The Big Knockover. Selected Stories and Short Novels. Edited and with an Introduction by Lillian Hellman by HAMMETT, DASHIELL - 1966

New York: Random House, 1966. First Edition. 1 vols. 8vo. Original cloth. Near fine in near fine dust jacket (tape ghosts to endpapers and inner flaps). First Edition. 1 vols. 8vo. Important posthumous collection of Hammett's stories. Layman A20.1.a

New York: Random House, 1966. Spiral-bound galley proofs. Unlike the seemingly ubiquitous contemporary advance copies, these were expensive, and therefore produced in very small numbers, typically distributed for in-house use, the most important reviewers, or for soliciting rights. The back wrapper is plain; the front wrapper is printed. Wrappers worn; front wrapper detached; still very good.

New York: Random House, 1966. First Edition. Inscribed by Lillian Hellman to Susan Sontag (apparently); “For Susan affectionately Lillian.” Very good in a price-clipped dust jacket.

New York: Random House, 1966. First Edition. Inscribed by Lillian Hellman to Norman Mailer, “For Norman, With love, Lillian.” Just very good in dust jacket; in a custom cloth clamshell box. Of course, it would be better to have it inscribed by Hammett, but he had already been dead for five years, so set that wish aside. Given Mailer’s own weak attempt at hardboiled fiction (Tough Guys Don’t Dance, 1984), this is an especially good association. Despite his well-earned reputation as a writer, that book demonstrated that it is no easy task, even for someone as talented and skilled as Mailer, to write in the genre.