Darkness at Noon [*SIGNED*]

New York: Horace Liveright. Very Good+ in Good dj. 1931. First Edition. Hardcover. [very slight bumping/cracking to bottom corners, otherwise a very nice copy with only minimal shelfwear; jacket edgeworn, especially along spine joints, miscellaneous creasing, a few small tears, minor paper loss at spine corners]. INSCRIBED to the noted film star Richard Arlen and his wife ("Dick and Joby Arlen") and SIGNED by the author on the ffep, additionally DATED in his hand Mar. 24, 1931. The author's only book (at least that we know about), a novel derived from his own experiences as a coal miner in England. As explained in the jacket bio, and further confirmed by the inscription, by the time he wrote this book he had relocated to America, where he worked at a string of jobs including "motion-picture reader [and] ghost-writer (scenarios and several novels)," all before the ripe old age of 33. (He doesn't appear to have ever received any screen credits, but this copy of the book has a little extra Hollywood provenance: on the rear pastedown is a label from the famous Stanley Rose Book Shop. And "Joby," by the way, was actress Jobyna Ralston, married to Richard Arlen from 1927 to 1945.) Signed by Author .