Tag: pocket paperback

The Big Sleep x 27

1939 Knopf advanced reading copy

1939 Knopf hardcover

1939 Hammish Hamilton UK hardcover

1942 Avon digest, Murder Mystery Monthly No.7, first softcover release of this American classic/ cover art by William Frost

1943 Avon paperback – cover art by Paul Stahr

1945 Knopf hardcover reissue – inscribed to director John Houseman

1946 World Press movie tie-in

1948 Pocket reissue – cover art by Darcy (Ernest Chiriacka)

better image than previously posted

1950 Pocket reissue, 3rd print – cover art by Harvey Kidder (owner’s copy)

1952 Penguin UK reissue

1962 Penguin UK reissue – cover art by John Sewell

better image than previously posted

1966 Penguin reissue

1971 Penguin UK reissue – cover designed by James Tormey

1973 Ballantine reissue – cover art by Tom Adams (owner’s copy)

1976 Ballantine reissue – cover art by Richard Amsel

watercolor cover art by Richard Waldrep, 13.75″ x 9.50″

1976 Vintage reissue (owner’s copy)

1976 Vintage trace paperback reissue

1979 Pan Macmillan reissue – cover photo by Peter Williams

1988 Vintage reissue

1988 Vintage reissue

1988 Knopf reissue

2000 Penguin UK reissue

2005 Penguin UK reissue

2009 Hammish Hamilton hardcover

2011 Penguin UK reissue

2014 Penguin UK reissue

2022 Vintage reissue

⚙︎⚙︎⚙︎⚙︎⚙︎⚙︎⚙︎⚙︎⚙︎⚙︎⚙︎⚙︎⚙︎⚙︎⚙︎⚙︎⚙︎⚙︎⚙︎⚙︎

note ~ there are many, many more covers for this book, both in English and foreign languages… but I had to stop somewhere

Mischief

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

Phantom Lady x 5

March 4, 1939

Cornell Woolrich’s “Those Who Kill” published, which he expanded into Phantom Lady

WOOLRICH, Cornell (“William Irish”). Phantom Lady. Philadelphia and New York: J.B. Lippincott, [1942].

8o. Original cloth (some dampstain, spine discolored); pictorial dust jacket (one corner clipped, slight wear to spine panel ends and corners).

FIRST EDITION of the first novel written under the William Irish pseudonym and the basis for Robert Siodmak’s 1944 film noir adaptation.

1944 Pocket reissue

cover art by Lesso Manso

better image than previously posted

1955 Graphic reissue, abridged

better image than previously posted

2012 Centipede Press hardcover reissue

Universal City, CA: Universal Pictures, 1944. Dialogue and Continuity for the 1944 film.

White titled self-wrappers, noted as Dialogue Continuity on the front wrapper, production No. 1346, dated January 5, 1944, with credits for director Robert Siodmak. Approximately 110 leaves, with last page of text numbered 13. Mimeograph duplication, rectos only. Pages Near Fine, wrapper Very Good plus, with a small closed tear at the top edge, bound with two gold brads along the top edge.

So Rich, So Lovely and So Dead x 2

oil on board, 16 x 12-1/2 inches (40.6 x 31.8 cm)
Signed lower left: Zuckerberg

1953 Pocket reissue

better image than previously posted

cover art by Robert McGinnis

1961 Dell reissue

[post updated 12/11/25]