A Masque of Mercy, the second of Robert Frost's two biblically themed poetic plays, reworks the story of Jonah as an argument in a bookshop, exploring themes of divine justice and mercy. Though they are often skimmed over by critics, Frost himself thought this play and its precursor, A Masque of Reason (1945), an important summation of themes only hinted at in his shorter poems. This is the 1947 limited edition with glassine dust jacket in its original slipcase, one of 751 copies signed by Frost. more info...

Farm chronicles Jackie Nickerson's time spent traveling through Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and South Africa, photographing the toil of the workers of tea plantations, smallholdings, and the maize fields of tribal trust lands. These portraits offer a directness that lay bare the dignity of the workers' lives, as well as the beauty in their everyday attire. A beautiful copy of the first edition. more info...

"A conscientious wine merchant... becomes the greatest essentiality in the cure of gout..." So writes author and horticulturalist George Ellwanger in what turns out to be a charming essay on the benefits of wine. Just don't tell your doctor. This is the first edition of Ellwanger's treatise, at once, an insightful look at the disease and a possibly misguided look at its cure. more info...

In an extremely stylized version of classic portraiture, and with heavy emphasis on costume and prop, Ruven Afanador's fashion photography has helped to revamp publications like the New Yorker, Vogue and Vanity Fair. As his first published work, Torero spins an elegant fantasy with a profound glorification of male beauty, as Ruven returns to the regions of his homeland in homage to matador culture. This is a very nice copy of the first edition, which sold out almost immediately in 2001. more info...

The Real War was President Nixon's second book after his resignation and his first devoted to the Vietnam War. In it, Nixon details the reasons behind his decisions in the Southeast Asian conflict, often pointing out the conflict was inherited from previous presidents. He also describes his fear of Soviet expansion and his effort to stop the spread of communism. This leather-bound edition is limited to 1,200 copies, each signed by Nixon. more info...

Kingdom of Fear by Hunter S. Thompson was published in 2003 - three decades after Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and two years before he committed suicide in 2005. Though touted as a memoir, Kingdom of Fear, like all of Thompson's writing, defies category by taking the reader with him to a world where reality and fiction are often indistinguishable. Covering diverse topics from his nine-year experience of being investigated by the FBI for the destruction of a mailbox, his bid for Sheriff of Aspen, CO. in 1970, his friendship with Johnny Depp, and his analysis of September 11, 2001, Kingdom of Fear was his last full-length work. First edition, signed by Hunter S. Thompson with the guidelines of the book signing event laid-in. more info...

Larry Clark's landmark autobiographical work Tulsa documents the illicitly sexual and violent drug lifestyle he and his circle of friends participated in over a three year period of their adolescence. This intimate work challenges previous notions of innocence pervading suburban youth culture with the haunting invitation "once the needle goes in it never comes out." A pristine copy of the first Grove Press edition, and signed by Clark. more info...

Bettina Rheims has gained renown for the stark glamor and strange intimacy of her portraits of women. In Morceaux Choisis, she lets her photographs speak for themselves. Lit with a brilliant white more often found in fashion photography, these explicit images are sensuous and yet somehow clinical, exposing both beauty and flaws. This is a first edition, bound in charcoal grey wrappers sewn with red thread, and housed in a bright red clamshell tin. more info...

Sir William Blackstone's work untangled the jargon of English common law in the 18th century, making it highly readable and lucid. A seminal work of law and literature, Commentaries On The Laws Of England was highly influential not only in the development English law, but also in shaping the American legal system as it was manifested at the end of the 19th century. This four volume set is handsomely bound in calf leather with spines re-set in Morocco goat skin. more info...

Jayne Hinds Bidaut's work uses original tintype photographs to create haunting images using shadows to manipulate their atmosphere. Bidaut's work conveys a vintage feel, using poses and subject matter similar to those of photographers in the late nineteenth century. Bidaut's work consists of nudes with veils, splayed out insects pinned to mats, or skeletons. Tintypes was Bidaut's first major published collection. This edition is limited to 100 copies, signed by Bidaut, and includes a tintype of a butterfly additionally signed, set inside a clamshell box. more info...

The definitive edition of the works of Mark Twain, published in 1923 by Gabriel Wells, and including the two volumes of Autobiography printed by by Gabriel Wells in 1925. This set is signed by Clemens (as Mark Twain, and again as Samuel Clemens) to a tipped-in leaf (signed in 1906, in anticipation), and additionally signed by the editor, Alfred Bigelow Paine, on the facing page and attesting to the Twain signature. In the original cloth, and in very good condition, this set is one of only 1024 copies signed by the quintessential American author. more info...

