Tag: charlotte armstrong

First Edition of MISCHIEF (1950), by Charlotte Armstrong.  Together with a typed letter from Armstrong to a collector, dated September 18th, 1957, the year she won the Edgar Award for ‘A Dram of Poison.’  8.5 X 11, numbering 321 words and showing some hand corrections throughout.  A charming and humorous letter, detailing everything from winning the Edgar Award, her reading habits, and Sherlock Holmes (“I read them when I was ten or eleven and it warped my life”).  Signed by Armstrong at the bottom, and a rare signature in our experience.  To date, this is the only signed material by Armstrong we have seen or handled.  Basis for the 1952 film noir ‘Don’t Bother To Knock’ directed by Roy Ward Baker, starring Richard Widmark, Anne Bancroft in her film debut, and Marylin Monroe in her first leading dramatic role.  An attractive copy of a scarce title, and in the author’s own words, “probably the best book I’ve written.”  

Pocket Books 805 reissue, 1951, cover by Robert Hilbert