A lovely copy of a book considered to be one of the first , if not the first, “hardboiled” murder mystery. This is seemingly a first issue, as the copy sold at Swann Auctions 12 May 2011 for $8,400, and a subject of an article in the November 2009 issue of Firsts Magazine (pages 12-14) also had green cloth. The Otto Penzler Copy (his sale, Heritage Auctions New York, 6 March 2019, lot 45028, sold for $10,625) also had green cloth. Some claimed first editions on the market have brown cloth.
Daly was the king of the pulp magazines story with his violent, fast-paced thrillers. The Snarl of the Beast introduces private eye Race Williams, the first hardboiled detective and prototype for all that followed him.