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AN IMPORTANT RARITY AND “A MASTERPIECE RIGHT OUT OF THE GATE”: RARE FIRST EDITION OF THE BIG SLEEP, 1939, INSCRIBED BY RAYMOND CHANDLER

CHANDLER, Raymond. The Big Sleep. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1939. Octavo, original orange cloth, in a superb first-issue dust jacket that has been added to this copy at a later date. Housed in a custom folding chemise and slipcase.

First edition of Chandler’s first and most famous novel, inscribed by him, “With Kindest Regards, Raymond Chandler,” a splendid association copy with the owner signature of noted scholar Donald Yates, almost certainly presented by Chandler to Yates, together with a rarely found pristine dust jacket, handsomely housed in a custom folding chemise and slipcase. Inscribed first edition copies of The Big Sleep are virtually unobtainable and are among the rarest of all high spots.

The Big Sleep, Raymond Chandler’s first novel, “was a masterpiece right out of the gate and introduced a new kind of detective story, build on the hard-boiled foundation laid by Dashiell Hammett” (Johnson I:44). The novel was published when Chandler was 51, after years of apprenticeship in pulp magazines. “It’s my ambition,” he once said, “to write a mystery story without one word of explanation at the end. In The Big Sleep I almost succeeded.” A Haycraft Queen cornerstone novel, it was this work that announced Chandler’s literary coming-of-age and defined the mythic status of his wise-cracking detective Philip Marlowe. “Chandler is fun to read,” commented writer George Higgins. “He was also one hell of a writer, and those are hard to find” (Hardboiled Mystery Writers, 81-3). William Faulkner co-authored the screenplay adaptation of The Big Sleep for Howard Hawks’ 1946 film starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. “First Edition” stated on copyright page. First-issue dust jacket, with price of “$2.00 net” to dust jacket front flap, supplied from another copy. Bruccoli A1.1.a. Hubin II:152. This rare association copy is from the library of Donald Yates, a highly regarded professor of Spanish and Latin American literature who was passionate about detective and crime fiction in both North and South America. A dedicated bibliophile focused on detective and crime fiction, “he knew several of the great mysteries writers of his time personally, including Borges, Ellery Queen, Cornell Woolrich, Ross Macdonald and Margaret Millar… [and] was an active member of the Baker Street Irregulars from 1972 until his death” (Hutchings, “Donald A Yates: Lifelong Devotee of Mystery Fiction”). Yates also authored a number of critical articles on the genre, and edited the anthology, Latin Blood: Best Crime and Detective Stories of South America (1972). Dust jacket verso with “March 1939” in unidentified hand. Yates owned several inscribed Chandler titles, including a copy of Farewell My Lovely that was inscribed “For Donald Yates with best wishes Raymond Chandler,” and although Yates’ name is not in the inscription, one can assume that it was presented by Chandler to him.

Text fresh with only light offsetting to rear pastedown and endpaper; dust jacket exceptional. A stunning about-fine copy. Most rare and desirable.