W. R. Burnett

BURNETT, W. R. (1899-1982). Little Caesar. New York: Lincoln MacVeagh, The Dial Press, 1929.

First edition of Burnett’s highly successful debut novel in the original dust-jacket. A Haycraft-Queen Cornerstone. The titular character Caesar Enrico ‘Rico’ Bandello, an ambitious Italian gangster, was based on the real Chicago gangster Al Capone, his character arc mirroring Capone’s own rise to power and fall from grace. The book served as inspiration for the homonymous film starring Edward G. Robinson, Glenda Farrell, and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and which is now considered an icon of the gangster genre.

Octavo. Original blue cloth, spine and upper cover lettered in yellow, publisher’s device stamped in blind on upper cover (spine ends lightly bruised, corners a touch worn, some staining to extremities); original pictorial dust-jacket designed by Irving Politzer (chip to upper portion of spine and upper panel affecting part of title, chipped at tail of spine, some dampstaining, a few tape repairs on reverse, some further minor tears, folds darkened); housed in modern blue quarter morocco clamshell box.