Butterfield 8 by O'Hara, John - 1935

Harcourt, Brace. Fair. 1935. First Edition. Hardcover. Black cloth boards. Copyright 1935 first edition. 310 pages. No DJ. Browning, cracked hinges. Former owner’s name inside. A Manhattan call girl has a tragic affair with a rich married man - made into a movie starring Elizabeth Taylor, Dina Merrill, Eddie Fisher and Laurence Harvey. Title page states that starting on December 16, a distinguishing numeral will be added to, and become part of each central office name in New York City, citing an example from an advertisement, giving an example: HANover willl become Hanover 2. In the case of this book,  Butterfield 8 (BU8 or 288) was the name of the exchange that provided service to ritzy precincts of Manhattan's Upper East Side. O'Hara wrote this book based on the true story of of the discovery of the body of a beautiful young woman washed up on a Long Island beach. The circumstances of her death were never resolved, but O'Hara seized upon the tragedy to imagine the woman's down-and-out life in New York City in the early 1930s .