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Greene, Graham.
The Third Man and the Fallen Idol.
Publisher: William Heinemann Ltd, London;
Date of Publication: 1950
Stock Code: 15175
First edition. Duodecimo, pp., [6], 188, plus terminal publisher’s blank. Publisher’s original black cloth, titled in silver to spine; white end-papers; in the original black-and-white photographic film tie-in dust-wrapper. A very good book in a very good dust-jacket. Silver titles bright; binding strong and corners sharp, boards a trifle mottled. Endpapers rather toned. Neat contemporary gift inscription in ink to corner of front free end-paper; small bookseller’s label to front paste-down. Dust-jacket price-clipped and lightly foxed to verso, with a little wear and nicks, creases, and tears to edges. Small section of dust-jacket spine panel near-detached but holding. The first appearance in print of The Third Man. As Greene states in the preface the story was ‘never intended for publication’ and was intended as a screenplay rather than a novel. Greene’s screen treatment, written with director Carol Reed, was the basis for the 1949 film starring Orson Welles which won first prize at Cannes. The Fallen Idol was originally published as a short story ‘The Basement Room’ in 1935. The story had been adapted by Reed for the Oscar-nominated of the same title film in 1948, and relocated to Vienna. £200.00