RAYMOND CHANDLER FIRST EDITIONS AT
ASH RARE BOOKS
43 HURON ROAD
LONDON SW17 8RE
UNITED KINGDOM

New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 1940. First edition. "It was a warm day, almost the end of March, and I stood outside the barber shop looking up at the jutting neon sign of a second floor dine and dice emporium ...". His second and most widely celebrated novel - a Haycraft-Queen cornerstone of the genre.
Crown 8vo (182 x 122cm). [viii],276,[iv]pp. Bound in an elegant recent half blue morocco, banded, and lettered in gilt; original cloth upper panel and backstrip preserved at rear; a handful of minor marks, but a very good and attractive copy. Bruccoli II-1a.

£750

To confirm availability and to purchase this book please note the stock number 26784 and go to the database. Enter the number in the stock/order number box - press the search button - and a shopping basket should appear. Or simply call us or e-mail books@ashrare.com.

New York : Avon Book Co., (1944). First edition. Five early Black Mask stories - "Goldfish" (1936), "Spanish Blood" (1935), "Blackmailers Don't Shoot" (1933), "Guns at Cyrano's" (1936) and "Nevada Gas" (1935) - all previously unpublished in book form and here with a brief introduction from the Black Mask editor, Joseph T. Shaw. Murder Mystery Monthly 19.
Post 8vo. [ii],11-166,[ii]pp. Original pictorial wrappers - red-lipped blonde heads queue of desperate types; spine a little sunned; lightly rubbed and with some faint creasing; text lightly tanned, but a nice copy of a fragile production. Dated 1944 ownership inscription of Bernadette Swanson. Not located in any major UK Library. Bruccoli V-1.

SOLD

New York : Avon Book Co., (1945). First edition. Five early Dime Detective and Saturday Evening Post stories - "Trouble is my Business" (1939), "Pearls are a Nuisance" (1939), "I'll Be Waiting" (1939), "The King in Yellow" (1938) and "Red Wind" (1938) - all previously unpublished in book form. Murder Mystery Monthly 28.
Post 8vo. [ii],(11)-168pp.Original pictorial wrappers - hard-bitten adventuress - "the color of her hair was dusky red, like a fire under control but still dangerous" - flanked by four more overtly sinister types; very lightly rubbed; faint surface creasing; text a little tanned and slightly brittle, but a very good copy of a fragile production. Bruccoli VI-1.

SOLD

New York : Avon Book Co., (1946). First edition. Four early stories - "Finger Man" (1934), "Smart-Aleck Kill" (1934), "The Bronze Door" (1939) and "The Simple Art of Murder" (1944) - all previously unpublished in book form. Murder Mystery Monthly 43.
Post 8vo. [iv],11-122,[iv]pp. Original pictorial wrappers - low-cut redhead, fistful of dollars, roulette wheel, etc.; very lightly rubbed; faint surface creasing; text just faintly tanned, but a very good copy. Bruccoli VII-1.

SOLD

London : Hamish Hamilton, 1949. First edition : precedes the American edition. "The pebbled glass door panel is lettered in flaked black paint: "Philip Marlowe - Investigations". It is a reasonably shabby door at the end of a reasonably shabby corridor ... Come on in - there's nobody in here but me and a big bluebottle fly".
Crown 8vo (183 x 115mm). 256pp. Bound in a smart recent half red morocco; original cloth spine preserved at rear; small spot on fore-edge, but otherwise a very good copy indeed, attractively bound. Bruccoli X-1.

£250

To confirm availability and to purchase this book please note the stock number 35805 and go to the database. Enter the number in the stock/order number box - press the search button - and a shopping basket should appear. Or simply call us or e-mail books@ashrare.com.

London : Hamish Hamilton, (1953). First edition : precedes the American edition. The last of the major novels - "The first time I laid eyes on Terry Lennox he was drunk in a Rolls Royce Silver Wraith outside the terrace of The Dancers ...".
Crown 8vo. (320)pp. Bound in a smart recent half red morocco, banded and gilt; a couple of tiny marks, faint creases and a minuscule chip, but a very good copy, attractively bound. Bruccoli XVI-1a.

SOLD

London : Hamish Hamilton, (1953). First collected edition of the first four novels - "The Big Sleep" (1939), "Farewell, My Lovely" (1940), "The High Window" (1942) and "Lady in the Lake" (1944).
Demy 8vo. [viii],632pp. Original blue boards, blocked and lettered across spine in gilt; just a touch of sunning, but a very good copy in the original C.W. Bacon dust-jacket - a striking design in black, red, blue and white - just lightly nicked and used, a touch tanned, and a little dusty on lower panel.

SOLD