LAURA (Presentation Copy, Inscribed In The Year Of Issue)

Caspary, Vera. LAURA. London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, (1944). First U. K. Edition. A Near Fine copy in original publisher's blue cloth (a trifle rubbed at spine tips, front hinge just beginning to start) in a Very Good example of the iconic Bip Pares-designed original priced (8/6) dust jacket. The dust jacket bears honest overall wear, no major faults or repair, and plenty of eye appeal. This is a PRESENTATION COPY inscribed from the author on the half-title to two of her closest friends in the year of publication: "For the Gellatts/ With love/ Vera/ June 8th, 1944." Roland Gelatt (1920-1986) was a music critic and author, best known for his book "The Fabulous Phonograph," an urbane, sophisticated history of recorded sound from the wax cylinder era onwards. He and his wife Lois were lifelong friends of Vera Caspary. [WITH:] An Autographed Note, signed (New York, 1982) containing a long and rather droll inscription from Caspary to the Gelatts proving the longevity (and levity) of their friendship. True first printings of LAURA are exceedingly rare; inscribed or signed copies are nearly impossible to acquire. LAURA's cultural value was massively amplified by the Oscar-winning 1944 Otto Preminger-directed Film Noir of the same name starring Gene Tierney and Clifton Webb, one of the American Film Institute's Top Ten Film Mysteries. This is the only inscribed copy of the first U. K. edition currently known to us.…