The Kiss Of Death.

ELEAZAR LIPSKY

Publication: Penguin Books, 1947, New York

First edition. Author's first book. PBO. Penguin 642. Very good in pictorial wrappers. Basis of the 20th Century-Fox film noir classic of the same name, with Victor Mature, Brian Donlevy, and a newcomer named Richard Widmark. whose debut as a smirking psychopath won him the Oscar award for best supporting actor. Scripted by Ben Hecht and Charles Lederer from Lipsky's Oscar-nominated story treatment, the film had actually been completed before the novel was published. One of the last of about 150 titles published under the Penguin imprint in the U.S. before the line was purchased in 1948 by Victor Weybright (from Ian Ballantine, who went on to establish Bantam Books and then Ballantine Books) and renamed Signet Books (with a few Penguin/Signets in the transition period). An American Crime classic.

Inventory Number: 32715