HAMMETT, Dashiell The Maltese Falcon New York: Alfred A. Knopf. 1930.
8vo. Original grey pictorial cloth, falcon design printed in green, top edge grey; pp. 267; previous owner's signature to front pastedown, near fine.
First edition. One of the greatest "hardboiled" crime thrillers of the twentieth century, following the murderous pursuit of a jewelled statue and the source for John Huston's seminal 1941 film noir, starring Humphrey Bogart in one of his most iconic roles as Sam Spade. Hammett himself had worked as a private detective in San Francisco under the pseudonym Samuel, but claimed no resemblance to his fictional hero, who is the archetype of the tough but principled P.I. in an amoral world. The cloth binding of this book very rarely survives in such clean and beautiful condition.
#2121602