The Knife Behind the Curtain
Author: Valentine Williams (1883-1946)
Year: 1930
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company
Place: Boston and New York
Description:
[viii]+295+[1, blank] pages. Small octavo (7 1/2" x 5") bound in original publisher's full orange cloth, front board and spine stamped in black in original pictorial jacket. First edition.
Thirteen short stories of crime and the British secret service. Williams was too old for active service at the outbreak of World War II. He joined the Secret Intelligence Service, vetting potential new recruits such as Malcolm Muggeridge and Kim Philby. He was transferred to the British Embassy in Washington in 1941 but soon after left for Hollywood, where he worked as a scriptwriter for Twentieth-Century Fox and Metro-Goldwyn Mayer.
Condition:
Cloth spine lightly sunned and soiled, some edge wear, soiling to binding. Jacket light edge wear else very good to fine in a near fine jacket.