"WITHOUT IN THE LEAST ABATING MY ADMIRATION FOR HAMMETT AND CHANDLER… ROSS MACDONALD IS A BETTER NOVELIST THAN EITHER OF THEM": PRESENTATION FIRST EDITION OF MACDONALD'S FAR SIDE OF THE DOLLAR, INSCRIBED IN THE YEAR OF PUBLICATION BY HIM
(MILLAR, Kenneth) MACDONALD, Ross. The Far Side of the Dollar. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1965. Octavo, original half green cloth, original dust jacket. $2400.
First edition of Macdonald's award-winning 12th Lew Archer crime novel, published under Kenneth Millar's best known pseudonym of Ross Macdonald, a memorable presentation copy inscribed by him as "Ken" in the year of publication to his close friend and neighbor, "Feb. 8, 1965 Santa Barbara for Stretch, with affectionate good wishes, Ken."
Far Side of the Dollar, published the same year Macdonald was named president of Mystery Writers of America, won the famed Silver Dagger Award for Best Crime Novel of the Year from the British Crime Writers Association. Featuring his California detective Lew Archer, it was quickly praised by critic Anthony Boucher, who wrote: "Without in the least abating my admiration for Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, I would like to venture the heretical suggestion that Ross Macdonald is a better novelist than either of them" (New York Times Book Review). Kirsch of the Los Angeles Times said: "Macdonald's Far Side of the Dollar has the power and dimension of a Greek tragedy… this may well be the best book which he has written to date." Writer Eudora Welty, who became a close friend, told Macdonald that Far Side of the Dollar "is securely among your strongest and best ones… a beauty that just gets better" (Mars & Nolan,eds, Meanwhile There Are Letters). "First Edition" stated on copyright page. Bruccoli, Checklist, 43-44. Magill, 1135-40. Reilly, 987-89. Bruccoli & Layman, 243. Steinbrunner & Penzler, 262-63. Hubin II:I,527. Barzun & Taylor 2308. The recipient was Macdonald's Santa Barbara longtime friend and neighbor.
Book fine; light edge-wear mainly to spine ends of colorful near-fine dust jacket.