Dashiell Hammett | Red Harvest, 1929, first edition of the author's first book

Dashiell Hammett

Red Harvest. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1929

FIRST EDITION OF THE AUTHOR'S FIRST BOOK, 8vo, original red cloth stamped in black and yellow, DUST-JACKET, creases to pp.221-222, minor scratches to cloth, slightly soiled dust-jacket frayed at extremities with some tears and minor loss

Please note that the last title listed on the lower flap is The Matheson Formula. This dust-jacket is not, therefore, a first issue.

Robert B. Parker, writing in Twentieth-Century Crime and Mystery Writers (London, 1980) states "...Taken as a whole, and chronologically, the novels may be seen to speculate on the way a man should deal with disorder, on the things to which he should give allegiance. In Red Harvest, the Continental Op is motivated by what appears to be a work ethic. He finds Personville corrupt and he cleans it up for no better reason than that it's his job (though not his assignment)..."

LITERATURE

Layman A1.1.a

PROVENANCE

The Alexis Galanos Collection