One of the most famous accounts of a day in the life, Mrs. Dalloway follows Clarissa, a London hostess as she makes arrangements for a evening party. Woolf's use of interior monologue is typified by Clarissa's questioning of her own life choices against the background of post World War I London. This 1948 printing features the original dust jacket design by Woolf's sister, Vanessa Bell. more info...

Sol Lewitt, a pioneer of the conceptual and minimalist movements, became renowned for his vibrantly colored and deceptively simple geometric work in the 1960's. Four Basic Colors, an important early book by the artist, illustrates the artist's use of color in an apparently rudimentary fashion that opens into a multitude of linear movement. more info...

The New York Trilogy , Auster's first significant work, is a series of genre-bending novels that blend elements of detective fiction and post-modern prose. This set includes first edition copies of City of Glass, Ghosts, and The Locked Room, with volume three containing Auster's signature. more info...

Chagall, a pioneering Modernist, was a master of several media, including the print. This collection includes 17 original lithographs by the artist, rendering the stories of Noah, Jacob and Joseph, the exodus of Moses from Egypt, and several others. more info...

Written between 1951 and 1953 while awaiting trial in Mexico City for the accidental homicide of Joan Vollmer, Queer wasn't published until over 30 years later. Portions of Queer were initially meant to be included in Junkie, but were cut out after Ginsberg (then Burroughs' editor and acting agent) pulled many strings to get Junkie published by pulp publisher Ace. This first editon copy is inscribed by Burroughs to Daphne Hellman, friend and fixture in the downtown music scene in NYC for decades. more info...

Robert Bresson's actor-model technique aimed to separate the language of cinema from the stage by using non-professional actors, and stripping away the performative aspect from film roles. His work in the 50's and 60's was influential to filmmakers as diverse as Andrei Tarkovsky, Jim Jarmusch, and the French New Wave. This is a scarce first edition in English (and first in hardcover) of this collection of Bresson's own working notes and reflections that sharpened his aesthetic sensibility is hard to find in hardcover. more info...

A.A. Milne created the warm and safe world of the Hundred Acre Wood, where a child's sense of adventure and love of nature overlap with themes of friendship and loyalty. E.H. Shepard's illustrations brought to life the inhabitants of the Hundred Acre Wood. The House at Pooh Corner is Milne's second volume of stories following Christopher Robin and Winnie the Pooh. In this collection Milne introduces the popular character Tigger, and also concludes Christopher Robin's time in Hundred Acre Wood. This copy of the first edition is signed by Milne on the title page. more info...

During the Iran Hostage Crisis of 1979, Magnum photographer Gilles Peress flew to Tehran to document the state of unrest. Not only capturing the mayhem and confusion surrounding the U.S. embassy, Peress also ventured into the countryside, capturing from both viewpoints the tensions of a nation in upheaval and its struggle with Western cultural influence. Perhaps Peress' most notable work, this is a 1st edition copy. more info...

Immediately conjuring scenes of foggy London alleyways, Sherlock Holmes is perhaps the most beloved character of mystery fiction. His machismo, resourcefulness, and heightened sense of deduction molded a paradigm for the detective in fiction that has been rearranged by other authors throughout the 20th-century. This complete collection of the Sherlock Holmes tales is limited to 147 copies and includes a bound-in sheet signed by Doyle, originally intended for the 1930 Crowborough Edition (the year of his death). more info...

"Stock prices have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau." One of the most important economists of the early 20th-century, Irving Fisher made the above statement exactly one week before the crash of 1929. Not only was Fisher's statement comically wrong, but he continued to be wrong throughout the depression, leveraging himself in stocks with an eye toward an imminent turnaround, until he eventually lost not only his fortune, but his home. This book, written in early 1930, seeks to explain the October crash, and maintains that the plateau remains intact at pre-crash levels. The book is remarkable for its portrayal of contemporary thought and feeling during the crisis, and Fisher notably ends the book with the words, "For the immediate future, at least, the outlook is bright." The First Edition, published in February 1930. more info...

Caroline Healy Dall was an early women's rights activist, working in particular towards furthering women's roles in the workforce. Her economic writings anticipated many better known feminist writers such as Charlotte Perkins Gilman. This is a First Edition of The College, the Market, and the Court, a collection of lectures widely considered her most important work. more info...

