SOLOMON'S VINEYARD

First paperback edition. Signed by the cover artist. Publisher's original card covers with illustration by 'Peff'. A better than very good copy, the binding square and tight, bright and fresh, with a corner crease to the lower corner of the front cover. The contents, with a resulting crease to the prelims at the bottom corner, a small ink name at the top of the half title and some toning to the pulp quality paperstock, are otherwise clean throughout. Scarce.

Inscribed by the artist in black ink on the title page "Peff / Sam Peffer / to George Locke". The author's most notorious novel, banned in the US and therefore the only one of his books to be first published in the UK. A hard-boiled classic. Born in Chicago and working as a journalist for the Chicago Herald Examiner, Latimer served in the US Navy during World War Two after which he moved to California and went on to enjoy a successful screenwriting career. Aptly a year after the first publication of Solomon's Vineyard (1941) he racked up a scriptwriting credit on Dashiell Hammett's The Glass Key. (Hubin).