ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW.

New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, [1957]., 1957. First edition. First edition. Presentation inscription on front fly leaf from the author. Cloth lightly sunned on the spine, a hint of an old tiny water stain to fore-edges of first two pages, page 7 has a repaired tear, else very good in dust jacket with light professional restoration to the spine ends, corners and extremities. One of the first books to feature a black man in a leading role. The book was the basis for the 1959 United Artist's film of the same name and featured Harry Belafonte, Robert Ryan, Gloria Grahame, Shelley Winters, and Ed Begley in prominent roles. "Two men, strangers but inevitable enemies, meet in the planning of a crime. They violate the laws of society deliberately and gravely; a bank is broken into, a man is killed and the two protagonists are driven to ground in a lonely farmhouse. One of them is bitter and inarticulate, tormented by his inadequacies and failures. His accomplice, a Negro, is clever but in panic at the thought of death. Do they dare trust one another? Instinct warns them no, and betrayal becomes inevitable. But who will be betrayed is the lesser question; what is betrayed is of paramount importance."