New York: Robert M. McBride, 1938. First Edition. Classic hard-boiled, hard-luck tale of the Thirties, long-forgotten but revived in the Eighties and given a new cult following by Black Lizard Press. Though generally discussed as a crime novel, You Play The Black has many great proletarian elements, including a drifter..... More
![Boundary Against Night [Limited Edition, Signed]. RADICAL, PROLETARIAN LITERATURE](/pictures/medium/37747.jpg?v=1554414998)
New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 1938. First Edition. Stunning copy of the Massachusetts author's second novel. "Ostensibly an account of the Boston police strike of 1922, this is actually a Gothic novel in which murder, rape, robberty, flogging, and sexual titillation run wild. By the end of the novel all..... More
Cleveland and New York: The World Publishing Company, 1943. First Tower Books Edition. "Tully had been boxing professionally for several years, on and off, in his twenties (the jacket blurb credits him with 43 bouts), and had long been urged by Mencken and others to use this experience as fodder..... More
London: Alfred A. Knopf, 1928. First U.K. Edition. "Despite its cheery-sounding title, Circus Parade is light years away from Toby Tylerland, presenting a dark, violent and thoroughly unromanticized portrait of life on the road with a traveling show -- described by Tully as "generally a canvas nest of petty thieves..... More
New York: Albert & Charles Boni, 1926. First Edition. Tully's third book, described by Prouty as a "Hollywood novel about a hard-living ex-con/drifter who becomes a big-shot film director...the character was substantially based on Tully's pal James Cruze, director of The Covered Wagon " (Prouty, The Dozen and One, p...... More
Garden City, NY: Garden City Publishing Co., Inc., 1927. "Despite its cheery-sounding title, Circus Parade is light years away from Toby Tylerland, presenting a dark, violent and thoroughly unromanticized portrait of life on the road with a traveling show -- described by Tully as "generally a canvas nest of petty..... More
New York: Harper & Brothers, 1932 [but 1931]. First Edition. Octavo (19.25cm.); publisher's cloth in pictorial silver foil dust jacket printed in black; [6],285pp. Some general shelf wear to jacket extremities, a few tiny chips and closed tears, some minor scratching to rear panel, else Near Fine in a Very..... More
New York: Small, Maynard & Co., 1916. First Edition. Green cloth boards stamped in white; 363pp; frontis. Light wear to tips of corners and spine ends; brief splits to front hinge (internal); bit of offsetting to title page from color frontispiece. A solidly Very Good copy. HANNA 1096: "...young bank..... More
New York: Albert & Charles Boni, 1935. First Edition. Sanford's second novel (and the first using his nom de plume), set in Depression-era New York and dealing with a gang of ruthless game-poachers. Sanford went on to publish 24 books and several screenplays but, in the words of his bibliographer..... More
London: Orion, 1992. First Edition. The fifth Inspector John Rebus mystery, issued simultaneously in the UK in hardcover and paperback. First Impression, wrappered issue. Octavo; illustrated card wrappers; 269pp. Pinpoint wear to extremities, tiny bump to upper right corner of crown, else Near Fine. More
![Wolfman: A John Rebus Novel [With Signed Bookplate Laid In]. Ian RANKIN](/pictures/medium/33758.jpg?v=1529353740)
London: Century, 1992. First Edition. Sharp copy of the third novel in Rankin's series featuring Inspector John Rebus. First Impression. Octavo; purple paper-covered boards, with titles stamped in silver on spine; dustjacket; [viii],197pp. Bookplate signed by the author loosely laid in. Fine in a Fine, unclipped dustjacket (priced 14.99). More
![Road Rage [Limited Edition, Signed]. Ruth RENDELL, Val MCDERMID, novel, appreciation](/pictures/medium/33594.jpg?v=1529353734)
Blakeney: Scorpion Press, 1997. First, Limited Edition. Handsome edition of the 17th Inspector Wexford mystery. With an appreciation by author Val McDermid. One of 99 numbered copies signed by the author, this being copy no.50. Octavo; marbled paper over hunter green leather, with titles stamped in gilt on spine; green..... More
![Harm Done: An Inspector Wexford Novel [Limited Edition, Signed]. Ruth RENDELL, John MORTIMER,...](/pictures/medium/33595.jpg?v=1529353734)
