McBain, Ed — Learning to Kill: Stories

Orlando, Florida, An Otto Penzler Book, for Harcourt, 2006. First Edition. Hardcover. Size: 8vo 8" - 9" tall. Published just one year posthumous to the author's death. Signed bookplate affixed to first free endpaper. Purchased from a dealer who purchased signed first editions directly from the publisher in bulk for resale and/or who sent copies of titles, also in bulk, to authors for signing, a favor for which he paid. Superior copy, gift-quality condition, inside and out, no discernible wear, bright and shiny dust jacket. Two-tone, brick-red cloth over boards, brown cloth-backed. His "real" name, Evan Hunter (but born Salvatore Albert Lombino on October 15, 1926) wrote several dozen police and courtroom procedurals set in the fictitious 87th Precinct. But an early memoir, The Blackboard Jungle, was turned into a 1955 Hollywood film. He also wrote the screenplay for Alfred Hitchcock’s 1963 film The Birds but that was based on the Daphne du Maurier short story of the same name. His Wikipedia entry mentions several other pen-names: "John Abbott, Curt Cannon, Hunt Collins, Ezra Hannon and Richard Marsten, among others." 476 [1] pp. including a note about the author.Member, I.O.B.A., C.B.A., and adherent to the highest ethical standards. . Signed by Author. . Fine/Fine,