Murder, Catalogue the Seventh of Rare and Interesting Books Illustrating the Development of the Detective and Mystery Story.

George Bates

Murder, Catalogue the Seventh of Rare and Interesting Books Illustrating the Development of the Detective and Mystery Story.

London:

George Bates

[1934]

The purportedly first rare book catalogue devoted exclusively to detective and mystery fiction. George Bates was a well-known London bookseller. As stated in David A. Randall’s autobiography, Dukedom Large Enough, Scribner’s Rare Books Department didn’t issue their first detective fiction catalogue until 1935. It was largely based on John Carter’s essay, “Detective Fiction,” published in 1934 in New Paths in Book Collecting. Carter worked with Randall at Scribner’s at the time.

From the Collection of Jeffrey Johnson