The Annals of Murder: A Bibliography of Books and Pamphlets on American Murders from Colonial Times to 1900

By Thomas M. McDade. This early compendium of American true crime proves that our cultural obsession with the genre is not recent...and that criminals have not gotten all that much smarter in the last few centuries. This hardcover is a stated first edition, in relatively good fettle for one of these. The jacket, well, not so much — flaking and splits along every edge; the rear flap has been repaired with scotch tape, and there’s some soiling inside the jacket, plus a bit of fading at the spine — but inside it’s quite neat. Some very mild toning, and a few pages look like they WERE dog-eared in the past or handled with damp hands, but no writing, no marks. A legend in the genre and perfectly readable; see pics for more info.