Heinz, W. C.. THE PROFESSIONAL. (signed). Harper & Brothers, Publishers, New York, 1958.

Price: US$250.00 + shipping

Condition: Very Good

Description: 1st edition, 1958. A Very Good copy in a Good- dust jacket. 8vo., 338 pp., bound in publishers black and grey cloth with illustrated dust jacket, $3.95. INSCRIBED by author inside front cover, dated 1-28-58. Jacket spine is faded; edges, tips and top/base of spine are chipped. End papers are toned; text edges dusty. Text is unmarked, binding is solid. Dust jacket now protected in mylar sleeve. Heinz published his first book in 1958, a novel called The Professional, the story of a young fighter pursuing the middleweight boxing championship. Ernest Hemingway called the book "the only good novel I've ever read about a fighter, and an excellent novel in its own right."

Seller: Frey Fine Books, Rougemont, NC, U.S.A.

W. C. Heinz. The Professional. Harper & Brothers, New York, 1958.

Price: US$560.00 + shipping

Condition: Very Good

Description: Gold and red letters on black cloth. Light apple-green boards. 338 pages. Publisher's M-G is on the copyright page. The top and bottom edges of the spine strip are slightly rubbed and softened. Some of the bottom edges of the boards are slightly rubbed. Endpapers and pages are lightly tanned. The front endpaper has a 3/8 in. stain, near the spine; the facing half-title page has ghosting of the stain. DJ: the illustration spans the front and spine panels; the ends of the spine panel and the ends of the front flap's fold are frayed with chips and rubbed spots; the back panel has light shelf wear rubbing, 2 light crease lines, and one word is partly faded; the reverse side has darkened, especially on the spine strip. Photos e-mailed upon request. International shipping will require extra cost.

Seller: Books from the Past, Memphis, TN, U.S.A.

HEINZ, W.C.. The Professional. Harper and Brothers, New York, 1958.

Price: US$1200.00 + shipping

Condition: Near Fine

Description: First edition. Rear endpapers offset from clippings, else near fine in an attractive, very good dustwrapper with two small chips at the corners of the crown, and a large but faint dampstain on the rear panel. This copy Inscribed by Heinz: "To Jim Kahn - connoisseur-raconteur-colleague-friend. Sincerely, Bill Heinz. 12-30-57. Stamford, Conn." A nice copy of this well-regarded novel about the manager of a prize fighter, a classic of the genre and difficult to obtain, especially signed. Ernest Hemingway said, "'The Professional' is the only good novel I've ever read about a fighter and an excellent novel in its own right."

Seller: Between the Covers-Rare Books, Inc. ABAA, Gloucester City, NJ, U.S.A.

HEINZ, W. C.. The Professional.. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1958, 1958.

Price: US$1228.94 + shipping

Description: First edition, first printing, presentation copy from the author, inscribed on the front free endpaper, "To Ruth & Alan Hilditch our good friends who have heard me talk a lot of this. Bill Heinz Xmas 1957". Alan Hilditch (1900-1971), a certified public accountant, was a graduate of Yale and "a member of the St. Elmo Society, the Yale Club and the Innis Arden Golf Club" (New York Times obituary, 30 October 1971, retrieved 19.06.19). He was a keen sportsman, involved with the swimming and track teams at the exclusive Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, before going up to Yale. This is Heinz's first novel, the story of young boxer Eddie Brown's quest for the middleweight championship of the world. Subsequent editions bear a foreword by Elmore Leonard. Wilfred Charles Heinz (1915-2008) was an American sportswriter, war correspondent, journalist, and author, "the last surviving representative of a flowering of sports journalism that transpired in the pages of New York City's daily newspapers in the 1940s and '50s. Heinz and Red Smith, [who] had red their Hemingway, brought irony and pity to their accounts of home-run hitters and club fighters; they could make an 800-word column into a set piece that brought tears to your eyes. Red Smith reported that Hemingway called [the present work] the only good book he'd ever read about a fighter" (Yagoda). Ben Yagoda, "The Art of Fact: A Historical Anthology of Literary Journalism," 1998, p. 115; "The New York Times," October 30, 1971, p.34. Octavo. Publisher's black and green cloth, titles in gilt and red on spine, untrimmed. With the colour pictorial dust jacket. Running man motif repeated from dust jacket to title page in simple line drawing. A little cocked, spine softened, light spotting to boards and pastedowns edges. A very good copy, in the bright dust jacket, with slight darkening to edges, and some wear and creasing to extremities.

Seller: Peter Harrington. ABA/ ILAB., London, United Kingdom