New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1940. First edition. Original pink cloth, titles to front board and spine in blue, top edge blue. With dust jacket. Negligible rubbing to board edges, cloth bright, binding square, top edge unfaded, a Fine copy in just about Fine jacket, not price-clipped, a couple of tiny nicks to head of front panel and joints. Housed in a custom red morocco solander box by the Heritage Bindery, spine elaborately tooled in gilt.

One of the finest crime novels ever written, by one of the inventors of the hard-boiled detective genre. A Haycraft-Queen cornerstone, "Farewell, My Lovely" was the second Philip Marlowe novel, published in 1940. The plot was inspired by a number of short stories Chandler had written earlier, including "Mandarin's Jade", "The Man Who Liked Dogs", and “Try the Girl.” It follows Marlowe as he investigates the violent murder of a night club manager. The book was actually the first of Chandler’s novels to be made into a film, in 1942, as "The Falcon Takes Over." It was filmed again in 1944 as the critically acclaimed "Murder, My Sweet" and in 1975, in a version starring Robert Mitchum. “…the appeal of 'Farewell, My Lovely' is in its toughness, which is extremely well done.” (Contemporary New York Times Review)

Bruccoli A2.1.a. Fine in About Fine dust jacket. (Item #4485)