39 “Hammett Did It First But Chandler Did It Better” 44 CHANDLER, Raymond. The High Window. New York, 1942. Octavo, original brown cloth, dust jacket, custom box. $9500 First edition of Chandler’s seminal third novel, the “hauntingly memorable” noir classic that confirmed his legendary status. High Window clarifies “Chandler’s ongoing theme, namely that Marlowe is a knight errant… ‘It is the struggle of a fundamentally honest man to make a decent living in a corrupt society,’ said Chandler” (Phillips, Creatures of Darkness, 79). Chandler “took a sub-literary American genre and made it into literature. Hammett did it first, but Chandler did it better… His power to create atmosphere can be found in the… brilliant opening of High Window… The sharpness of his observation is inseparable from his gift for the telling phrase” (Bruccoli & Layman, 22, 75). The first film adaptation appears the same year as publication when 20th Century Fox combined High Window with a Brett Halliday novel for Time to Kill, and Fox released another adaptation in Brasher Dubloon (1942), using the novel’s original title. Book and dust jacket both show a hint of rubbing along edges, evidence of tape to verso of jacket from a previous protector, not as a repair; both generally bright, clean and near-fine. An excellent unrestored copy. “The Way A Crow Shook Down On Me The Dust Of Snow From A Hemlock Tree” 45 FROST, Robert. New Hampshire. New York, 1923. Octavo, original half green cloth, custom slipcase. $13,000 First edition, signed and inscribed by Frost, with his eight-line autograph poem “Dust of Snow.” Although the poem Frost has written out and signed appears in this collection under the title “Dust of Snow,” Frost has used his earlier title for the poem, “The Favor,” in his inscription. Frost had originally titled the poem “The Favor” because he regarded the subject of the poem as something that had come to him as a “favor from nature.” The inscribed poem reads: “The way a crow / Shook down on me / The dust of snow / From a hemlock tree / Has given my heart / A change of mood / And saved some part / Of a day I had rued. Robert Frost.” New Hampshire contains a number of Frost’s most famous poems—”Fire and Ice,” “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” and “Nothing Gold Can Stay.” Without scarce dust jacket. Book fine. A most desirable copy, inscribed.
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