Between the Covers

Unbound. Two complete and one partial draft of a Manuscript by Fleischer of a murder mystery with occult overtones set in Africa. Housed in a manila envelope with Fleischer's ink note: "This, in my opinion is a good story for a book on Motion Pictures. I wrote it in 1941." Small tears and creases, overall near fine, envelope with some wear. Fleischer was a noted sportswriter, particularly about boxing, who founded *The Ring* magazine, co-founded the Boxing Writers Association of America, and was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1990. The manuscript is an apparently unpublished mystery story about two close college friends who depart England to oversee a family plantation in Liberia and encounter an evil overseer who controls the workers through voodoo. When the oversee is mortally wounded following a foiled plan to kill the men he curses them leading to the mysterious death of one friend and a murder trial for the other. Expectedly, there is a fair bit of boxing - and unexpectedly, a murderous chimpanzee. An unpublished and unknown story by this noted boxing writer.

List:

1. *The Strangling Shadow*: 57pp. Typed rectos only. Mostly carbon copy. Modest corrections throughout.

2. *The Strangling Shadow*: 68pp. Typed rectos only. Ribbon copy. Corrections in type throughout and a few by hand.

3. *The Avenging Shadow*. 1-2, 4-7, 9-14pp. Typed rectos only. Carbon copy. Moderate to heavy corrections. Manuscript fragment, possibly an early version of *The Strangling Shadow*.

Item #424114