THE HOUSE ON THE CLIFF

New York: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers, 1927. First printing. Near fine in a very good plus jacket.. First edition, first state of the second book from the legendary Hardy Boys series, in exceptional condition. Conceived by Edward Statemeyer in 1926 and soon packaged and sold to Grossett and Dunlap, the first three titles in the Hardy Boys series were all published simultaneously the following year. Their success was almost instantaneous. Part of their popularity and endurance can be directly attributed to the original writer behind the house pseudonym "Franklin W. Dixon," ghostwriter Leslie McFarlane, who later wrote: "It was still hack work, no doubt, but did the new series have to be all that hack? There was, after all, the chance to contribute a little style. It seemed to me that the Hardy Boys deserved something better than the slapdash treatment [...] I opted for Quality." That quality helped propel the series, which ultimately accounted for half of all the Syndicate's sales (Johnson 142). HOUSE ON THE CLIFF is further listed on PUBLISHERS WEEKLY's list of all-time best-selling children's books. Brothers Frank and Joe Hardy would become cultural touchstones not only through the numerous installments in the series (almost 200 in total), but numerous reissues, rewrites, movies, specials, television shows (your intrepid Gen-X cataloguer is especially fond of its 1970s incarnation starring Shaun Cassidy), video games, and other spinoffs - so much so that Hardy Boys are now as synonymous with mystery and detection as their more adult counterparts Sherlock Holmes, Sam Spade, and Philip Marlowe.
Both jacket and book are the proper first edition and state ("Bpt" etc.), conforming fully to Carpentieri and Mular. Scarce thus and truly rare in this condition. We find only a small handful of other copies at auction in the last 30 years, with none as nice as this. The best example we've encountered of a landmark that has spanned generations. 7.5'' x 4.75''. Original red publisher's cloth. In original unclipped (stamped price of.50) color pictorial dust jacket, featuring cover art by W. S. Rogers. 212, [8 - ads] pages. Front jacket panel and spine mildly faded. Neat contemporary (1928) gift inscription to front endpaper. In custom red cloth clamshell with matching red velvet interior inlays.