First printing of the second novel by the master of the hard-boiled, a worthy follow-up to THE BIG SLEEP (1939).
Fine in near-fine jacket.
Price: $7,000.00
"When I turned the manuscript in they howled like hell about the title [...] which is not at all a mystery title, but they gave in." – Chandler, June 27, 1940 letter to George Harmon Coxe
Detective Philip Marlowe investigates the murder of a Black nightclub owner in this gritty tale of stoic despair set in Los Angeles. Published one year after THE BIG SLEEP, it has many of the same strengths and weaknesses; Chandler remains a surgeon in shaping the tiny details of his prose to build a larger atmosphere of surreal dread. A remarkably fresh copy of a major work of mid-century American fiction.
Read more: Gardiner and Walker, editors, Raymond Chandler Speaking.
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1940. 7.5'' x 4.5''. Original full orange cloth, boards and spine stamped in blue. Original unclipped light red dust jacket designed by Hans J. Barschel. [8], 275, [3] pages. Jacket spine lightly sunned, closed tear at foot of front flap: overall fresh.
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