THE MARBLE FOREST **SIGNED COPY**

N.Y.: Alfred A Knopf Inc, 1951. 1st edition, so stated. Red decorated boards with black lettering and picture at front. Very light wear at edges with some very minor soiling at spine else a near fine copy in dust jacket with very light soiling, not price clipped, $2.50 price intact, in protective mylar cover. Durrant is a psuedonym for a collaborative effort by 12 members of the California Mystery Writers of America: Terry Adler, Anthony Boucher, Eunice Mays Boyd, Florence Ostern Faulkner, Allen Hymson, Cary Lucas, Dana Lyon, Lenore Glen Offord, Virginia Rath, Richard Shattuck, Darwin L. Teilhet & William Worley. "Durrant" dedicated the book to these 12 writers. This copy, although not marked as such, comes from the Otto Penzler collection and is SIGNED BY 10 OF THE 12 CONTRIBUTORS. Rare ... [pencil notes by Otto on front free endpaper] Filmed by Allied Artists, 1958, as "Macabre" (scw: Robb White and Anthony Boucher; directed by William Castle and starring William Prince, Jim Backus, and Christine White). "Agrim graveyard tryst in which Rod Barratt, attempting to find his little girl who had been kidnapped and buried alive in a stolen casket, spends a long night in the cemetery, opening up graves. And as their tenants speak, a ghost town comes to life, as do the scandals of the past. There is Doc Whittleby, distorted by his wife's infidelity; Donna Parks, the young girl he helped to kill; Barratt's wife, prim and protected; Tyloe, the chief of police, who had driven his sister into marriage with the local undertaker from which she could only escape in death; etc., etc. And from the cemetery to the funeral parlor and back again, Barratt's desperate search is finally rewarded with the rescue of his child and an exposure of crazed hatreds. Strong stuff- for a carrion trade." -- KIRKUS REVIEW. Signed by Author(s). First Edition. Hardcover. Near Fine/Near Fine. Illus. by English, Bill. Book.