JOHN THORNDYKE'S CASES RELATED BY CHRISTOPHER JERVIS, M. D. AND EDITED BY R. AUSTIN FREEMAN by FREEMAN, R. AUSTIN - PUB 1909

LONDON: WARD, LOCK, AND CO. LTD. VERY GOOD WITHOUT D.J.. PUB 1902. FIRST EDITION. HARDCOVER. ISBN: PRINGLE WAS KIND OF A GENTLEMAN THIEF. THIS IS THE QUEEN'S QUORUM TITLE (# 30) OF LEGENDARY RARITY WHICHQUEEN HIMSELF OPINES WAS "DESTINED TO BECOME THE RAREST VOLUME OFDETECTIVE-CRIME SHORT STORIES PUBLISHED IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY." IN1951 QUEEN REPORTED: "BIBLIOPHILES AND BOOKSCOUTS HAVE SCOURED ENGLANDAND AMERICA, SEEKING IN THE MOST LIKELY AND UNLIKELY PLACES; YET AFTERNEARLY FIFTY YEARS OF EAGLE-EYED AND EXPERT EXCAVATING, THE RECORDEDCOPIES TOTAL EXACTLY SIX- NO MORE, NO LESS." THE ADRIAN GOLDSTONE COPYWHICH WAS RESOLD AT SOTHEBY'S IN DECEMBER 2000 HAS BLUE CLOTH COVEREDBOARDS. ONE WONDERS IF THERE WERE INDEED SO FEW COPIES WHY MORE THAN ONECOLOR OF CLOTH WAS USED, BUT AFTER ANOTHER 55 YEARS SINCE QUEEN MADE THEABOVE STATEMENT ONLY A FEW OTHERS SEEMED TO HAVE TURNED UP SO HISORIGINAL INFORMAL CENSUS MAY BE SOMETHING OTHER THAN EXAGERATION WHICHWAS HOW IT WAS CHARACTERIZED IN THE 1981 ADRIAN… Read More

LONDON: WARD, LOCK, & BOWDEN, LTD.. VERY GOOD+ WITHOUT D.J.. PUB 1894. FIRST EDITION. HARDCOVER. 53 FULL PAGE OR VIGNETTE ILLUSTRATIONS BY SIDNEY PADGET / QUEEN'S QUORUM #18 . GREEN CLOTH COVERED BOARDS WITH GILT TITLES TO THE SPINE AND FRONT COVER WITH BLACK/WHITE/GILT SIDNEY PAGET VIGNETTES TO THE SPINE AND UPPER COVER (REPLICATING ILLUSTRATIONS ON PAGES 179 AND 71), PATTERNED ENDPAPERS, AND 4 PAGE CATALOG FOLLOWING THE 324 PAGES OF TEXT. OTHER THAN SOME RUB AND PERISHING TO THE PUBLISHER'S NAME AT THE BOTTOM OF THE SPINE AND A SMALL BLEMISH ON THE UPPER COVER, A PARTICULARLY NICE COPY OF THIS RARE DETECTIVE FICTION HIGH SPOT. .

312 pages. Small octavo (7 3/4" x 5 1/4") bound in original publisher's grey cloth with red lettering to spine and cover in original jacket. Inscribed on second front end-paper. First edition in second state jacket.Earl Derr Biggers is remembered primarily for his novels, especially those featuring the fictional Chinese American detective Charlie Chan, from which popular films were made in the United States and China. Derr Biggers was born in Warren, Ohio, and graduated from Harvard University in 1907. He worked as a journalist for The Plain Dealer before turning to fiction. His novel Seven Keys to Baldpate was popular in 1913, and George M. Cohan quickly adapted the novel as a hit Broadway stage play of the same name. Cohan starred in the 1917 film version, one of seven film versions of the play, and a 1935 revival. More than 10 years after Baldpate, Derr Biggers had even greater success with his series of Charlie Chan detective novels. The popularity of Charlie Chan extended even to China, where… Read More

New York: Duell, Sloan, & Pearce, 1940. First Edition. Very Good/Good. First edition, first printing. Publisher's black cloth binding stamped in turquoise. Very Good with light fading at spine ends, two scrapes to top edge of textblock affecting margins, toning to pages. In a heavily restored dust jacket.

New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1965 First printing of the stated first edition. Signed by John Ball directly on the title page, including a unique, pithy inscription from Ball, incorporating the most famous quote from the 1967 film that won five Academy Awards: "'They call me Mr. Tibbs.' / They call me / John Ball."

Book and dust jacket in fine condition, with minimal signs of wear. A beautiful copy of an historically significant work. Scarce thus.

The first appearance of African-American police detective Virgil Tibbs, receiving the Edgar Award for Best First Novel from the Mystery Writers of America and made into an Oscar winning film of the same name, starring Sidney Poitier, Rod Steiger, and Warren Oates.

