The Blackbirder

Author: Dorothy Belle Hughes (1904-1993) inscribed by author

Year: 1943

Publisher: Duell, Sloan and Pearce

Place: New York

Description:

250 pages. Octavo (8" x 5 1/2") bound in original publisher's full textured black boards with spine stamped in orange in original pictorial unclipped ($2.00) dust jacket. Inscribed by the author. First edition.

The Blackbirder is a 1943 WWII-era noir novel by Dorothy B. Hughes, featuring a female protagonist, Julie Guilles, a French refugee in New York who becomes entangled in espionage after a murder on her doorstep. She flees to Santa Fe to find "the Blackbirder," a legendary smuggler who can help her cross into Mexico, all while evading the Gestapo, FBI, and NYPD, using her wits and a smuggled diamond necklace to survive. The book is known for its tense, hardboiled style and its unusual female lead in a genre dominated by men.

Condition:

INSCRIBED BY HUGHES on the front end paper. Some rubbing to binding, recased, bookseller's ink-stamp on front end paper. Jacket spine sunned, some rubbing, edgewear, a few marginal chips and tears to jacket