Murder in the Calais Coach; Murder on the Orient Express In the Saturday Evening Post
Philadelphia: Curtis, 1959. First Edition. Wrappers. 7 items: 1. 320–page original typescript, heavily corrected by Charters on nearly every page, with a thousand or so changes, additions, and deletions in his own handwriting, and the printer’s notes in red and purple crayon, pencil, and ink (the setting copy used to print the book and the only extant manuscript). Universally acknowledged as the first scholarly book length study of the blues, a groundbreaking workofhighcharismasaving,whatwasin1959, a disappearing art form(seebelow). The first 7 leaves (the preliminary pages) are on different paper stock that is browned, brittle, and chipped (no text has been lost). The rest of the manuscript (all on nicer, still white paper) has some light wear, marks, and staple assembly, otherwise it is very good. But what is most important about the condition is that it is all here, and it is authentic, and influential, and it effervesces with character (see below). Awesome case, in 1/2 Maroquin du cap. Very good. Item #775
A rousing Christie showpiece circling an assassination on a moving train that soon becomes snowbound. There is a first–class coach filled with passengers using aliases, false clues, and convincing alibies, but it is a collaborative kabuki dance quickly penetrated by Hercule Poirot’s discovery that all 12 passengers and the conductor are guilty of a painstakingly plotted murder for revenge. Poirot reflects that some things blow up and some things blow over, and after deciding that the earlier crime (kidnapping and murder) was justly redressed, he lets the 13 assassins go free.
Fiction is the most fertile of arts because it encompasses everything that didn’t happen, and reading it provides peaceful, private, and quiet escape from everything that did.
Price: $1,500.00