THE LEAGUE OF FRIGHTENED MEN

First edition, first printing of the second Nero Wolfe novel. Publisher's original black cloth with gilt titles to the upper board and spine, in the Winfred Earl Lefferts illustrated dustwrapper. Top edge green. An excellent near fine copy, the binding square and firm, the cloth and gilt fresh. The contents, with a previous owner's ink inscription and tipped in contemporary newspaper review to the front endpaper, are otherwise clean throughout. The top-stain a little faded. Loosely laid in is a small publisher's printed publicity card quoting a review of Fer-De-Lance by William Lyons Phelps. Complete with the lightly rubbed and nicked dustwrapper that remains without fading, large chips or tears. Not price-clipped (net $2.00 to the upper front flap). An exceptional, unsophisticated example of a notoriously fragile dustwrapper.

The second Nero Wolfe novel, and like the first, 'Fer-De-Lance', a Haycraft Queen Cornerstone (one of the most influential works of mystery fiction as listed by the crime fiction historian Howard Haycraft and Ellery Queen). (Hubin).