Fine Books & Manuscripts

HAMMETT, Dashiell (1894–1961). The Maltese Falcon. New York: Alfred Knopf, 1930. 8vo. Half–title. Publisher’s light gray cloth, front board with dark grayish blue falcon within black single-rule frame, rear cover stamped with black rectangular Borzoi Books device in lower right corner, spine with five blue and black decorated panels, the author’s name and title in gray against a black panel and the publisher’s name and place in blue against light gray panel, fore-edge uncut, top edge stained blue (ex-library copy with embossed stamp to free endpapers and card pocket affixed to rear pastedown, slight lean, spine a touched darkened with light rubbing at ends; contents clean); facsimile dust jacket. FIRST EDITION, FIRST PRINTING of Hammett’s classic hard-boiled title that was later adapted to the screen in 1941 as a film-noir classic starring Humphrey Bogart and Mary Astor. Layman A3.1.a.