Rare books from BUCKINGHAM BOOKS

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1939., 1939. First edition. First edition. Author's first book. Fine, bright square copy with top edge dark blue and un-faded in dust jacket with a tiny (1/8") closed tear to top edge of rear panel and a tiny (1/8") closed tear and one inch wrinkle to bottom edge of the rear panel. A Haycraft/Queen Cornerstone mystery novel and an exceptional copy. Made into two films of the same name, in 1946 starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, and in 1978 starring Robert Mitchum and Sarah Miles. Housed in a two-tone quarter leather and cloth clam shell case with a leather label on the spine and the titles stamped in gold gilt.

Washington: A. O. P. Nicholson, Printer, 1855 - 1861., 1855. First edition. Each volume has been rebound black buckram, and signatures resewn, with titles stamped in gold on the spine panel. While each volume is stamped with the word "Senate" on the spine, five of the volumes are actually for the House of Representatives. Any volume with a flaw is noted as follows, VOLUME I: Viii, 651 pp., small stamp of Library of Washington and Jefferson College at bottom of title page with the word "withdrawn" stamped in light blue ink at bottom of title page and on "Contents of Volume I" page, else very good, tight copy. VOLUME IV: Presentation inscription to Irving Holcomb from Hon. F. E. Sprimer [?], dated Nov. 1857. Small water stain to bottom edges of front fly leaf which continues lightly to page 3, else very good, tight copy. VOLUME X: Light foxing to first eight pages in the front of volume and to last eight pages in rear of volume, else very good, tight copy. VOLUME XI:… Read More

New York: Farrar & Rinehart, Inc., [1935]., 1935. First edition. First edition. Author's second Nero Wolfe title. Gold gilt on spine a bit faded, gilt on front cover sharp and bright, pages 301-304 carelessly opened at the bottom edge, green top color is bright and unfaded, else a near fine, tight, square copy in dust jacket which has been internally restored. An extremely handsome copy of a very scarce book in collector's condition. A Haycraft/Queen Cornerstone title.

London: Hodder & Stoughton Limited, [1939]., 1939. First edition. First edition. Signed and inscribed on the title page in ink by the author to fellow mystery writer and journalist Wayne Warga, "Wayne Warga from Eric Ambler. Los Angeles, 25 February 1982. Dear Wayne, This must be the rarest of my first editions. I'm glad to have seen it again. Eric." This copy also has the bookplate of the renown mystery collector, Adrian Homer Goldstone, which is affixed to the front pastedown sheet. Near fine, bright, square copy in dust jacket with light professional restoration by an expert paper conservationist. Housed in a cloth clamshell case with a leather label on the spine and titles stamped in gold gilt. A rare book in the first edition as most copies were lost when Nazi bombs destroyed the Hodder & Stoughton warehouse during World War II. A Haycraft/Queen cornerstone of detective and mystery fiction and the basis of the classic film starring Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre. As… Read More

New York: Farrar & Rinehart, Inc., Publishers, [1934]., 1934. First edition. First edition. Introduces Nero Wolfe. Fine in a fine, professionally restored dust jacket, lightly faded on the spine. Introduces Nero Wolfe, the brilliant, idiosyncratic, and obese armchair detective. PI Wolfe is asked to find Carlo Maffei, who has simply disappeared. Shortly thereafter, his body is found murdered on a golf course. Wolfe`s inquiries reveal a possible connection with the sudden death of university president Barstow. As Wolfe looks into the murders, he finds that he is getting very close to solving the murders when a fer-de-lance (one of the most deadly snakes known to man) is delivered and a ball boy from the golf course provides a crucial clue. A Haycraft/Queen Cornerstone mystery and a beautiful copy.

