RED HARVEST

First edition in book form, first printing. Publisher's original red cloth with yellow skull and crossbones to the upper panel and titles blocked in black and yellow to the spine. Without the dustwrapper. Top edge green. A very good copy, the binding square and firm, the cloth with a few light marks and some fading to the spine. The contents, with a previous owner's inscription on the front endpaper and some chips and small tears to the fore-edge of a few early pages (done in production when cutting the pages), are otherwise clean throughout.

The author's first book, introducing 'The Continental Op' and creating the prototype for every sleuth who would ever be called 'hard-boiled'. The novel was originally serialised in four issues of Black Mask magazine between November 1927 and February 1928. (Hubin; Layman A1.1.a).