Detour (First Edition, association copy, inscribed in the year and month of publication)

New York: Macaulay, 1939. First Edition. First Edition. Association copy, INSCRIBED by the author in the year and month of publication to fellow screenwriter Walter C. Roberts: "January 3rd 1939 / To Walter C. Roberts / In friendship and as a belated Xmas gift. / Your friend / Martin M. Goldsmith." With the front panel and front flap of the excessively rare dust jacket tipped onto the rear endpapers, presumably by Roberts, and Roberts' bookplate and manuscript ink name and Paramount Pictures address noted on the front pastedown.

Walter C. Roberts was a dialogue director for Paramount beginning in the 1930s, working mostly uncredited on Westerns and war movies, his most important known credit being his work on the revisionist Western "Warlock" in 1959.

One of the rarest film noir source books, and among the earliest inscriptions we have ever encountered, having only seen one other dated in the month of publication. Basis for Edgar Ulmer's cornerstone film noir, for which Goldsmith also wrote the screenplay (practically unheard of at the time), some 6 years after this copy was inscribed.

Very Good plus overall lacking the dust jacket (apart from its owner's appropriation noted above). The book was issued with both a smooth and rough cloth, the boards of this copy are roughly split evenly between the two, likely a production error where the smooth finish was not completely applied.

The Dark Page I: 1940-1949, p. 112.