N. P.: Winifred Earl Lefferts, 1935., 1935. First edition. [Stout, Rex]. Original dust jacket artwork by Winfred Earl Lefferts, for the first edition of Rex Stout's Haycraft-Queen cornerstone title. Signed as "W. E. L." "Beautifully executed in oil and color marker in post-deco style. Very likely the best of the early jacket designs by Lefferts for the Nero Wolfe novels, displaying a bright thread of orchids, behind which one sees a silhouette of Nero Wolfe, pondering, the brew at his side. The only original Stout artwork by Lefferts ever offered for sale. Art size is 10 1/2" x 12," attractively and archivally double-matted and framed to a size of 19" x 17." Wikipedia says, "Winifred Earl Lefferts (October 9, 1903, Newtonville, Massachusetts – November 1995, Blandford, Massachusetts), also known as Winifred Lefferts Arms, was a painter, designer and philanthropist. A member of the Lefferts family, early settlers of Brooklyn, she studied… Read More

New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1944., 1944. First edition. First edition. 8vo. Author's first book. Fine in fine dust jacket with some minor internal restoration by a professional conservator. A beautiful copy of this scarce wartime book in an equally beautiful dust jacket. When Professor Robert Branch's best friend is found dead, he knows that it can't have been suicide. He is certain that it is murder .... a murder arranged by a Nazi espionage group operating on campus. The only trouble is, no one will believe him. Branch also knows that those same Nazis will have him eliminated as soon as it is convenient. He's even narrowed his choice of executioner down to three ... a psychotic homosexual, a respected educator, and the women he loves! Housed in a cloth clamshell case with a leather label on the spine and titles stamped in gold gilt

N. P.: Original Cover artwork by Frank Uppwall, 1953., 1953. First edition. Original artwork by Frank Uppwall (1900 - ), rendered in oil on art board. A single sheet measuring 24" x 36 3/4," dry mounted to an art board for an overall size of 27" x 40." Signed by the artist at the lower center of the painting. This is a colorful and stunning cover painting for Charles Willeford's "Pick-Up," his second book issued as a paperback original by Beacon in 1955. A nihilistic early novel following "the pilgrimage of two lost and self-destructive lovers through the depths of San Francisco, from cheap bars and rooming houses to psychiatric clinics and police stations" (Polito, Robert (editor) Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1950s, Library of America). Though the image at the far right of the painting is the most recognizable, the artwork first saw publication as the wrap-around cover art for George Weller's "Highway Episode" published by Royal… Read More

London: Ernest Benn Limited, [1930]., 1930. First edition. First edition. An exceptionally fine, bright, tight copy in a fine example of this usually fragile dust jacket, Housed in a quarter cloth and marbled paper clamshell case with titles stamped in gold gilt on the spine. A man dies due to fungi poisoning, or so it seems, because due to some irregularities in some of the dead man's correspondence, the case was re-opened. The second examination of the body was confusing because if the man had been murdered the method of poisoning was one of the most ingenious in the history of murder. At the same time the method the investigators decide upon to determine whether the death was accidental or the result of foul play is equally ingenious. A Haycraft/Queen Cornerstone mystery title and an exceptional copy of an elusive title.By far the best copy we've ever seen or handled.

New York: Harper & Brothers, [1950]., 1950. First edition. First edition of her first and best known novel. The author is (rightly) regarded as one of the greatest of all noir authors. This, Highsmith's first novel, published when she was 29, served as the basis for the excellent 1951 Warner Brothers film directed by Alfred Hitchcock with a screenplay by Raymond Chandler, Czenzi Ormonde and Whitfield Cook; it starred Robert Walker, Ruth Roman, and Farley Granger. Inscribed by the author on the title page: "For Clive Hirschhorn / With friendly good wishes / Patricia Highsmith / 31 Oct 1987 / London." Laid-in is a typed letter signed from Hirschhorn to Highsmith on Sunday Express letterhead where he requests that she sign his copy of her book, asks not to date her inscription to him, and asks if they might meet for lunch. Her inked reply is at the bottom of his letter and signed as "Pat." Hirschhorn held an epic tenure as theater critic for the British "Sunday… Read More

