WOOLRICH, Cornell

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First edition. Corners bumped, modest tears at the spine ends, a near very good copy lacking the very uncommon dustwrapper. First book by the much admired genre writer whose work is periodically rediscovered. This copy is nicely Inscribed by the author in the year of publication, utilizing most of the front fly: "To Ken Daughrity in memory of many pleasant sympathies we share / from his devoted friend Cornell Woolrich. New York Aug. 10, 1926." Daughrity's pencil signature appears on the rear fly as "D'Aughrity," and a penciled address is on the front pastedown. The novel, which is a Jazz Age imitation of Woolrich's then-idol F. Scott Fitzgerald, features a female character named Vera Dougherty, and perhaps the recipient of this copy, likely a Columbia classmate of the undergraduate author, lent a variation of his name to her. Woolrich signed little, and but for this copy, we've never seen a copy of his first book signed.

[BTC #86109]