The Heart of the Matter.

GREENE, Graham (1904-1991).

London: Book Society Ltd. in association with William Heinemann Ltd., 1948. [Adventure novel] FIRST EDITION, first impression, Book Society issue. Octavo (19 x 13cm), pp.297 [1]. Publisher's blue cloth with silver titles to spine, and buff endpapers. Top edge red. With the red typographic dust-jacket priced at 9/6. Edges a toned, faint residue of gummed label to endpaper, jacket with chips and tears, sunned to spine. Greene's classic tale of diamond smuggling and blackmail in a British Colony in West Africa, The Heart of the Matter was enormously popular upon release, selling more than 300,000 copies in the UK alone. The novel won the 1948 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction, and was ranked 40th on the Modern Library's list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century, in 1998. In 2005, the book featured in Time Magazine's 'One Hundred Best English-language Novels, 1923 to Present'. As recently as 2012, Greene's ever-popular novel was shortlisted for the 'Best of the James Tait Black' awards, which are given in three categories: Fiction, Biography and Drama, since 1919. Item #74496

R.A Wobbe; Graham Greene-A Bibliography & Guide to Research [A21]. Steinbrunner and Penzler; Ency.of Mystery & Detection, p176-7. Gilbert, p.62.

Price: £75.00