INSCRIBED BY LARRY MCMURTRY AND SIGNED BY DIANA OSSANA, FIRST EDITION OF PRETTY BOY FLOYD

MCMURTRY, Larry and OSSANA, Diana. Pretty Boy Floyd. A Novel. New York: Simon & Schuster, (1994). Octavo, original half red cloth, original dust jacket. $450.

First edition of McMurtry and co-author Ossana's novel about the legend of the Depression’s Public Enemy No. 1, inscribed by McMurtry on the title page: "For Veta—a wild tale of the Ozarks, Larry McMurtry," and signed on the title page as well by Ossana.

"In the summer of 1934, after his G-men cut down John Dillinger outside the Biograph movie house in Chicago, J. Edgar Hoover elevated Charles Arthur (Pretty Boy) Floyd to Dillinger's exalted position as Public Enemy No. 1, catapulting him over such bank-robbing peers as Baby Face Nelson, Machine Gun Kelly and Ma Barker and her sons… By the time the G-men caught up with Charley Floyd in an Ohio cornfield in 1934, they had made him into a legend" (New York Times). In Pretty Boy Floyd, McMurtry and co-author Ossana, who became fascinated with the Depression-era gangster while writing a screenplay about him, use the novel form to revisit the legend of Pretty Boy Floyd. Recipient Veta Mott is a member of the family that has run the antiquarian book business Howard S. Mott since 1936. McMurtry's well-known engagement with the rare book trade began in his twenties as a book scout, and he ran his own book store, Booked Up, for over 40 years.

Fine condition.