DASHIELL HAMMETT. — The Maltese Falcon. A novel.

Alfred A. Knopf, London and New York, 1st Edition, The first UK edition (first printing), issued five months after the US edition. 8vo. 280pp. Blue smooth-weave cloth lettered in red at the spine with a small black-stamped falcon design to the backstrip and to the upper corner of the front board. Publisher's blue top edge stain, very slightly patchy. Just a trace of light bruising to the spine ends and a touch of very light spotting to the fore edge, with a little further spotting to the half-title, title page, and one or two further preliminary and concluding leaves. Free endpapers lightly browned and a tiny bump to the tips of the two lower corners. A touch of very light soiling to occasional leaf margins and, once or twice, to the text block. A very good copy. No dust wrapper. The first and only full-length novel featuring Hammett's celebrated gumshoe Sam Spade. The print runs of the first US and first UK editions are unknown, but considering the relative availability of the first American edition, this distinctly more uncommon UK edition must surely have been printed in considerably smaller numbers. Layman A3.2., Very Good, No Jacket