With over 200 illustrated books to his credit, Lynd Ward has long been considered one of the great American illustrators. This edition of Les Miserables contains Ward's signature monochrome woodcuts, using a different color for each volume. The edition is limited to 1500 copies, and signed by Lynd Ward at the colophon of volume 5. more info...

Mickey Spillane's first book, I, the Jury was written in only nine days. Spillane introduced a new brand of crime fiction that wasn't loved by everyone - Raymond Chandler famously declared, "pulp writing at its worst was never as bad as this stuff." Nonetheless, the stories Spillane cranked out found millions of readers - his protagonist, Mike Hammer, and his particular brand of machismo were perfectly suited to the postwar market. This is the first edition of I, the Jury, in its original dustwrapper. more info...

Handset and printed using a typeface meant to reproduce as closely as possible the original appearance of Bukowski's manuscripts (he used an Underwood typewriter), Cruelty of Loveless Love collects eighteen previously unpublished poems. Tipped-in and facing each poem are also eighteen hand-printed photographs of the author. Housed in a silk-covered clamshell box, this is one of thirty-five copies (out of sixty-five total). more info...

Arthur Miller's only novel, although later it was adapted for stage and film, Focus is an exploration of small-town anti-Semitism in Brooklyn shortly after World War 2. This copy is inscribed in early 1947 to Max [Mordecai] Gorelik, who was at the time working with Miller on Broadway as the set designer for the Tony award-winning All My Sons, during its premiere run. The contemporary inscription, "For Max, who knows more than most what this book is about," is both a touching and chilling reminder of the truth behind Miller's work. more info...

Blindness is one the most well-known novels from the great Portuguese writer Jose Saramago. It is marked stylistically with long, flowing sentences and a lack of proper character names - elements which help tell the story of a city's struggle to survive after being spun into chaos by an epidemic of blindness. This is an advance reading copy of the novel, signed by the author. more info...

An intriguing account of Harry Houdini's effort to dispel his mentor's magic as trite and unoriginal, Unmasking spurred the publication of numerous counter-responses from magicians defending Robert-Houdin. The book stands as the first and one of the most important documents in the history of magic. This is a great copy of the first edition. more info...

First published in 1791, Boswell's celebrated Life of the English author, editor, and lexicographer has withstood the test of time, still widely considered the benchmark for all biographies. This is an early nineteenth-century edition in six volumes, half bound in deep red morocco with gilt detail by Sotheran & Company. more info...

Written by one of the great poets of the Romantic period at the height of his fame. Hebrew Melodies (1815) includes some of Byron's best-known lyrics, including She Walks in Beauty. The first edition in original wrappers, housed in custom clamshell box. more info...

One of the earliest and most enduring works of the English language, the bawdy tales of Chaucer's pilgrims as they make their way to Canterbury never lose their wit, humor, and charm. Finely bound by Bayntun, this three-volume illustrated edition is based on Skeat's text and preserves the original Middle English. more info...

The beloved Pooh has made his way into the hearts of generations of readers since his first appearance in print in 1924. This is the first American edition of the first collection of Winnie-the-Pooh stories written by A.A. Milne and illustrated by Ernest Shepard. Beautifully rebound by Sangorski & Sutcliffe and decorated with gilt-stamped characters from the stories. more info...

When August Derleth and Donald Wandrei set out to publish the works of the underappreciated writer H.P. Lovecraft, they were largely met with silence from the mainstream publishing world. Not dissuaded, they formed their own publishing house, calling it Arkham House after Lovecraft's own widely-used place-name for legend-haunted Salem, Massachusetts. The Outsider and Others (1939) was the first book they published, marking the beginning of Lovecraft's successful posthumous career as the definitive writer of "weird fiction." A very good copy of the first edition, in the scarce dust jacket designed by Virgil Finlay. more info...

The Drawing of the Three is the second installment in Stephen King's Dark Tower series. Fans of King often consider the series to be his greatest work, and it has gained a cult following since the first book was published in 1982. The series, as well as the name of the protagonist, were largely inspired by Robert Browning's poem, "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came." However, King has noted many other inspirations for the characters and plot details, including Clint Eastwood, Tolkien, and some of King's own other books. This illustrated edition is limited to 850 copies signed by King and the artist. more info...

