THE RED-HOT DOLLAR and Other Stories from The Black Cat by (London, Jack) Umbstaetter, H.D - 1911

1911. With an Introduction by Jack London. Boston: L.C. Page & Company, 1911. 12 pp undated ads. Original tan cloth decorated in red and black. First Edition, first impression (so stated). "The Black Cat" was a periodical, headed by Umbstaetter, to which unknown writers were invited to submit anonymous stories. To quote from Jack London's Introduction: He [H.D. Umbstaetter] made me possible. He saved my literary life, if he did not save my literal life. And I think he was guilty of the second crime, too... I had been attempting to write something marketable. Everything I possessed was in pawn, and I did not have enough to eat. I was sick, mentally and physically, from lack of nourishment... I was at the end of my tether, beaten out, starved, ready to go back to coal-shoveling or ahead to suicide... This is an attractive, near-fine copy (a few marks at the upper edge of the front cover).