THIEVES LIKE US.
New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1937. Octavo, pp. [1-6] 1-314, original light brown cloth, front and spine stamped in black, fore edge untrimmed bottom edge rough trimmed. First edition. The author's second and last novel. Three escaped convicts rob banks. The central character goes on the run with his girlfriend. "Anderson’s second novel crackles with tension and has a very different mood from “Hungry Men” [his first] because the reader understands from the start that these characters are doomed. Hence their romance. The book lives best, not in its sometimes hard-boiled idiom, but in the moments between the action, when the characters are driving around Texas and Oklahoma, or holed up in a safe house or hotel" - L.A. Times article 22 June, 2008 by Richard Raymer. The title is used memorably by a character in the book, T. Dub Masefield, whose sentiment about bankers is: "They're thieves, just like us." (see p. 15). Film noir source title and basis for two films, a 1949 release, directed by Nicholas Ray titled They Live By Night and filmed again by Robert Altman as Thieves Like Us in 1974. [Reference: Johnson, The Dark Page I, p. 6, Silver and Ward (eds.), Film Noir: An Encyclopedic Reference to the American Style (3rd edition), pp. 284-285. Selby, Dark City: The Film Noir, p. 187]. From the library of a well-known mystery writer with his library stamp on the front paste-down, neat initial to upper corner of front free end paper, tiny stain to upper front edge, slight wear to corners and spine ends, a very good copy in a very good to nearly fine dust jacket with slight wear to corner tips and spine ends and small closed tear to upper rear panel with some moderate toning. For this book an above average copy. (33868). Item #33868
Price: $4,500.00