Mafia : The History of the Ruthless Gang That Runs the Nationwide Crime Syndicate
by Reid, Ed
- Used
- Very Good
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- Very Good
- Seller
-
Chicago, Illinois, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Random House, 1952. First Edition - 3rd Impression. Hardcover. Very Good. Octavo. Book is very good and unmarked. There is minor spine edgewear to jacket protected in a Mylar DJ protector. Out of print. 3rd issue edition. Binding is cloth.
Reviews
On Oct 8 2022, a reader said:
Ed Reid was one of the great American crime writers who penned several classic books of the genre during the 1950s and 60s. In this short early work from 1952 he traces the Mafia origins in Sicily, details its notorious code of silence, pries open the workings of the international narcotics racket, and tells the stories of numerous mob murders. Reid sheds light on the lives of many figures in organized crime, both well known and obscure, but perhaps the most interesting material relates to the man just then establishing himself as arguably the most powerful single mobster in the country: Vito Genovese. The author reports on the fascinating period Genovese spent exiled in Italy during WWII as a favorite of the fascist government, acting as an interpreter for American forces while raking immense profits blackmarketing everything from stolen cigarettes to military vehicles. The appendix, the partial transcript of a September 1945 interview given to the Brooklyn district attorney's office by the U.S. Army investigator who arrested Genovese and brought him to Brooklyn for an outstanding murder charge, is a must-read. If you are a student of organized crime history, and want to build your library starting from key canonical works, you should own this book by one of the principal, Pulitzer Prize-winning documentarians.
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Details
- Bookseller
- Alba's Books
(US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- BN004195
- Title
- Mafia : The History of the Ruthless Gang That Runs the Nationwide Crime Syndicate
- Author
- Reid, Ed
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover
- Book Condition
- Used - Very Good
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- First Edition - 3rd Impression
- Publisher
- Random House
- Date Published
- 1952
- Size
- Octavo
Terms of Sale
Alba's Books
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About the Seller
Alba's Books
Biblio member since 2020
Chicago, Illinois
About Alba's Books
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"Is this...Biblio...um...Biblio...die...sigh...uh?"
/ She enjoyed hearing the attempts. Her father's book business, Bibliodisia, was actually pronounced Biblio-DEE-zhee-uh. "It's a whole books and sex thing," she'd explain. "No, no, not books ABOUT sex. Books so awesome you want them like sex. Biblio plus aphrodisia equals Bibliodisia -- get it?" / Some did, some didn't.
/ Either way, her dad built a musty little empire with a sexy, funny, brilliant, and hard-to-pronounce name that boasted membership in the Midwest Antiquarian Booksellers Association (MWABA) and exhibited at Chicago book fairs such as the famed Printer's Row. / The way he puts it:
"OUR STOCK IS VARIED AND OF HIGH QUALITY, COMPRISED MAINLY OF HARDCOVER FIRST EDITIONS IN THE BEST AVAILABLE CONDITION FOR THEIR AGE. OUR PRICES VARY AND ARE CONSISTENTLY LOWER THAN WHAT YOU SEE ELSEWHERE, AND WE ARE HAPPY TO CONSIDER REASONABLE OFFERS FOR OUR HIGHER-PRICED BOOKS." (He's hard-of-hearing. Also, Cuban. Alba is Cuban too so she can make that joke.)
/ When he says "our" he means himself, his wife, and his two daughters. It has grown more and more into a family business every year, and now he's nearly ready to hand the reins over to one of his daughters. (Don't worry, the other one's a school teacher.) On Biblio, Alba manages Bibliodisia's inventory and sales under the considerably less sexy, funny, brilliant and hard-to-pronounce business name of Alba's Books.
/ And so another bookseller gets her wings. / The logo's a skyline bookshelf 'cause she's so the big city girl.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
- Octavo
- Another of the terms referring to page or book size, octavo refers to a standard printer's sheet folded four times, producing...
- Cloth
- "Cloth-bound" generally refers to a hardcover book with cloth covering the outside of the book covers. The cloth is stretched...
- 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...
- 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....
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