Woolrich, Cornell. THE BRIDE WORE BLACK - FIRST "BLACK" BOOK, INSCRIBED BY WOOLRICH TO HIS AUNT. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1940.

Price: US$12500.00 + shipping

Condition: Fine

Description: First Edition bound in gilt-stamped full black leather, with raised bands and gilt page edges. A fine association copy, warmly inscribed by Woolrich to his Aunt Lil on the front free endpaper: "To my darling / aunt Lil / with all my love, / Cornell / New Year's, 1941." The recipient was Woolrich s mother's sister, Lillian Tarler MacBain, who lived with Woolrich in New York City during the 1920s. Woolrich was one of two witnesses at the wedding of her son, Cornell's cousin Archie (who was 12 years his junior), to a waitress named Dorothy Lynch in 1938. Woolrich's first mystery, and first "black" book, which was the basis for the 1968 film La mariée était en noir directed by François Truffaut and starring Jeanne Moreau. Haycraft Queen Cornerstone. A fine copy.

Seller: Clouds Hill Books, Montclair, NJ, U.S.A.