New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1943. First edition. Small bookplates of New York University's Fales Collection (marked as a withdrawn duplicate) and collector Scott Cunningham affixed to the front paste-down and very faint previous owner's signature on the front free endpaper. Spine lean, a very good copy in very good dust jacket with light wear at spine ends and corner tips, some rubbing along spine folds, just a touch of dust soiling to the rear panel, and printed price clipped from the front flap. Both book and jacket present well overall. This wartime novel is hard to find in decent condition. (#151297) (16846). Octavo, pp. [1-6] [1-2] 3-216 [217: blank] [318: colophon], original green cloth, front and spine panels stamped in black, running Borzoi stamped in black on rear panel, fore and bottom edges rough trimmed. Chandler's fourth novel featuring private detective Philip Marlowe and his "masterpiece" (Barzun and Taylor, A Catalogue of Crime 483). The 1947 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer motion picture starred Robert Montgomery and was filmed "in the first person," from Marlowe's physical point of view. 6000 copies printed. Johnson, The Dark Page, p. 64. Pronzini and Muller, 1001 Midnights: The Aficionado's Guide to Mystery and Detective Fiction, pp. 123-4. Bruccoli IV-1a.

Synopsis

Derace Kingsley's wife ran away to Mexico to get a quickie divorce and marry a Casanova-wannabe named Chris Lavery. Or so the note she left her husband insisted. Trouble is, when Philip Marlowe asks Lavery about it he denies everything and sends the private investigator packing with a flea lodged firmly in his ear. But when Marlowe next encounters Lavery, he's denying nothing – on account of the two bullet holes in his heart. Now Marlowe's on the trail of a killer, who leads him out of smoggy LA all the way to a murky mountain lake ...

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Details

Bookseller: John W. Knott, Jr., Bookseller, ABAA/ILAB (US)
Bookseller's Inventory #: 16846
Title: THE LADY IN THE LAKE
Author: Chandler, Raymond
Book Condition: New Small bookplates of New York University's Fales Collection (marked as a withdrawn duplicate) and collector Scott Cunningham
Quantity Available: 1
Edition: First edition
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Place of Publication: New York
Date Published: 1943
Keywords: Mystery

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John W. Knott, Jr., Bookseller, ABAA/ILAB

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John W. Knott, Jr., Bookseller, ABAA/ILAB

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About John W. Knott, Jr., Bookseller, ABAA/ILAB

John W. Knott, Jr., BooksellerABAA/ILABFine First Editions

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Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:

First Edition: In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
Octavo: Another of the terms referring to page or book size, octavo refers to a standard printer's sheet folded four times, producing...
Edges: The collective of the top, fore and bottom edges of the text block of the book, being that part of the edges of the pages of a...
Spine: The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
Jacket: Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
Cloth: "Cloth-bound" generally refers to a hardcover book with cloth covering the outside of the book covers. The cloth is stretched...
Rubbing: Abrasion or wear to the surface. Usually used in reference to a book's boards or dust-jacket.
Paste-down: The paste-down is the portion of the endpaper that is glued to the inner boards of a hardback book. The paste-down forms an...
Price Clipped: When a book is described as price-clipped, it indicates that the portion of the dust jacket flap that has the publisher's...