In Cold Blood
New York, NY: Random House, Inc., 1965. First Edition. Hardcover. "On November 15, 1959, in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas, four members of the Clutter family were savagely murdered by blasts from a shotgun held a few inches from their faces. There was no apparent motive for the crime, and there were almost no clues. Five years, four months and twenty-nine days later, on April 14, 1965, Richard Eugene Hickock, aged thirty-three, and Perry Edward Smith, aged thirty-six, were hanged for the crime on a gallows in a warehouse in the Kansas State Penitentiary in Lansing, Kansas. In Cold Blood is the story of the lives and deaths of these six people. It has already been hailed as a masterpiece." (front flap) The classic breakthrough work in which author Truman Capote (1924-1984) single-handedly invented & perfected the genre of the "non-fiction novel." Beautifully written, ingeniously structured, ultimately compelling, disturbing & suspenseful- even though we already know the fate of the murderers & their victims (see above). This is the masterpiece (indeed) of journalism raised to a high art that catapulted Capote to the zenith of fame & fortune which all too quickly began to curdle into an agonized, protracted decline & demise. This canonical "...True Account of a Multiple Murder and Its Consequences" (front flap, title page) was the basis for the acclaimed (& as unsettling as its source) 1967 film starring Scott Wilson as Hickock & Robert Blake as Smith. Hardcover in unclipped first-issue dust jacket (with $5.95 price & "1/66" printed on front flap, references to publisher's American College Dictionary & Modern Library series on rear flap), first (trade) edition, first printing as stated on copyright page (copyrighted 1965 thereon), published simultaneously with a limited numbered & signed edition. A high mark of twentieth-century American literature, an essential Capote collectible in its rarest original trade version. See also our item No.s 4618, 4708. Book in very fine condition with the slightest wear & fading at thin edges & corners of burgundy-cloth front, back covers & spine (with gold & silver-gilt letters, graphics on spine & front cover completely bright & intact); a touch of rubbing, browning to side & lower edges of text block (the former untrimmed as issued); very slight fading & a few tiny spots, faint scratches to black-dyed upper edge of same. Interior very fine with only tiny bumps at corners of a few page leaves; otherwise substantially mint. Dust jacket fine with very light rubbing, mostly mild browning (becoming moderate at margins & edges of front, back covers, spine & flaps; mild wear & some tiny bumps, creases at edges & corners of same; a few very short, mostly closed tears at cover-edges, corners & esp. spine-edges, corners with very slight loss of paper, surface. Very Fine / Fine. [Item #4744]
Price: $600.00