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Lot 166
Sale 6331 - The Collected Library: Summer Reading
Lots Open
Jul 31, 2025
Lots Close
Aug 13, 2025
Timed Online / Chicago
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Estimate
$400 -
600
Price Realized
$650
Sold prices are inclusive of Buyer’s Premium
Lot Description
FREEMAN, Richard Austin (1862-1943). The Red Thumb Mark. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1924.
8vo. (Indecipherable ownership signature in color pencil on front free endpaper.) Original black cloth lettered in red, red thumbprint stamped on upper cover (spine lightly sunned).
FIRST EDITION of the first appearance of forensic detective Dr. Thorndyke, described by Otto Penzler as "the greatest medico-legal detective of all time." The Red Thumb Mark is generally accepted to be the first fictional work to use the new science of identification by fingerprints. Randall, The First 100 Years of Detective Fiction, 40; Queen's Quorum, 45; A Haycraft-Queen Cornerstone.
Selections from the Library of Dr. John Talbot Gernon
This lot is located in Chicago.