A Coffin for Dimitrios by Ambler, Eric - 1939

NY: Scribners, 1962. First Edition . Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. 1st, brick cloth, vg (slt. cocked, discolored top edge) in vg dj w/ $3.95 price. Dj has minor wear and one short tear at top of spine, and a wrinkle aat the bottom of the rear panel. 254 pp. SIGNED on the title page.

London: Macmillan, 1977. First edition. Hardcover. Near Fine/fine. A very nice copy of the first Brother Cadfael novel. In this book Edith Pargeter combined her excellent historical novel abilities with her nom-de-plume Ellis Peters' well-constructed mysteries and started the boom in historical mysteries that continues to this day. There are many earlier examples of the form, but this is where it takes off and becomes a major publishing category. Historically important, well written, and a scarce book to find in nice condition. This copy has a previous owner's minuscule inscription on the front free endpaper (signature and date of 10 Dec 77, and the cryptic notation "F.E." indicating it was purchased through British bookseller Francis Edwards Ltd.), and very slight bumping to the spine, both head and tail, creasing the jacket slightly. The jacket is unclipped, and the book was not read more than once or twice. A nice copy of a cornerstone volume. Any photo attached to my listings are of the actual… Read More

New York: Crown Publishers, 1945. SIGNED AND INSCRIBED on the front endpage "For Bill Hays With the hope that he writes a million of im, Lamar Trotti Sept.19, 1945" Screenwriter and producer Lamar Trotti wrote films in many different genres: westerns, such as The Ox-Bow Incident (1943); historical epics, such as Drums Along the Mohawk (1939) ; comedies, such as Cheaper by the Dozen (1950); war films, such as Guadalcanal Diary (1943) and A Bell for Adano (1945); musicals, such as Alexander's Ragtime Band (1938) and With a Song in My Heart (1952); and biographies, such as Young Mr. Lincoln and The Story of Alexander Graham Bell (both 1939). He won an Academy Award for his screenplay Wilson (1944), a biographical treatment of Woodrow Wilson's presidency, which is among the film plays in this book, along with his afore-mentioned The Ox-Bow Incident. Trotti's films were commercially and critically successful; they are seen often on television, and they are studied as classics in… Read More

320 pages. Small octavo (7 1/2" x 5 1/4") bound in original publisher's maroon with silver lettering to spine in original pictorial jacket. Jacket design by Fritz Wegner. (Bruccoli A10.1.a.) First edition, first printing. The English edition preceded the American by a few months.Critics and writers, ranging from W. H. Auden to Evelyn Waugh to Ian Fleming, greatly admired the finely wrought prose of Raymond Chandler. Although his swift-moving, hardboiled style was inspired mostly by Dashiell Hammett, his sharp and lyrical similes are original: "The muzzle of the Luger looked like the mouth of the Second Street tunnel"; "The minutes went by on tiptoe, with their fingers to their lips", defining private eye fiction genre, and leading to the coining of the adjective 'Chandleresque', which is subject and object of parody and pastiche. Yet, Philip Marlowe is not a stereotypical tough guy, but a complex, sometimes sentimental man of few friends, who attended university, speaks some Spanish and, at times,… Read More

Blakeney, Glos: England: Scorpion Press 1995, 1995. 1st ed. Fine in unprinted acetate dust jacket as issued. Red goatskin with various colors mixed into charcoal patterned marbled paper sides, red top edge and charcoal end papers. LIMITED EDITION, one of 15 LETTERED DE LUXE COPIES, This being LETTER "K". SIGNED BY ALL 28 CONTRIBUTORS which include H.R.F. Keating, Michael Lewin,. Susan Moody, Candace Robb, Reginald Hill, Margaret Yorke, Liza Cody, Lindsey Davis, Charlotte & Aaron Elkins, John Harvey, H.R.F. Keating, Peter Lovesey, Susan Moody, Peter Robinson... Ian Rankin signed some of the books in the manner of "Knots and Crosses" a reference to his first novel and that each one is different. The signature pages are continued at the rear of the book. An unusual and desirable item. From the beginning Scorpion Press decided to include four elements: all books were autographed by the author (or authors); additional material was commissioned about the author; print runs… Read More

Garden City, NY: The Crime Club / Doubleday, 1928. First Edition. Hardcover. Black cloth lettered in red on the front panel and the spine panel. Spine ends are worn, front flap of dustjacket pasted on the front free endpaper, inscription dated 1929 also on the endpaper. Still a nice copy that has been married to the rare dustjacket. The dustjacket is in fine condition with only a very short tear along the edge of the rear flap. Lovely period cover art by Ernest Walker. An outstanding copy of this scarce book.; Octavo.

Ultramarine Press, 1988. First. Hardbound. a fine bright as issued. here offered is copy letter "E". one of 10 lettered copies signed by Willeford and finely bound in full leather by Denis Gouey. 245 pp.

The original, signed painting by Thorpe for the dust jacket of the trade edition – painting is framed and matted (black frame measures approximately 16 x 12 inches). This art had to be redone at the last possible moment because an editor at Harper decided that the jacket design must include a scene from Washington D.C. The mystery leads Leaphorn and Chee to leave the reservation and investigate in Washington – an unusual twist in the Hillerman mysteries, since the action seldom shifts far from the Navajo Reservation. The plot twist is what led to the decision to redo the jacket art. This painting is the original art, which appeared only on the Advanced Reading Copy of the book, and related early publisher's promotions for the title. There were also a number of proofs of the original jacket.
A number of related items are included with the painting: a Fine, unread copy of the ARC in color wraps, to which Thorpe has added signed art to the half-title page; a front panel of one of an original proof… Read More

Collectors lettered limited edition – this is copy "B" of 26 such books. A Fine, unread book bound in simulated brown leather that has been crafted so that lettering and designs appear to have been hand-tooled to the leather; book is housed in a Fine, matching clamshell box. The over-size book is a beautiful production (box measures 11 ½ by 9 by 2 ½ inches). In addition to the Introduction and Afterword, content includes: All titles of the Arapaho Ten Commandments series; ten other short stories, and two essays. Parks has provided 66 illustrations (many of these are the same as appeared in the Ten Commandments Series. The original drawing for the third illustration ("You are my younger sister, she said") is mounted inside the box, opposite the book. All three authors and Parks have signed on the limitation page. The A.S.A.P. hardcover with jacket and the lettered editions are the true first printing
of this collection – there was a Berkley trade paperback edition in 2013. The trues firsts are… Read More

First edition, first printing. Signed by McMurtry on the title page. Book is fine with a bit of minor mottling to the top brown colored paper edges. Dust jacket is bright and has very little evidence of wear or age.