“THE PHILOSOPHER KING OF DETECTIVE NOVELISTS": FIRST EDITION OF ROSS MACDONALD’S POWERFUL 17TH LEW ARCHER NOVEL, SLEEPING BEAUTY

(MILLAR, Kenneth) MACDONALD, Ross. Sleeping Beauty. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1973. Octavo, original navy blue cloth, original dust jacket. $650.

First edition of the penultimate Lew Archer novel, published a decade before Macdonald's death, the book he once described as revealing "my family secrets."

Sleeping Beauty, a “highly personal work,” recalls the 1967 oil spill off Santa Barbara—as history and metaphor—and resonates with Macdonald’s guilt over the tragic death of his daughter. Describing it as the book that tells “my family secrets,” Macdonald dedicated the book to writer Eudora Welty, one of his closest friends. By the time of publication, he was “the philosopher king of detective novelists… along with the younger Joan Didion and the older Wallace Stegner, Macdonald was among the most highly regarded writers in California” (Nolan, 329-334, 387). To noted biographer Frank MacShane, Ross Macdonald stands out as “one of the best writers of his generation.” "First edition" stated on copyright page. Reilly, 987-89. Magill, 1135-40. Bruccoli & Layman, 244. Hubin II:I,527. Steinbrunner & Penzler, 262-63.

A fine copy.