Vietnam, Thailand, and elsewhere in Asia as well as the United States, Europe, and the Middle East ca. 1964-1974: Compiled by Jacob Harris, an American who served as a Senior Police Advisor in Vietnam and Thailand during the Vietnam War, 1964 - 1974., 1964 - 1974. First edition. A large and remarkable archive of images from Vietnam and Thailand, covering the decade from the Gulf of Tonkin incident and the beginning of the buildup of American forces in Vietnam to a year before the evacuation of the American embassy. Most notable are the many images showing the training of local security forces by American civil and military advisors. The collection was compiled by Jacob Harris, an employee of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Office of Public Safety (OPS), whose task was to train Vietnamese and Thai police and counterinsurgency forces. Most of the images, in the form of photographs and photographic slides, were created by Harris, his wife, or his associates, and… Read More

New York: Farrar & Rinehart, Incorporated, [1937]., 1937. First edition. First edition. Fourth book in the Nero Wolfe series. Very good, bright copy with red top edges bright, in dust jacket with light professional restoration to the spine ends and front flap fold, else the front cover bright with light fading to the red titles and flower on the spine. An attractive copy of an elusive title. Housed in a clamshell case with the dust jacket design pictured on the case.

N. P.: Painted by E. M. Jackson, 1936., 1936. First edition. 22" x 34 1/2" framed oil painting by E. M. Jackson (1896-1962) of Philo Vance, which appears between pages 498 and 499 in the book PHILO VANCE MURDER CASES by S. S. Van Dine and includes "The Dragon Murder Case," "The Scarab Murder Case," and "The Kennel Murder Case." The book was published in 1936 by Charles Scribner's Sons. Elbert McGran (E.M.) Jackson was known for his illustrations of glamourous, seductive women, Elbert Jackson worked for the Saturday Evening Post, Collier's and other national magazines. He also illustrated murder mystery books. Elbert was born and raised in Augusta, Georgia, graduating from Georgia School of Technology in 1916 with honors in architecture. He found work as an architect in New York but his deep love of pictures and color sent him at night to the Beaux Arts Institute on Seventy-sixth Street, where he studied painting, drawing, anatomy, and sculpture at… Read More

Saint Louis: Published by Woodward & Tiernan Printing Co., 1895., 1895. First edition. First edition. Thick quarto. Calf, stamped in gilt and blind, [1], 743 pp., colored frontispiece, illustrated, plates, portraits, index to historical section, index to biographies, index to illustrations. Colored frontispiece by Gean Smith. BTB 34 says it best "This compendium on Texas cattle and cattlemen is also one of the rarest Texas books. J. Frank Dobie once said: 'In 1928 I traded a pair of store-bought boots to my Uncle Neville Dobie for his copy of this book. A man would have to throw in a young Santa Gertrudis bull now to get a copy.' Conceived as a mug book to be sold primarily to the people whose biographies appeared in it, the final published book contained so much of value on the cattle industry that it has become a classic in its field. Nearly 400 pages are devoted to biographies of some 449 Texas cattlemen, and these sketches are a goldmine for research into the cowboy and cattle… Read More

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1931., 1931. First edition. First U. S. edition, preceded by the U. K. edition. A near fine copy in a bright dust jacket with light professional restoration to the spine ends and corners. Paul Madvig is a crooked political boss. Ned Beaumont, his lieutenant and “fixer,” comes upon the dead body of Taylor Henry, son of a prominent senator with whom Madvig has chosen to join forces. Madvig hopes to marry the senator's daughter, while the senator hopes Madvig's political organization can put him over the top in the next election. To complicate matters, some think that Madvig himself murdered young Henry ... Madvig’s daughter, Opal, who was in love with Henry, among them. And someone has been sending anonymous letters to the DA, to Opal, to Senator Henry, and to the newspapers suggesting Madvig’s involvement and calling for action. The basis for two films: one in 1935, starring Edward Arnold, George… Read More