Description

PRE-PUBLICATION PRESENTATION COPY OF THE CASE OF THE TERRIFIED TYPIST, INSCRIBED BY ERLE STANLEY GARDNER

GARDNER, Erle Stanley. The Case of the Terrified Typist. New York: William Morrow, (1956). Octavo, original orange paper boards, original dust jacket.

First edition, presentation copy, inscribed: “To Frank and Sue Fisk with all the love in the world and best for a swell 1956. Yours, Erle. Erle Stanley Gardner. Dec 1955.”

“With a solid understanding of ‘action’ fiction, the Gardner yarns are a sure two-hour cure for anybody’s boredom” (Haycraft, 218). “Gardner was, as Francis M. Nevins wrote in a eulogistic essay, ‘one of the great natural storytellers,’ a writer who left behind ‘over a quarter of a century of rich creative work which will be read and reprinted and reread as long as the art of storytelling is cherished” (Steinbrunner & Penzler, 166). This is number 49 of 86 books in the series. Hubin, 163. Erle Stanley Gardner frequently inscribed books to the recipients of this copy, Frank and Sue Fiske. In addition to being one of Gardner’s close friends, Frank Fiske was also a writer; his short story, “Court of the Singing Goldfish,” was published alongside Gardner’s Western novelette, “On the Poison Trail,” in the July 1926 issue of Triple-X.

Book near-fine, with faintest foxing to endpapers and only light wear to extremities. Price-clipped dust jacket near-fine, with only a few small closed tears to extremities. A lovely inscribed copy.