Blue Plate Special

New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1934. Hardcover. Good. Foreword by Walter Winchell. Second Printing. Association Copy. Inscribed by Runyon to Steve Hannagan on the front endpaper. Good, lacking the jacket. Blue buckram, stained and worn, frayed and with spots rubbed to the boards. Square, hinges a bit tender but firm otherwise, clean internally. Runyon's second collection of stories, the follow-up to Guys and Dolls. Favorably reviewed in the New York Times as "a grand collection of hard-boiled, sentimental stories told in Damon Runyon's engaging brand of Broadway slang." Similar to Guys and Dolls, some of the stories were adapted into films, such as the case with "Little Miss Marker," which was made into the Pre-Code film starring Shirley Temple. The inscription to Hannagan is a nice association. Hannagan, called "the Prince of Press Agents" was a public relations agent during the early 20th century with clients the likes of Coca-Cola, the Indianapolis 500, Miami Beach, as well as many celebrities. Accoring to Townsley's biography of Hannagan, Runyon was Hannagan's favorite columnist, and Runyon even mentioned Hannagan in at least one of his columns.