Mack Williard (1 results)

1st edition. 47, [1 (blank)] pp. Illustrated with 10 b/w half-tone photographic images, including all the key players in the crime & trial. 11-3/8" x 8-1/2" A scarce (in 4 decades of business, we've had this but one other time) first-hand account of life on Death Row, by the first woman ever executed by electrocution. Ruth Brown Synder and her lover, Judd Gray, were convicted, in 1927, of murdering Snyder's husband; after almost a year of appeals, both were put to death at Sing-Sing prison on January 12, 1928. This memoir was written by Snyder during her Death Row residency, using a typewriter given to her by the journalist Jack Lait, who was the only reporter to be granted an interview with Snyder, a close connection demonstrated herein, as Lait also writes the Preface to the work. The crime itself soon mushroomed into a national sensation, as well as assuming cause-celebre status for death-penalty opponents, with Synder being portrayed in the popular media as a victim of her passionate obsession with Judd [NB. While incarcerated, she received 107 proposals for marriage]. Lait, who would later use his Snyder interviews as a springboard to a hugely successful career in celebrity journalism, did much to inflame the public sympathy & interest with the publication of such statements like the following [quoted from the Preface]: "She bristles with courage, she has poise, assurance, no end of intelligence. she loves like fire and she hates like T.N.T. . More power and good luck to her, guilty or not. It would be a waste and a shame to burn up such a woman . for dramatic, poetic purposes, alone, I say --- VIVE LA RUTH!" Despite its tabloid appearance, and obvious 'rush to press' aura, the present work is a substantial first-person narrative, filled with pathos, self-awareness, and flashes of grim humor. This being said, we must acknowledge Lait looms in the background as a possible ghost writer, however, presuming Snyder was indeed the author, we cannot deny Lait's public assessment of her as intelligent, witty, and being possessed of "it". Ironically, this woman's execution led to the creation of one of the most iconic photographs of the 20th Century: her final seconds inelegantly caught on film by Tom Howard, reputedly a Chicago Tribune reporter. Howard clandestinely photographed the moment by use of a miniature camera strapped to his ankle. The next morning, the photograph blazoned across the front pages of the New York Daily News; to this date it is the only photograph of a person being electrocuted in such somber circumstances. Howard's camera now resides in the collections of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. Unsurprisingly, the Snyder & Judd case inspired a number of fictional works, most notably (and literally) James M. Cain's great noir novel "Double Indemnity", which was later adapted to film by Billy Wilder. In many ways, however, Snyder's story served as archetype for the 20th Century's conception of the hard-boiled femme fatale, and Snyder's exploits can be seen influencing such later efforts as "The Postman Always Rings Twice", "Body Heat", and "Chicago". Never re-published, the LoC on-line catalogue shows no copies. Not found in ABPC, nor via AmEx. Institutionally, we find just 4 holdings: 2 via OCLC [Rochester, UC Berkeley, Harvard (bought from us) & U Miami, OH] plus, via that old stalwart reference, the NUC- University of Oregon. A rare ephemeral item from the annals of True Crime, and uber-text from one of pop-culture's most enduring and influential 20th C. narratives. Expected wear, age-toning & 'thumbing' splits to fore-edge. An About VG copy of this ephemeral item. Orange pictorial paper wrappers, printed in white with b/w drawing of an incarcerated Snyder to center & facsimile signature to lower third [back cover duplicates these front cover graphics]. Now housed in a clear archival mylar sleeve.