The Butterfly
Price: $80.00
Hard Cover. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1947. First Edition. Fine / Dust Jacket Included.
First edition, first printing. Publisher's tan cloth, stamped in green; in its original green pictorial jacket designed by Sol Immerman, with grass illustration to front panel and spine, lettered in white and yellow. Fine book, with just a small black dot to front flyleaf; near fine unclipped dust jacket, with light wear to foot of spine, light edgewear including a moderately sized closed tear to bottom edge of front panel, a small mark to rear panel that obscures a couple of words in the blurb, and light age-soiling to rear panel. Overall, a bright, fresh copy. In The Butterfly, West Virginian farmer Jess Tyler lives alone, his wife having abandoned him years earlier for a musician. One day, a young woman appears at Jess' home and introduces herself as his estranged daughter, Kady. What follows is a twisted tale of jealousy and lust. In his Preface, Cain explains how the novel grew out of his fascination with the mine wars and the 'big bleak ugliness' of the Big Sandy region in the South. One of the great writers of hard-boiled fiction, James M. Cain penned classics like The Postman Always Rings Twice (1931), Double Indemnity (1936), and Mildred Pierce (1941). Item #JMC008
