the author, “To Jonathan Miller from the Author.” Fleming, an antiquarian book collector himself, was clearly very much aware of old conventions slipping away, and often adhered to this old custom of inscribing books from “the Author.” In the nineteenth-century, it is not uncommon to find the closest associations; to a wife, mother, child, friend, etc., presented in this manner. In our day, this would seem cold, peculiar, or incomplete, but it does have a certain old-fashioned charm that antiquarian books are supposedly cherished for.

NY: Dick & Fitzgerald (1865). 1st ed., 1865. 8vo. 186 pp. + [2] pp. ads. Original printed orange wrappers, with ads front verso and rear recto and verso. Seminal in the development of modern American detective fiction, John Brampton Williams' Leaves from the Note Book of a New York Detective is considered to be the first instance of American detective fiction. This collection of 29 short stories opens with the title piece which recounts the meeting between a medical doctor, John Babbington Williams (the actual author of the stories), and detective James Brampton. They become acquaintances, and after Brampton has retired after twenty years of service, he sends his case notebooks to Dr. Williams to be edited and published. In each of the stories private investigator Brampton uses his superior powers of deduction and penetrating observation to solve the crimes and anticipates by twenty years 19th century's most famous sleuth, Sherlock Holmes. The stories include: "The Silver Pin,"… Read More

New York. Alfred A. Knopf. 1930. Extravagantly bound in full, gilt ruled ebony Morocco by Zahensdorf for Asprey of London. gilt-ruled spine compartments with gilt titles. Gilt-tooled raised bands, head and tailpieces. Extremely elaborate fleural turn-ins. Marbled endsheets. All edges gilded. 8vo.(5"x7.5"). The First Printing of The First Edition. Innocuous tiny patch of rubbing to front cover, else a Very Fine, flawless, exquisitely bound copy of perhaps the most significant work of American Crime Fiction.

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1939., 1939. First edition. First edition. Author's first book. Fine, bright square copy with top edge dark blue and un-faded in dust jacket with a tiny (1/8") closed tear to top edge of rear panel and a tiny (1/8") closed tear and one inch wrinkle to bottom edge of the rear panel. A Haycraft/Queen Cornerstone mystery novel and an exceptional copy. Made into two films of the same name, in 1946 starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, and in 1978 starring Robert Mitchum and Sarah Miles. Housed in a two-tone quarter leather and cloth clam shell case with a leather label on the spine and the titles stamped in gold gilt.

New York: Farrar & Rinehart, Inc., Publishers, [1934]., 1934. First edition. First edition. Introduces Nero Wolfe. Fine in a fine, professionally restored dust jacket, lightly faded on the spine. Introduces Nero Wolfe, the brilliant, idiosyncratic, and obese armchair detective. PI Wolfe is asked to find Carlo Maffei, who has simply disappeared. Shortly thereafter, his body is found murdered on a golf course. Wolfe`s inquiries reveal a possible connection with the sudden death of university president Barstow. As Wolfe looks into the murders, he finds that he is getting very close to solving the murders when a fer-de-lance (one of the most deadly snakes known to man) is delivered and a ball boy from the golf course provides a crucial clue. A Haycraft/Queen Cornerstone mystery and a beautiful copy.

New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1944., 1944. First edition. First edition. 8vo. Author's first book. Fine in fine dust jacket with some minor internal restoration by a professional conservator. A beautiful copy of this scarce wartime book in an equally beautiful dust jacket. When Professor Robert Branch's best friend is found dead, he knows that it can't have been suicide. He is certain that it is murder .... a murder arranged by a Nazi espionage group operating on campus. The only trouble is, no one will believe him. Branch also knows that those same Nazis will have him eliminated as soon as it is convenient. He's even narrowed his choice of executioner down to three ... a psychotic homosexual, a respected educator, and the women he loves! Housed in a cloth clamshell case with a leather label on the spine and titles stamped in gold gilt

New York and London: Harper & Brothers, 1930., 1930. First edition. First edition. Publisher's "A-E" code on copyright page. Author's first novel. Former owner's neat inked name on the front pastedown sheet (completely covered by the dust jacket flap), with yellow Harper's seal at back of book removed (as is nearly always the case), leaving only a tiny remnant attached to page.211 and the rear fly leaf. Near Fine, bright copy in dust jacket with gentle sunning to spine, with light restoration to the spine ends and corners. Carr's first novel, a formidable locked-room mystery introducing his flamboyant Parisian character Henri Bencolin. Bencolin's case involves "an impossible murder in a gambling club - the victim, seen to enter an empty room with all entrances under observation, is subsequently found there, beheaded" (Twentieth-Century Crime and Mystery Writers (2nd ed.), p.146). Dust jacket promotional blurb says "When the police burst into the… Read More

London: Faber & Faber Limited, [1939], 1939. First edition. First edition. Pseudonym of Alfred Alexander Gordon Clark. Author's third book. Original black cloth with titles stamped in gold gilt on the spine. A lovely fine, clean and square copy in the near fine, lightly rubbed and with a few tiny nicks bright, pictorial dust jacket. An exceptional example and rare in the dust jacket. Published in the U. S. in 1954 using the title "Murder Revisited." Three amateur detectives try to change a suicide verdict to murder. Inspector Mallett lends a hand and reveals a completely unexpected solution to all. Alfred Alexander Gordon Clark (1900-1958) was called to the bar in 1924, as he joined the chambers of famed lawyer Ronald Oliver and practiced in the civil and criminal courts in and around London. "He married in 1933 and went to live in Cyril Mansions, Battersea. At this time he was employed in Hare Court, Temple. This lucky combination of names -- combined with a far from adequate… Read More

First UK Edition; A Near Fine book in a Near Fine dust jacket. Typed Letter SIGNED by the author on his stationary laid in. This is the very scarce 1st UK edition; although not the true first (the US was published shortly beforehand), the UK is super rare to find in collectible condition, particularly in the ORIGINAL jacket with no restoration or repair; a truly unique item and a must for the 20th century mystery collector! This novel is on the Modern Library list of 100 greatest novels and is the basis for many film and screen adaptations. This copy is in near fine condition with a square, tight binding, clean yellow boards with bold black lettering, and crisp, off-white to white pages; age spotting is present to the exterior text block and free papers and only light shelf wear to the board edges, else fine. Housed in a near fine dust jacket that is remarkably free of any rubbing or chipping but does show minor discoloration and soiling to the back panel, spine, and flap edges (please see scans for… Read More

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1943. First edition / First printing. Green cloth. Fine in a near fine dust jacket. No restoration, a remarkable copy. Chandler's fourth book. $2.00 Net Price present on front jacket flap.

London: George Newnes, 1894. Book. Illus. by Sidney Paget. Near Fine. Hardcover. 1st Edition. Original gilt lettered dark blue cloth with black illustration on front cover. All edges gilt. In custom made gilt lettered dark blue clamshell box. Illustrated by Sidney Paget. The binding is remarkably fresh, tight and square with bright lettering. Minimal wear to spine-ends. Hinges are sound. Patterned endpapers. Contemporary dedication (1893!) in ink on verso frontispiece. No other marks or inscriptions. Small piece of upper corner of last free endpaper formerly sticking to pastedown with slight damage. Occasional foxing. A near fine collectible first edition, first printing. .