"A MAN ON PROBABTION WALKS HIS OWN HIGH WIRE WTHOUT A NET. IF HE FALLS TWICE, HE FALLS HARD, INTO PRISON"

(MACDONALD, Ross) MACDONALD, John Ross. Meet Me at the Morgue. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1953. Octavo, original orange and white paper-covered boards, original dust jacket. $1800.

First edition, published under Ross Macdonald's early pseudonym of John Ross Macdonald.

In search of the kidnapped son of a wealthy man, probation officer Howard Cross sets on a journey across the Los Angeles underworld in search of him, "an investigator who moves with intelligence and compassion in the no-man's land between the lawless and the law." Ross Macdonald's first four novels appeared under his birth name of Kenneth Millar. Moving Target, his first Lew Archer book, appeared under the pseudonym of John Macdonald, his father's first two names. The next six novels were issued under the name of John Ross Macdonald to separate his works from those of John D. MacDonald. Millar settled on the pseudonym of Ross Macdonald with publication of The Barbarous Coast (1956). "First Edition" stated on copyright page. From the library of Florence and Edward Kaye, major collectors of detective fiction, with their red morocco bookplate.

Book fresh and nearly fine, dust jacket with minor wear to spine extremities, one small pencil mark to rear panel. A near-fine copy.