Caleb, Who is Hotter Than a $2 Pistol
New York: David McKay Company, Inc., 1975. First edition, first printing. Publisher's red cloth, in Wendell Minor dust jacket ($6.95). 232pp. Very faint rubbing extremities, overall fine in fine, very lightly rubbed dust jacket, in mylar cover. Item #229605
“Steven Ashley” — long an enigmatic name in the crime shelves — was in fact Donald McCaig, later acclaimed for his award-winning Civil War and Southern historical novels, including his authorized continuation of Gone With the Wind. This debut, unlike anything else he would write, is a raw, fast-moving portrait of New York and East Coast nightlife’s shadowed corners, laced with gallows humor and sudden menace. Drawing on the era’s unsettled social climate, McCaig delivers a pace “as fast as a speed-freak looking for a connection” (jacket copy), but with a sly wit just ahead of the danger. Scarce in the market, Caleb offers collectors a rare glimpse of McCaig’s earliest, unguarded voice — before history claimed his pen.
Price: $350.00