HILDEGARDE WITHERS: UNCOLLECTED RIDDLES **Lost Classics Ser.) by Palmer, Stuart - 2002

Norfolk, VA, U.S.A.: Crippen & Landru, Publishers, 2002. 1st prtg. Trade Paperback edition published simultaneously with the hardcover The fourth volume in the Lost Classic Series. The publisher states that "The first printing of each book will be small perhaps 400-500 copies, divided between clothbound copies in dustjacket, and trade softcover." Eleven stories with a checklist of Hildegarde Withers short stories. Hildegarde Withers, the creation of Stuart Palmer (1905-1968), is the original schoolmarm detective. After she first appeared in The Penguin Pool Murder in 1931, she was so popular that a series of movies starring Edna Mae Oliver and James Gleason followed, and Palmer wrote short stories about Miss Withers for Mystery, a slick-paper magazine sold only in Woolworth's stores between 1933 and 1935. These stories, filled with the sights and sounds of New York during the depression ? museums, flea-circuses, burlesque shows, Latin gigolos ? are genuine forgotten classics. The introduction is by Stuart Palmer's widow, Jennifer Venola.. First Edition. Trade Paperback. Fine. Illus. by Cross, Gail. Book.