INSCRIBED BY BURNETT

BURNETT, W.R. The Quick Brown Fox. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1942. Octavo, original orange cloth, original dust jacket. $950.

First edition of Burnett's novel about terrorists in a small Midwestern town, inscribed by the author on the verso of the half title: "For Myrtle Eaton, with sincere best wishes, W.R. Burnett."

W.R. (William Riley) Burnett "is an important and original writer… he may be the single most successful writer on the notion of the criminal as the emblem of an era. Burnett provides some of the most dynamic and apposite metaphors for the life of America in the 20th century" (Reilly, 234). "Throughout the 1940s Burnett continued to write novels and screenplays about gangsters and crime, among them The Quick Brown Fox (1942)" (ANB). Despite Burnett's burgeoning fame in Hollywood as a screenwriter, "he claimed that he never wrote novels with movies in mind but that his screenwriting career allowed him to continue doing what he liked best—writing novels… Burnett received the Grand Masters Award in 1980 from the Mystery Writers of America for his contribution to crime writing and the gangster novel" (ANB). With five illustrations.

Book near-fine, dust jacket with shallow wear to spine ends and corners, a few minor rubs. A desirable inscribed copy.