YOU PLAY THE BLACK AND THE RED COMES UP.
NY: Robert M. McBride and Company, 1938. Octavo, [1-8] 1-213 [214-216, blank], original red cloth, front and spine stamped in black. First edition. Classic hardboiled mystery novel set in Southern California. From a new essay on the book by Woody Haut at the online Los Angeles Review of Books (7/29/11) -"The book does read like James Cain filtered through Thomas Pynchon. Although Knight’s first person narrative begins in typical tough-guy fashion, with Dick Dempsey, an Oklahoma-born AWOL Marine hopping a freight in Texas for Southern California in pursuit of his wife and son, it soon moves off in another, wilder direction — more like a noir Alice in Lotus Land than a cool and conventional hardboiled novel." The author's only mystery novel, best known for creating the character Lassie the dog. Stamp "Property of Vangaurd Films, Inc." at endpapers and title page, touch of shelf wear to spine ends and corners, a little soiling at edges, a bright nearly fine copy, without the dust jacket. (13990). Item #13990
Price: $750.00