A Penknife in my Heart.

First US edition. 8vo., original grey cloth, red spine, dust jacket. New York, Harper & Brothers.

Inscribed by the author: "S.F. Ireland, with best wishes from C. Day Lewis. Nicholas Blake". Day Lewis wrote a number of detective stories under the pseudonym Nicholas Blake. The novel came under attack from critics who claimed he had lifted the plot from Patricia Highsmith's Strangers on a Train, though Day Lewis replied that "to my consternation", he had not even read Highsmith's book. The blue tissue "seal" which kept the reader from finishing the book (the printed challenge reads, "If you can stop reading here - and not find out how the book ends - return the book, with the seal unbroken, to your bookseller, and he will refund your money") has been broken; only the front half remains. An excellent copy, one small piercing to the spine, dust jacket browned at spine.

Stock Code: 131948