Blood on the Moon [L.A. Death Trip] (Original typescript for the 1981 novel, with autograph letter signed)

(Los Angeles): N.p., 1981. First draft manuscript for the 1984 novel, dated 1981, and here under the working title "L.A. Death Trip." INSCRIBED by Ellroy on one of two title pages (with another unused title, "Because the Night," crossed out), in which the author identifies this typed manuscript as a "precursor" draft to "Blood on the Moon" and specifies the time period in which it was written.

Also included is an autograph letter signed on Mysterious Press stationery, in which Ellroy calls this "the real live, genuine, cold-blooded 1st draft of Blood on the Moon - my 3rd novel. As you will be able to tell, the book needed work - I did it, and the revised edition met the eyes of the world. This edition meets only your baby blues... so I hope you dig it."

As indicated in the Ellroy letter, comparison with the published book shows substantial differences from the manuscript on offer, with plot elements remaining relatively the same, but significant changes to the text.

The author's third book and his first to be published in hardcover. The first book in the Lloyd Hopkins trilogy, the second book of which takes one of the unused titles here, "Because the Night." Basis for the 1988 neo-noir "Cop," director by James B. Harris, and starring James Woods, Leslie Ann Warren, and Charles Durning.

An early draft of the manuscript of an early book by one of the masters of hard boiled fiction.

424 pages, original typescript, with some cut-and-paste emendations throughout. In a custom cloth clamshell box with leather spine label.