“THERE IS POWER, POETRY, IMAGINATION HERE”

GRUBB, Davis. The Night of the Hunter. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1953. Octavo, original half dark blue cloth, original dust jacket. $650.

First trade edition of David Grubb’s debut novel, basis for the 1955 film classic starring Robert Mitchum.

To Nelson Algren, David Grubb's Night of the Hunter was "as compelling a story as I've come on in some time" and to Walter Van Tilburg Clark, this debut novel by Grubb contained "much achievement and great promise… There is power, poetry, imagination here." This "widely acclaimed… haunting story about two children pursued by a psychopathic killer… was made into a critically successful movie that starred Robert Mitchum" in 1955, the only film fully directed by Charles Laughton (New York Times). First trade edition, not one of the 1000 copies signed on a tipped-in limitation page, published the same year. Barron, Fantasy and Horror 6-153. Owner inscription.

Book fine; light edge-wear, minimal reinforcement to verso of bright, near-fine dust jacket.