Blakeney: Scorpion Press, 1999. First, Limited Edition. Handsome edition of the 18th Inspector Wexford novel, with an appreciation by John Mortimer. One of 99 numbered copies signed by the author, this being copy no.47. Octavo; marbled paper over hunter green leather, with titles stamped in gilt on spine; green topstain;..... More
![A Sight For Sore Eyes [Limited Edition, Signed]. Ruth RENDELL, Carol O'CONNELL, novel, appreciation](/pictures/medium/33593.jpg?v=1529353734)
Blakeney: Scorpion Press, 1998. First, Limited Edition. Handsome edition of the author's 19th stand-alone novel. With an appreciation by mystery author Carol O'Connell. One of 99 numbered copies signed by the author, this being copy no.42. Octavo; marbled paper over hunter green leather, with titles stamped in gilt on spine;..... More
Manchester, VT: Journal Book and Job Office, 1873. First Edition. First full account of the first American example of wrongful conviction, authored nearly fifty years after the fact by the defendants' junior trial counsel Leonard Sargeant (1793-1880). Russell Colvin, brother-in-law of the Boorn brothers, disappeared from Manchester in 1812 and..... More
New York: Macfadden Books, 1968. First Paperback Edition. Simmons's first novel (published in 1957), chronicling the rise and fall of a 19 year-old Black dope hustler whose life begins to deteriorate when he is caught by police with a white woman and drugs in his car. Winner of the Houghton..... More
Philadelphia: Dorrance & Company, 1952. First Edition. Scarce novel of a wrongly-imprisoned ex-convict, who leaves prison with a seething hatred of society. "Convinced that society will not let an ex-convict go straight, he plans a criminal organization. In a blackmail attempt he is beaten up and shocked into conceiving the..... More
Rockville, MD: National Institute of Mental Health, Center for Studies of Crime and Delinquency, [1975]. First Edition. Octavo (23cm.); original white decorative staplebound wrappers printed in green; x,98pp. Forms part of Crime and Delinquency Issues: A Monograph Series. More
Los Angeles: Sherbourne Press, 1964. First Edition. Small octavo. Cloth-backed boards (hardcover); dustjacket; 159pp. Fine and unmarked in Near Fine dustwrapper. More
New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1937. First Edition. Fictionalized account of the author's real-life experiences on San Quentin's Death Row following a wrongful murder conviction. Lamson also published a non-fiction account (We Who Are About To Die, 1935). Oddly, the setting is changed to Washington State Penitentiary for this fictional..... More
New York: H.K. Fly & Co., 1911. First edition. Early hard-boiled novel of corrupt Chicago politics and the wheat trusts. HANNA 2281. Octavo. Original gilt-blocked pictorial cloth; 316pp; illus. Touch of soil and rubbing to spine, else a remarkably well preserved copy, with cover gilt bright and unrubbed; internally Fine..... More
New York: Sears Publishing Company, 1932. First Edition. Humorous mock-juvenile Depression novel (somewhat in the vein of Ring Lardner's The Young Immigrunts) in which an orphan is raised by his uncle, a professional grifter. Played for humor, but a gritty work. Small octavo (19cm). Illustrated paper-covered boards; dustjacket; 118pp; illus..... More
Boston: Chapman & Grimes, 1939. First Edition. Fictionalized (but highly detailed & accurate) account of "Uncle Sam's secret agents in tracking down dealers in marijuana, cocaine, and other debasing drugs." Not in Hanna, presumably because it is a "crime novel," though the content reads more like an occupational novel than..... More
New York: Moffat, Yard & Co., 1911. First Edition. A series of fictional vignettes intended to demonstrate that social conditions, not sexual depravity, are the root cause of prostitution. Similar in content and tone to Kauffman's The House of Bondage, published a year earlier. Octavo. Cloth boards; 226pp. Covers somewhat..... More
New York: Random House, 1974. First Edition. Attractive copy of the 16th Parker novel. Hubin, p.388. First Printing. Octavo; red and black paper-covered boards, with titles stamped in silver on spine; dustjacket; [viii],307pp. Shallow bump to lower rear board, else Near Fine in a Near Fine dustjacket, unclipped (priced $4.95)..... More
