Raymond Chandler, 1939

The Big Sleep
Raymond Chandler, 1939
CHANDLER, Raymond (1888-1959). The Big Sleep. New York: Knopf, 1939.

First edition of Chandler's first book. Basis for the 1946 film starring Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart, with a screenplay co-authored by William Faulkner. Its title comes from detective Philip Marlowe's musing at the end: "What did it matter where you lay once you are dead? In a dirty dump or in a marble tower on top a high hill? You were dead, your were sleeping the big sleep..." Bruccoli A.1.1.a; Haycraft-Queen Cornerstone.

Octavo. Original cloth (minute wear to cloth, a little darkening at head of spine); pictorial dust jacket (restoration at edges and folds, chipping to spine panel ends repaired just touching lettering); custom box.