Rex Stout is considered by many to be the greatest mystery writer of the last century, and the larger-than-life detective Nero Wolfe is his most celebrated fictional character. This limited edition contains the first book publication of "Bitter End" and the article "Why Nero Wolfe Like Orchids" by Archie Goodwin, as well as the last and most extensive published interview with Rex Stout. more info...

Edward FitzGerald's 19th-century translations of Omar Khayyam's Rubaiyat are the most widely known renderings of the 11th-century Persian poet and astronomer's work. From the Persian word "rubai" meaning "quatrain," the poems describe the pleasures of the fleeting moment and their beautiful lines are among the most oft-quoted in world literature. The celebrated and prolific Willy Pogany illustrated this edition with 24 colored plates. In decorated green cloth, one of 525 copies illustrated and signed by Pogany. more info...

On Ancient Central-Asian Tracks marks a high point of modern archaeology and history. It is Aurel Stein's indispensable account of his re-discovery of the Silk Road in the early 1900s, about two millenniums after trade along the ancient route had vanished. This first edition contains numerous fold-out illustrations and panoramic photographs of the expedition. more info...

Long considered one of the most important angling books alongside Walton's Compleat Angler, Venable's Experienc'd Angler is actually a much different book than Walton's, providing a wonderful counterpoint to Walton's meditations. More practical than philosophical, Venable's influential little book contains early tactics and advice on fishing gear and techniques, many mentioned here for the first time. This is a wonderful copy of the fifth edition, the last published during the author's lifetime. more info...

Garcia Marquez's reimagining of the life of Simon Bolivar, lauded as one of his most sophisticated. This is one of 350 copies signed by the Nobel prize-winning Columbian author. A fine copy in pictorial slipcase. more info...

Popularizers of several ragtime dances, including the foxtrot and the grizzly bear; proprietors of a dancing school, nightclub, and restaurant; and in demand as vaudeville and motion picture performers, husband-and-wife dance team Vernon and Irene Castle were a New York sensation in the nineteen-teens. Introducing white audiences to jazz rhythms through their dance routines, the Castles were socially progressive - they employed an all black orchestra, and their manager was openly lesbian - and fashion forward - Irene introduced American women to the bobbed hairstyle that would become an emblem of the flapper era, and her dresses were frequently featured in American fashion magazines. During World War I, Vernon fought as a fighter pilot and trained other pilots. It was during a training exercise in 1918 that Vernon crashed his plane and died, at the age of 30. Irene continued to act on stage and in silent films, and in 1939 Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers played the couple in the RKO picture The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle. This first edition copy of Modern Dancing is profusely illustrated with photos of the Castles demonstrating popular steps, and is inscribed by Vernon. more info...

"I have no respect for photographs, only pictures." Legendary fashion editor Diana Vreeland worked with the world's best photographers over her career spanning six decades. Allure represents her own selection of the best of these "pictures" culled from the last decade of photography, alongside her witty and sometimes acerbic commentary. This copy signed by the author. more info...

A lush and poignant collection from the celebrated Chilean poet, written in his car while he traveled the landscapes of Isla Negra and Normandy. This first edition is signed by the author with a small flower drawing. more info...

As a teacher, writer, and humanitarian, Anthony Bezenet spent his life crusading against slavery. This is the second edition of A Caution and Warning, first published in 1766 - a seminal work by one of America's early abolitionists. more info...

This is a wonderful mid-19th-century work on insect life by Acheta Domestica (or "House Cricket", a pseudonym for L.M. Budgen). It is filled with "pleasing and grotesque" (according to the Henry B. Humphrey catalogue of 1871) anthropomorphic woodcut vignettes designed by the author, many of which are hand-colored. A charming set, including all three series. more info...

Josef Koudelka's photographs are striking distillations of the human drama. Taken in the gypsy settlements of East Slovakia, the images in this first edition offer a raw account of the joy and suffering of an elusive people, and are a testament to Koudelka's most beloved and impassioned subject. Includes an excellent historical account of the gypsies by Willie Guy. A Parr/Badger title. more info...

"Once upon a time there was a baby. It was worse than other babies. For one thing, it was larger." So begins Edward Gorey's ninth book and the first to be published under his own imprint, the Fantod Press. The Beastly Baby is a classic example of the artist and author's macabre sensibility. Issued in an edition of only five hundred copies, this is a very good copy of a very scarce title. more info...

