Gem of the Prairie: An Informal History of the Chicago Underworld.

Advance proof copy. The contents of the proof match the published version, as far as we can determine; the blurb on the front cover is the text which features on the published jacket. Asbury was the leading profiler of America's criminal world; this work on Chicago, tracing crime and vice in the city from 1833 to reign of Al Capone, followed his The French Quarter on New Orleans, The Barbary Coast on San Francisco, and The Gangs of New York (loosely the basis for the Martin Scorsese film). "By 1850, [Chicago] was known throughout the country as the wickedest city in the United States. It has never relinquished that distinction nor lost its leadership in virtually every form of organized vice and depravity. In this informal history of Chicago's underworld, against a background of political corruption second to none, Herbert Asbury traces the lurid story of prostitution and gambling, of footpads and hoodlums, of murder and bootlegging, of racketeering and the golden age of crime in the time of Al Capone" (front cover text). Octavo. Original grey wrappers, printed in purple, "sample copy" printed on top edge. Creasing and rubbing to spine, wrappers and contents a little toned: a very good copy.…