The Mask of Fu Manchu
Author: Sax Rohmer [PSEUD Arthur Henry Sarsfield Ward (1883-1959)] from the library of Larry McMurtry with signed letter from the author
Year: 1932
Publisher: Published for the Crime Club by Doubleday, Doran and Company Inc
Place: Garden City
Description:
x-330 pages with frontispiece and illustrations by John Richard Flanagan. Octavo (8 1/4" x 5 1/4") bound in original publisher's yellow cloth with black lettering to spine and cover in original pictorial jacket. From the library of Larry McMurtry. with signed letter from the author. First American edition..
Small letter to I W Chip of Coventry signed Sax Rohmer with envelope.
After discovering the tomb of El Mokanna - the Veiled Prophet - and retrieving the precious relics buried there, the eminent archaeologist Sir Lionel Barton blows up the tomb. The heretic sect faithful to Mokanna interpret the fireball as their prophet's second coming, and a violent uprising begins.
Meanwhile, the insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu senses an opportunity to use the powerful relics for his own evil ends. The action stretches from Persia to Cairo, then back to London, including an extraordinary confrontation inside of the Great Pyramid. Along the way his opponents face Ogboni killers, mind-control drugs, dervishes, and a "ghost mosque."
The Mask of Fu Manchu was an American pre-Code adventure film directed by Charles Brabin. Written by Irene Kuhn, Edgar Allan Woolf and John Willard, it is based on the 1932 novel of the same name by Sax Rohmer (the sixth in the series). Starring Boris Karloff as Fu Manchu, and featuring Myrna Loy as his depraved daughter. Lewis Stone plays his nemesis. Dr. Petrie is absent from this film.
From the library of Larry Jeff McMurtry (1936-2021) with his book plate to front pastedown, was an American novelist, essayist, bookseller and screenwriter whose work was predominantly set in either the Old West or contemporary Texas. His novels included Horseman, Pass By (1962), The Last Picture Show (1966), and Terms of Endearment (1975), which were adapted into films. Films adapted from McMurtry's works earned 34 Oscar nominations (13 wins).
While at Stanford, McMurtry became a rare-book scout. During his years in Houston, he managed a book store called the Bookman. In 1969, he moved to the Washington, D.C., area. In 1970 with two partners, he started a bookshop in Georgetown, which he named Booked Up. In 1988, he opened another Booked Up in Archer City. It became one of the largest antiquarian bookstores in the United States, carrying between 400,000 and 450,000 titles. Citing economic pressures from Internet bookselling, McMurtry came close to shutting down the Archer City store in 2005, but chose to keep it open after great public support. He maintained his personal private collection at his home in Archer City.
Condition:
McMurtry's book plate tipped to front pastedown. Corners bumped, some toning to covers, some internal fingering. Jacket some soiling, spine ends and edges chipped, fold over edges with closed tears and small chips else very good in a good jacket.