LONDON: WARD, LOCK, AND CO. LTD. VERY GOOD WITHOUT D.J.. PUB 1902. FIRST EDITION. HARDCOVER. ISBN: PRINGLE WAS KIND OF A GENTLEMAN THIEF. THIS IS THE QUEEN'S QUORUM TITLE (# 30) OF LEGENDARY RARITY WHICHQUEEN HIMSELF OPINES WAS "DESTINED TO BECOME THE RAREST VOLUME OFDETECTIVE-CRIME SHORT STORIES PUBLISHED IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY." IN1951 QUEEN REPORTED: "BIBLIOPHILES AND BOOKSCOUTS HAVE SCOURED ENGLANDAND AMERICA, SEEKING IN THE MOST LIKELY AND UNLIKELY PLACES; YET AFTERNEARLY FIFTY YEARS OF EAGLE-EYED AND EXPERT EXCAVATING, THE RECORDEDCOPIES TOTAL EXACTLY SIX- NO MORE, NO LESS." THE ADRIAN GOLDSTONE COPYWHICH WAS RESOLD AT SOTHEBY'S IN DECEMBER 2000 HAS BLUE CLOTH COVEREDBOARDS. ONE WONDERS IF THERE WERE INDEED SO FEW COPIES WHY MORE THAN ONECOLOR OF CLOTH WAS USED, BUT AFTER ANOTHER 55 YEARS SINCE QUEEN MADE THEABOVE STATEMENT ONLY A FEW OTHERS SEEMED TO HAVE TURNED UP SO HISORIGINAL INFORMAL CENSUS MAY BE SOMETHING OTHER THAN EXAGERATION WHICHWAS HOW IT WAS CHARACTERIZED IN THE 1981 ADRIAN… Read More

LONDON: WARD, LOCK, & BOWDEN, LTD.. VERY GOOD+ WITHOUT D.J.. PUB 1894. FIRST EDITION. HARDCOVER. 53 FULL PAGE OR VIGNETTE ILLUSTRATIONS BY SIDNEY PADGET / QUEEN'S QUORUM #18 . GREEN CLOTH COVERED BOARDS WITH GILT TITLES TO THE SPINE AND FRONT COVER WITH BLACK/WHITE/GILT SIDNEY PAGET VIGNETTES TO THE SPINE AND UPPER COVER (REPLICATING ILLUSTRATIONS ON PAGES 179 AND 71), PATTERNED ENDPAPERS, AND 4 PAGE CATALOG FOLLOWING THE 324 PAGES OF TEXT. OTHER THAN SOME RUB AND PERISHING TO THE PUBLISHER'S NAME AT THE BOTTOM OF THE SPINE AND A SMALL BLEMISH ON THE UPPER COVER, A PARTICULARLY NICE COPY OF THIS RARE DETECTIVE FICTION HIGH SPOT. .

[Los Angeles: Universal Pictures], 30 June 1942.. [1],107 leaves. Quarto. Mimeographed typescript, printed on rectos only of salmon colored stock. Bradbound. Pencil name on title leaf ("Milton Feld," a Universal producer at the time), a few annotations in color pencil, very good or better. A first draft of this contribution to the Holmes screen canon. Released in April of 1943, SHERLOCK HOLMES IN WASHINGTON was directed by Roy William Neill, and starred Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce. The association of Lynn Riggs, the Oklahoma-born, part-Cherokee gay playwright and poet with this project is very interesting. It is one of at least two of the Universal Holmes titles that Riggs worked on, the other being an (until recently) uncredited revised draft of the screenplay for SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE VOICE OF TERROR (also dated 1942). Riggs is most widely known for his play, GREEN GROW THE LILACS, which was immensely popular as the musical adaptation, OKLAHOMA!, but little has been written about his years as… Read More

[8]+282+[1, blank]+[1, note on type] pages. Small octavo (7 1/2" x 5 1/4") bound in original publisher's light green cloth, spine and front stamped in dark red and green, dark green broken key ornament at front board, dark green publisher's stamp at rear; top edge of text block stained purplish-red; original pictorial, first issue dust jacket with description of the book printed on front flap. First edition.The Glass Key is a novel by American writer Dashiell Hammett. It was first published as a serial in Black Mask magazine in 1930, then was collected in 1931 (in London; the American edition followed 3 months later). It tells the story of a gambler and racketeer, Ned Beaumont, whose devotion to Paul Madvig, a crooked political boss, leads him to investigate the murder of a local senator's son as a potential gang war brews. Hammett dedicated the novel to his onetime lover Nell Martin. There have been two US film adaptations (1935 and 1942) of the novel. A radio adaptation starring Orson Welles aired… Read More

viii+349+[3 ad] pages with illustrations one folding. Small octavo (7 1/2" x 5 1/2") bound in original publisher's black cloth with Art-Deco style printing in blue lettering to spine and cover with "Scribner's seal" appearing at the bottom of the copyright page and same year is listed to title and copyright page in original jacket which the index card is printed with a teal background. Early photograph of the author laid in. (Firsts, volume 14, Number 9 page 29) First edition Inscribed by the author and dated 1929. The Bishop Murder Case is not as common and The Green Murder Case. The fourth title in the series. The Bishop Murder Case (1928) is the fourth in a series of mystery novels by S. S. Van Dine about fictional detective Philo Vance The detective solves a mystery built around a nursery rhyme. The Bishop Murder Case is believed to be the first nursery-rhyme mystery book.The story involves a series of murders taking place in a wealthy neighborhood of New York City. The first murder, of a Mr.… Read More