Beschreibung:

"KISS ME, DEADLY." 1. Typed Manuscript with Annotations, 242 pp, 4to, n.p., June 18, 1952, being a double-spaced draft of Kiss Me, Deadly, with additional annotations by Dutton editors, stamped “Copy for the Press” to title-page, leaves moderately soiled, some toning, preliminary leaves dog-eared. 2. Typed Carbon on onionskin paper, 242 pp, 4to, n.p., [1952], carbon of above copy with penciled emendations by Dutton editor, leaves creased, soiled, with moderate water damage and creasing to corners. The sixth and perhaps the most famous Spillane novel, the last one he wrote before converting to the Jehovah’s Witnesses and taking a ten-year sabbatical from writing. The novel opens with Hammer speeding along a dark highway heading back to New York, when a tall blonde jumps in front of the car. The novel opens, “All I saw was the dame standing there in the glare of the headlights waving her arms like a huge puppet and the curse I spit out filled the car and my own ears. I wrenched the wheel over, felt the rear end start to slide, brought it out with a splash of power and almost ran up the side of the cliff as the car fishtailed. The brakes bit in, gouging a furrow in the shoulder, then jumped to the pavement and held. / Somehow I had managed a sweeping curve around the babe. For a few seconds she had been living on stolen time because instead of getting out of the way she had tried to stay in the beam of the headlights … The stink of burned rubber and brake lining hung in the air like smoke and I was thinking of every damn thing I ever wanted to say to a hairbrained woman so I could have it ready when I got my hands on her.” The woman jumps into Mike’s car, they speed off, and soon another car drives them off the road. Mike survives the accident, but the woman doesn’t. It turns out she was an FBI mob informant, and Mike soon lands in hot water with both the feds and the mafia. The end of this book is especially shocking, even for Spillane. See illustration.