Chandler, Raymond

8vo. Slight stain on front free endpaper, lower fore-corner of last leaf bent back. Original yellow-tan cloth, top edges stained darker tan; spine and edges of sides a bit darkened. Pictorial dust jacket designed by Boris Artzybasheff; mild wear at ends of spine and lower front fore-corner.

Bruccoli A9.1.a

first combined edition, presentation to his secretary, inscribed by the author on publication day on the front free endpaper: “For Juanita Messick with my best, Raymond Chandler, La Jolla, Sept  26, 1950.” 

“His favorite and longest-serving La Jolla secretary was Juanita Messick, a middle-aged mother who seemed to understand Chandler’s difficult combination of humor, dogmatism, laziness, and depression. She organized him, typed up letters he dictated, and read through his work” (Tom Hiney, Raymond Chandler: A Biography, 1997, p. 177). 

A Chandler presentation copy of this nature, inscribed on day of publication (in this case 26 September), is very rare. The Simple Art of Murder collects for the first time in hardcover Chandler’s famous essay of the same title, in which he argues the virtues of the realistic hard-boiled detective novel, and eight stories; it marks the first book edition of “Pickup on Noon Street” and his “Introduction.”  A very good copy.

“There was a desert wind blowing that night. It was one of those hot dry Santa Anas that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch. On nights like that every booze party ends in a fight. Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands’ necks. Anything can happen. You can even get a full glass of beer in a cocktail lounge ...” (the beginning of “Red Wind”).