Okay, technically this is not a cover, it is a jacket. This, along with a bag of books that have been in the garage for years, used to be up at the cabin. It has a copyright of 1951, first edition, published by Little Brown. I have no idea if it's good or not. I've never read it. It sat on the bookshelf at the cabin for around 30 years. A woman whose husband was the caretaker in the development gave my family a bag of books. I'd forgotten I even had these. Now I must decide whether to toss them or keep them.
Click on image to see it larger.
I'm not finding much about the author, James. M. Fox, other than what follows.
There is a book which consists of letters James M. Fox and Raymond Chandler wrote to each other. According to a site where the book is for sale:
Fascinating correspondence spanning the years 1950 to 1956 between the two genre authors, who met at a party at mystery collector Ned Guymon's house. Fox eventually dedicates his book DARK CRUSADE to Chandler. Chandler, as ever, writes a superb letter. (SOURCE: Mystery and Imagination Online Bookstore)
And then I'm finding this brief biographical information:
James M. Fox: pseudonym of Johannes Matthijs Willem Knipscheer: California-resident naturalized American-citzen author born in The Hague, Netheralnds; attorney (commercial law); legal advisor to Minister of War of Netherlands Government-in-Exile:* 21 mystery/detective novels with series characters Steve Harvester, Sergeant Jerry Long and Sergeant Chuck Conley, John Marshall (Johnny and Suzy Marshall) (SOURCE: Magic Dragon)
So my question is, would you buy this book based on this jacket? Would you think "Geez, this is so cheesy that:
- I have to have it because it's soooooooo cheesy
- This is tooooo cheesy. I don't read books like this
- What do I know? The babe is wearing a table cloth and I collect table cloths.
What's the book about? Here's the front flap:
And here are the first two paragraphs:
The hypodermic needle punctured my gum at a spot that felt like several inches away from the lower right molar the dentist had been poking at with corkscrew, chisel, claw hammer and air hose full of stale cold iodoform. I grunted, more in disgust than in pain, and determinedly focused my eyes through the window on a patch of dust-blue afternoon sky in the ragged pattern of November rain clouds, torn to piece by a blustery southwester that came rocketing across from the Pacific through the distant yellow canyons of the Baldwin Hills.Dr. Elmer B. Wittles chuckled cozily. "On target," he assured me. "Yes sir, Marshall, we have got that baby bracketed and roadblocked off as nice as pie. This isn't gonna hurt one teensy little bit." He stepped away from me, and checked the empty syringe with a glance against the lights, and favored me with a moonfaced, blandly professional smile.
As far as the jacket designer, Lew Keller...all I'm coming up with are sites about 1950s animation. I have no idea if the artist that did this design also worked on Mister Magoo. Maybe someday someone will find this post and fill-in the details for me.
Now, to keep or not to keep, that is the question.
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