THE GLASS KEY by Hammett, Dashiell - 1931

London and New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1931. Octavo, cloth. First edition. Correct first edition, first issue, of this novel, published January, 1931; the American edition was not published until April of 1931. The author's fourth novel, set in a city patterned after Baltimore, where he grew up. "Hammet's vision was one of the darkest in the history of crime fiction. He saw the world as an incomprehensible place in which no one can ever really know one another, and created the world of THE GLASS KEY to match. Whatever the ultimate verdict on its literary status, it's a compulsively readable, coolly sardonic portrait of an unredeemable nightworld and ambiguous relationships, and stands beside THE MALTESE FALCON as one of the earliest classics of noir crime fiction." - Pronzini and Muller, 1001 Midnights, p. 336. A Haycraft-Queen cornerstone. Filmed several times. Pronzini and Muller, 1001 Midnights, pp. 335-6. Layman A.4.1.a. Text sound, evidence of label removal from front free end paper, slight spine lean, blue covers show unevenness to color, rubbing and some soiling, edges show rubbing, wear to corners, spine shows wear to ends with tears to both top and bottom, some loss to cloth at top of spine, cloth splitting along rear spine edge, title and author lettering still present. A poor copy. (#126482)