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Details
CAIN, JAMES M. The Postman Always Rings Twice. New York, 1934. 8vo, original orange cloth, spine slightly faded, light spotting to edges and first few pages; dust jacket (lightly creased from being folded into book, minor rubbing to rear panel). FIRST EDITION, PRESENTATION COPY WARMLY INSCRIBED TO WALTER LIPPMANN, "To Walter, Without whom this would still be a little pile of paper, with two carbon copies. James M. Cain"
Lippmann was a hero and mentor to Cain, giving him a job at the World on an introduction from H.L. Mencken and a reading of samples from Cain's work. Lippmann had a profound influence on his new human-interest writer, as the inscription suggests, and this cornerstone of the hard-boiled school may never have been published without Lippmann's drive and belief in Cain. It was the famously campaigning Lippmann who persuaded Alfred Knopf to publish Postman after two other firms had rejected the manuscript. Lippmann also negotiated a generous contract from Knopf on Cain's behalf. A very important association. See Steel, alter Lippmann and the American Century, pp. 202-3.
Lippmann was a hero and mentor to Cain, giving him a job at the World on an introduction from H.L. Mencken and a reading of samples from Cain's work. Lippmann had a profound influence on his new human-interest writer, as the inscription suggests, and this cornerstone of the hard-boiled school may never have been published without Lippmann's drive and belief in Cain. It was the famously campaigning Lippmann who persuaded Alfred Knopf to publish Postman after two other firms had rejected the manuscript. Lippmann also negotiated a generous contract from Knopf on Cain's behalf. A very important association. See Steel, alter Lippmann and the American Century, pp. 202-3.