John Buchan — The Thirty-Nine Steps

Edinburgh and London, William Blackwood and Sons, 1915 . First edition. Cloth. A bright example of the first edition, first impression of John Buchan's celebrated espionage thriller. The first edition, first impression.Originally serialised in Blackwood's Magazine, 'The Thirty Nine Steps' is the first of five novels featuring Buchan's hero Richard Hannay. 'The Thirty-Nine Steps' by John Buchan is a suspenseful novel which follows the stiff-upper-lipped Hannay as he attempts to evade the same fate as a man called Scudder, who is murdered in his flat. This work is one of the earliest examples of the "man-on-the-run" trope which became a standard feature of many thrillers since.In 1935 Alfred Hitchcock directed an adaptation of the novel, starring Friedrich Robert Donat. Hitchcock's adaptation was deemed a "masterpiece" by Orson Welles and was rated the fourth best British film of the twentieth century by British Film Institute in 1999. With advertisement leaf to the rear. In the publisher's original cloth binding. Externally, bright. A touch of shelf wear to back strip tail, with minor area of fading to front board tail, and minor mark to front board head. Light spotting to endpapers. Internally, firmly bound. Pages bright and clean, though lightly age toned to perimeters due to paper type. Very Good Indeed . Ill.: None. Very Good Indeed .