Tag: dame

cover art by George Gross

George Gross (American, 1909-2003)
oil on canvas, 16-1/2 x 12-1/8 inches (41.9 x 30.8 cm) (image), not signed

George Gross originally created this work for use as the cover of the October, 1952 issue of the pulp digest Special Detective. After publication, as was a common practice, he reworked the background slightly, adding grey curtains to the upper edges of the scene.



In this final form, the work got a second life as paperback cover art for The Mistress by Colin Ross (Beacon Books, 1958).

February 1960 issue

February 1960, first US appearance of Chandler’s “Wrong Pigeon”, published posthumously. First publication of the full text. An abridged version had been serialized in the Perth Daily News during May, 1959 as “Marlowe Takes on the Syndicate”. In September of 1965, it was published in Argosy magazine with the title “The Pencil”. It would be published again with that title in the 1988 Doubleday hardcover Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe: A Centennial Celebration

“The ‘Mob’ had a grudge against Marlowe…and thy were out to kill two pigeons with one stone.”