This Gun for Hire

Garden City: Doubleday, Doran & Company, 1936. First edition of Graham Greene's thriller about a double-crossed assassin seeking revenge, published one month before the English edition titled "A Gun for Sale." The inspiration for the 1942 film noir classic starring Veronica Lake and Alan Ladd, Greene's seventh novel follows the conflicting interests of a hired gun, the private eye on his trail, and the detective's fiancée, who gets drawn into the chase. The dust jacket's promise, "A Novel of Terror and Devotion," reflects the flashes of humanity that illuminate Greene's hardened characters: "They were a little quietened because each had known a man who was suddenly dead; but the knowledge they shared gave them a sense of companionship which was oddly sweet and reassuring. It was like feeling safe, like feeling in love without the passion, the uncertainty, the pain." Barzun & Taylor 1574. A sharp, near-fine copy of a crime fiction classic. Single volume, measuring 7.25 x 5 inches: [8], 293, [3]. Original tan cloth, stamped in green on spine, original unclipped color pictorial dust jacket with price of $2.00 to front flap. Bookplate to front free endpaper. Light sunning to jacket, expert restoration to spine panel and folds.