Tag: raymond chandler

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

1944 Avon digest

1945 Avon digest reissue, 2nd edition

Gathers “Blackmailers Don’t Shoot,” “Goldfish,” “Guns at Cyrano’s” “Nevada Gas” and “Spanish Blood,” five mystery stories first published in Black Mask Magazine

better image than previously posted

1st printing, Feb. 3, 1944

Five Sinister Characters x 2

1945 Avon Murder Mystery Monthly digest

cover art by Paul Stahr

Avon Book Company, [1946]. Small octavo, pictorial wrappers. Second paperback edition. Avon #88. Published earlier by Avon in 1945 as part of their “Murder Mystery Monthly” series. Collects five stories; “I’ll Be Waiting,” “The King in Yellow,” “Pearls Are a Nuisance,” ” Red Wind,” and “Trouble is My Business.” Light crease to front cover, light stress creases to spine, a near fine copy.

December 1933 issue ~ cover art by Fred Craft

December 1933 issue

better image than previously posted

cover art by Fred Craft

~ John L. Chambliss, “The Contact”, NYC PI Schuyler Blake, only appearance in BM

~ Raymond Chandler, “Blackmailers Don’t Shoot”, his debut in BM, his first published writing, 1st of 2 with PI Mallory, 1st of 11 stories in BM, first book appearance in Five Murderers (Avon digest, 1944), reprinted in Red Wind (Tower hc, 1946), The Smell of Fear (Hamish Hamilton/UK hc, 1965), Midnight Raymond Chandler (Houghton Mifflin hc, 1971), The Black Mask Boys (Morrow, 1985)

~ Eugene Cunningham, “Chalk”, 2nd of 5 with undercover Texas Ranger Cleve Corby, 8th of 14 stories in BM

~ Tom Curry, “Clancy Takes the Air”, Clancy, NYPD 1st grade dick, author’s last of 39 stories in BM

~ Erle Stanley Gardner, “Dead Men’s Shoes”, 53th of 73 Ed Jenkins stories, ‘The Phantom Crook’ with Ngat T’oy, 77th of 99 stories in BM

~ Raoul [Fauconnier] Whitfield, “Murder Again”, ‘L.A. County dicks; Hollywood story’, 65th of 67 stories in BM [see also 24 stories as Ramon Decolta]

©Seattle Mystery Bookshop

August 1939 issue

August 1939 issue

better image than previously posted

Carroll John Daly, “Gangman ’s Gallows” (Race Williams)

Raymond Chandler, “Trouble is My Business ” (John Dalmas)

Edward Ronns, “Three Doors to Doom”

O.B. Myers, “Fire and Ice”

Hugh B. Cave, “Deal from the Bottom”

D.L. Champion, “Laughter in Hell”

March 1938 issue ~ cover art by Walter Baumhofer

March 1938 issue

cover art by Walter Baumhofer

better image than previously posted

Carroll John Daly, “A Corpse on the House” (Race Williams)

Raymond Chandler, “The King in Yellow” (Steve Grace, housedick) – first appearance of this story, one often reprinted

Frederick C. Davis, “Crimson Broadcast” (Keyhole Kerry)

William Edward Hayes, “Death by Enlargement”

Maxwell Hawkins, “Rx Murder”

June 1935 issue ~ cover art by Rudolph Belarski

June 1935 issue

cover art by Rudolph Belarski

better image than previously posted

~ Dwight V. Babcock, “Hide-Out”, ‘1st G-Man Chuck Thompson story of 7; CT, Special Agent, FBI, in LA’, 6th of 21 stories in BM

~ W.T. Ballard, “Murder Makes a Difference”, 2nd of 2 Jimmy DeHaven stories, 14th of 43 stories in BM

~ Raymond Chandler, “Nevada Gas”, Johnny DeRuse, first book appearance Five Murderers (Avon digest, 2/3/44), first hardcover appearance The Simple Art of Murder (Houghton Mifflin, 1950), then Pickup on Noon Street (Pocket, 1/52), various paperback editions 5th of 11 stories in BM

~ George Harmon Coxe, “Thirty Tickets to Win”, ‘Flashgun Casey at the race-track’, 11th of 27 Casey, 11th of 31 stories in BM

~ Roger Torrey, “Dead Men Can Talk”, last of 11 Dal Prentice capers, Magna City police dick, ‘one tough guy’, 16th of 50 appearances in BM

©Seattle Mystery Bookshop

[cover updated 11/9/25]

Killer in the Rain x 6

London: Hamish Hamilton, 1964. First UK Edition, preceding all others. The first collection of these stories.

“Killer in the Rain” (Black Mask Magazine, Jan. 1935)

“The Man Who Liked Dogs” (Black Mask Magazine, Mar. 1936)

“The Curtain” (Black Mask Magazine, Sept. 1936)

“Try the Girl” (Black Mask Magazine, Jan. 1937)

“Mandarin’s Jade” (Dime Detective Magazine, Nov. 1937)

“Bay City Blues” (Dime Detective Magazine, June 1938)

“The Lady in the Lake” (Dime Detective Magazine, Jan. 1939)

“No Crime in the Mountains”(Detective Story Magazine, Sept. 1941)

introduction by Philip Durham

1st Pocket edition, December 1965

June 1973 Bantam reissue

cover art by Tom Adams

2011 Penguin UK reissue

July 1977 Ballantine mass market, 3rd print

cover art by Whistlin’ Dixie

August 25, 2013

1979 Pan/Macmillan reissue – cover photo by Robert Golden

[post reworked 7/4/25, 3/1/26]