THE BILLION DOLLAR MURDER: An Investigation into a Criminal Conspiracy Operating from Moscow, Stockholm, Paris, New York.

First edition, first printing. Publisher's original cream cloth, in dustwrapper. Five letters (comprising eight sides) between Frank Martin (apparently the work's true author) and the English publisher Jon Wynne-Tyson regarding the potential for the book's publication in Britain. A very good copy, the binding square and firm with a touch of bumping to the corners. The contents with a little spotting to the edges of the textblock are otherwise in very good order and clean throughout. Complete with the very good lightly-marked dustwrapper which has a l cm tear to the head of the rear panel and a few small nicks and a little shelf wear to the extremities. Not price-clipped.

An investigative analysis of the evidences surrounding the suspicious death – apparently suicide or murder – of Ivar Kreuger (1880-1932), the Swedish industrialist and financier. A highly influential figure in his day, serving as a confidant to kings, presidents and bankers, and acting as a major lender to various sovereign states, Kreuger's empire was ultimately revealed to be a blend of legitimate business and dubious schemes, with later biographers referring to him as the "Leonardo of larcenists", who was both "a genius and a swindler" (Shaplen, Robert & Galbraith, John Kenneth: Kreuger: Genius and Swindler). The present, somewhat uncommon work, argues that Kreuger was in fact "an honest man", an "idealist", "pioneer" and "world-citizen", whose murder was orchestrated by "powerful interests in Moscow, Paris, New York, and Stockholm" who "had everything to gain by the break-up of the Kreuger empire – and the subsequent unleashing of nationalist forces that led to World War II". The present copy is accompanied by an interesting series of letters between Frank Martin (either the true name or another pseudonym of the author) and the English publisher Jon Wynne-Tyson (1924-2020), discussing at length what the publication of a British edition (which never came to fruition) would involve, with a particular emphasis on legal questions.

Stock code: 21465

£125

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Authors:

[KREUGER, Ivar]
BRENNAN, Boris Michael [pseudonym of MARTIN, Frank]

Published:

Hamburg: Century Press.
1961

Category

Modern First Editions
Crime / Detective
Signed / Inscribed
Non-fiction
Manuscripts
Economics
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