The Big Sleep

London: Hamish Hamilton, 1939. First Edition. Hard Cover. Dust Jacket. First UK Edition in First Issue dustwrapper. Publisher's smooth black cloth; front, back and spine stamped in strong reddish-orange; front panel with thick-and-thin-rules frame with 'HH' in each corner. Boards exceptionally bright and clean with no fading whatsoever. No inscriptions. A fine. In the VERY RARE dustwrapper priced 7s 6d net to the inside flap (as called for). The fugitive bright orange dustwrapper is faded to the spine (as is the copy illustrated on page 9 of Bruccoli), The yellow titling to the spine is just visible as is the Author's name (in white); the publisher's name at the base of the spine is just visible. The dustwrapper has shallow loss at the head (7mm at it deepest) that just affects the top of T (as in THE). There is a tiny chip from the top right-hand corner of the front panel and a 2.5 cm closed tear at the bottom right-hand corner of the front panel. The British First Edition of "The Big Sleep" is one of the great rarities of Golden Age Detective Fiction. This copy has resided in a private collection for many years and is entirely "fresh to market". I am not aware of any other copy in dustwrapper being offered for sale in recent years. It is GENUINELY RARE unlike its US counterpart. Bruccoli: A.1.2.a. Photographs/scans available upon request.