First Edition, First Printing of Mickey Spillane's classic, I, The Jury, the author's first novel and his first to feature private investigator Mike Hammer. "First edition" with no printings stated on copyright page. A nice example.
Written in only nine days, Mickey Spillane's first book launched "the bestselling P.I. series in history... [and] raised the level of toughness to new levels" (Penzler, 45). With Spillane's Mike Hammer, the hard-boiled mystery found a private detective who was "courageous, loyal, patriotic, much more intelligent than critics have generally allowed, but above all else tough. Hammer's career as a private eye and Spillane's as a novelist began together with I, The Jury, the first mystery to exceed 6 million sales in the United States" (Reilly, 133334). "The rough-hewn poetry of Spillane's narrator creates a fantasy city, a New York of myth and dream, populated by the same character types as those found in the work of Daly, Hammett and Chandler... delivered with a unique fever-dream fervor" (Max Allan Collins, Mystery & Suspense Writers, Vol. II).
Condition: Binding tight with moderate slant. Original full-bound cloth boards present about clean and unmarked ,with the exception of two scuff spots the back lower cover. Moderate rubbing to corners with a coulple areas of very small loss and light bends to front bottom and rear top fore-edge corners. Light wear to foot of spine, a bit more moderate to head. Text-blocks lightly age-toned. Internally clean, bright and unmarked but for mild spotting to pastedowns. A nice example.