THE D.A. CALLS IT MURDER - INSCRIBED, WITH TLS TIPPED IN

New York: William Morrow & Company, 1937. First Edition. A pleasing copy of the first Doug Selby novel, one of nine Gardner would write in between his Perry Mason and Cool & Lam series between 1937-1949. Mundell, p.42; Hubin, p.158. First Printing. Octavo (19.75cm); black cloth, with titles stamped in red on spine and front cover; red topstain; dustjacket; [vi],[2],3-295,[3]pp. Inscribed by the author on the front endpaper: "To George W. Nilssen / with kindred regards from yours / Erle Stanley Gardner / Nov.1950." The recipient has marked one passage in ink in the margin of p.5, and on the upper rear pastedown noting when he first read the book. Offsetting to endpapers, with some residue from an old-style jacket protector along the lower edges of same; Very Good+ or better. Dustjacket is unclipped (priced $2.00), spine-sunned and lightly shelfworn, with a few tiny nicks, small tears, and attendant creases, three of them neatly tape-mended on verso; Very Good+.

Folded and tipped onto a preliminary leaf is a TLS from Gardner to the recipient on his Rancho Del Paisano stationary, dated November 29, 1950. In it, Gardner explains he is back from an extended trip on the East Coast doing work for Argosy, attending a seminar on homicide investigation at Harvard Medical School, and "generally doing darned near everything except writing books, which is what my publisher tells me I should be doing." He goes on at length to say he enjoyed Nilsson's letter, and that he disliked the idea of signing the 25 cent edition of The D.A. Calls It Murder, and after some fishing around the ranch, found a first edition, which he would inscribed and ship under separate cover. 30 lines, (247 words), signed "Sincerely yours, Erle Stanley Gardner" in black ink.