Winner of the Pulitzer prize in 1938, The Yearling is Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings' timeless and tender story of young Jody Baxter and his pet fawn, Flag, in the backwoods of Florida. This limited edition includes illustrations by N.C. Wyeth, which were commissioned by Rawlings' publisher even before her Pulitzer was announced. As late as the early 1950s, however, copies of this illustrated signed edition reportedly remained unsold - an ironic twist that often befalls classic works. This copy of The Yearling is from an edition of only 770 illustrated by N.C. Wyeth and signed by both the author and artist. more info...

When Robert Mapplethorpe took female bodybuilder Lisa Lyon as his subject, he redefined the feminine ideal for the 1980's. Over a period of two years, Mapplethorpe photographed Lyon in various locations -- from Paris to Jamaica -- both nude and in costume. Lyon described her "concept of a woman's body" as "neither masculine nor feminine, but feline." Likewise, through his photographs, Mapplethorpe reveals not only Lyon's strength and agility, but her beauty. The Hasselblad Center featured Lady Lisa Lyon as one of the most important photography books of all time in the 2005 exhibition The Open Book: A History of the Photographic Book from 1878 to the present. more info...

This 1737 copy of a working edition of Terentius' Phormio, produced in association with a performance of Phormio at the Collegio Salviati, is bound in the papal binding of Pope Clement XII, Lorenzo Corsini (1652 - 1740). Starting with a library bequeathed to him by his uncle, Corsini devoted a good portion of his life to building of a library that would during his reign become the famed Corsini Library at the Corsini palace. This red-morocco binding, stamped in gilt with the papal arms and elaborate borders, may be a bit worse for wear, but is still a rare example of this papal binding. more info...

"I have seen, and heard, much of Cockney impudence before now; but never expected to hear a coxcomb ask two hundred guineas for flinging a pot of paint in the public’s face." So said the critic John Ruskin regarding the work of James Whistler, instigating the libel case which would go on to become an indicator of the shifting values of Victorian culture. This book is Whistler's account of the case, his first book, and an important step towards the modern aesthetic. more info...

Few writers have made the impact that Louis-Ferdinand Celine did with his first novel, Voyage au bout de la Nuit (Journey to the End of the Night). From his use of vernacular language and hyperbolic style to his main character (and in many ways, alter-ego) Bardamu's nihilistic intercontinental exploits, Journey's searing wit and cynicism have made it an unflinching landmark of twentieth-century literature. This is a five-volume limited and illustrated edition of Celine's major works, in the original French. more info...

Widely considered to be Eloise for a new generation, Olivia has won the hearts of her readers. This is the first edition of the first book in the series, signed by the author and illustrator, Ian Falconer. The perfect gift to jump-start the library of the little one in your life. more info...

First printed in 1947 in a limited edition of 250 copies, Henri Matisse's Jazz is today on of the most successful (in every sense of the word) Livres d'Artistes of the 20th century. This beautiful facsimile edition is printed on unbound sheets specially for the Museum of Modern Art in 1983. The original sold at Christie's in 2007 for over $500,000. This almost full-scale (15 1/2" x 11 3/4") reproduction may just tide you over... for awhile anyway. more info...

Perhaps it was Alexandre Dumas' family history which inspired him to write such swashbuckling tales as The Three Musketeers. His father had been a General in Napoleon's army, and although he died when Alexandre was three, Alexandre's mother regaled him with stories of his father's military bravery during the height of Napoleon's reign. It's no wonder that these tales took hold of his imagination! This is a limited numbered edition of Dumas' complete works, in a sumptuous half-leather binding. more info...

In 1916, with the world at war, Edmund Gosse selected a representative fairy tale from each of the eight Allies fighting as one: Great Britain (with a story from each England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland), France, Italy, Portugal, Japan, Russia, Serbia, and Belgium. In his introduction, Gosse notes the universal existence of tales of enchantment, noting that the magical creatures that inhabit them "have no politics and are ignorant of patriotism...and we cannot be sure what part they take in the quarrels and dissensions of mankind." Their only law? "Be kind to those who are kind to you." This limited numbered edition has been illustrated with 12 color plates by Arthur Rackham, who also signed this copy (and, as a contemporary review notes, "There are lots of little decorations, too, by the same hand, which are delicious"), making it magically entertaining. more info...

Once upon a July 4th in 1862, Reverend Charles Dodgson began an extemporaneous yarn intended merely to liven up a five mile boat trip for three little girls named Lorina, Edith, and Alice. Though Reverend Dodgson had often told tales to pass the time away, according to his diary, young Alice insisted that this one in particular "might be written out for her". In 1865, Alice's wish was ready to be presented to the world in printed form as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, complete with 42 of John Tenniel's illustrations. However, upon viewing the finished work, Tenniel flatly rejected the printing. Although Tenniel ostensibly took issue with its quality, many historians now suspect that this rather expensive objection might be attributed to his tumultuous working relationship with Carroll. Carroll ultimately acquiesced to Tenniel's objection and pulled the original printings from circulation, but was fortunately able to later sell the 1,952 sets to D. Appleton & Company, who published those sheets in this red cloth-bound first edition of the classic children's tale. Tenniel's illustrations display a simple yet wonderfully fantastic vision of Alice that has become embedded in our collective imagination. What began as Dodgson's small yarn has been spun into the golden, fanciful tale that established Carroll's place in the literary world and still enchants readers of all ages today. more info...

Albrecht Durer (1471 - 1528) was not only a master Renaissance artist, but also a master theoretician. Toward the end of his life he produced three works on perspective, beginning with Unterweysung der Messung (1525), which would forever alter the landscape of human thought. For the first time in history, Durer explicated the marriage of science and art that was to become the foundation of Renaissance thought, consequently forming the basis of "accepted aesthetic dogma until the 19th century" (Carter, PMM, 54). The second of these works, originally published in German in 1528 as Vier Bucher von menschlicher Proportion, is presented here in its first translation into Latin, as De Symmetria Partium [1532] and De Varietate Figurarum [1534]. It was these Latin translations by Joachim Camerarius that allowed the filtration of Durer's influential ideas throughout the rest of the continent of Europe, to be discovered by Michelangelo and a host of other Renaissance thinkers and artists. These two volumes bound as one are complete except for the final blank in each volume. The plates for this edition were printed using the woodblocks from the original edition of 1528. The full early calf binding is stamped in blind with an armorial device featuring a pelican in her piety and a series of blocked decorative floral borders. A beautiful copy of one of the most influential works on Renaissance art and thought. more info...

Jacques Androuet du Cerceau was the most famous of an important family of French architects, engravers, and designers working throughout the Sixteenth and Seventeenth centuries. This volume is the first he produced in conjunction with the royal family. In it he provides models and instructions for the designs of fifty town houses on estates of various sizes, depending on economic and social scale, while still attempting to preserve ties to the classical tradition. According to Millard, this must be seen as the first wholly French publication of French architecture in the new classical style, and the first attempt to systematize French building practice. The book was designed as both a pattern book for the use of masons and carpenters, as well as a illustrative look at design. An important early work from the founder of one of the most important families of French design. Printed in the same year by the same printer as the Latin edition. (Millard 6, p.11). more info...

Morphed from box of ashes into book and 11" record, this highly personal limited edition comes darkly our way from the esteemed Heartworm Press. Through the plodding, deliberate layout, precise collage work, the finality of the memoir, and dark, intense sound Prurient (Dominick Furnow) and his mother Jean Feraca have given us a glimpse of a strange, disquieting procession. more info...

As a follow-up to Terry Richardson's Clown piece, RxArt returns with a 200-piece puzzle of downtown art star Dan Colen's "ROCK! PAPER! SCISSORS! SH...", "NO! NO! SCISSORS! ROCK! PAPER! SHOOT!" (2007). Edition limited to 700 copies. Also available in a kid-friendly 35-piece puzzle. more info...

Often referred to as "the forgotten man" of legendary pulp magazine Black Mask, Raoul Whitfield produced more work for the publication than any other writer, except for Erle Stanley Gardener. And although many details of Whitfield's life are murky, his imagination generated over 300 short stories and nine books for the publishing world. While known primarily for his detective fiction, Whitfield also published five collections of air adventure and battle stories for young readers, gleaning inspiration from his experience in the United States Army (either as a flying cadet or a Lieutenant, depending on who's telling the story). Indeed, Peter Ruber and Victor Berch, in their article, Raoul Whitfield: Black Mask's Forgotten Man, note that during an interview his ex-wife remarked that Whitfield credited himself as having created a new genre of short fiction, the "Flying Ace" stories. Abounding with nose-diving jets flying through enemy territory and fast paced dialogue, Silver Wings contains a dozen Flying Ace stories, all but one, previously published in Boy's Life Magazine. This copy with the bright Frank Dobias illustrated dust jacket in very good condition. more info...