Invitation To An Inquest [Presentation Copy, Inscribed to Miriam Moskowitz]

Garden City: Doubleday, 1965. First Edition. First printing. Inscribed on front endpaper: "To Miriam Moskowitz / who lived a part of this story - with deep appreciation and best wishes," signed by both authors, undated but apparently contemporary with publication. Octavo (24cm). Blue cloth hardcover; dustjacket; 467pp. Mild rubbing to bottom board edges, else a tight, clean, Near Fine copy. In the original dustwrapper, unclipped (priced $5.95 on front flap), slightly edgeworn with creasing at head and heel of spine panel; Very Good.

A great association copy of the Schneirs' exhaustive investigation of the Rosenberg-Sobell spy case of 1950-53, (truncated) in which the authors conclude that the couple were framed by an overzealous prosecution (in a much later book, Walter Schneir was compelled by the release of secret documents to state unequivocally that Julius Rosenberg had been a spy). This copy inscribed to Miriam Moskowitz, a New Jersey secretary who in 1950 was sentenced to two years in prison for her role in the Abraham Brothman nuclear spy case – a trial that was considered an important lead-up to the Rosenberg trial a year later. Moskowitz served her entire sentence at the federal prison camp at Alderson, West Virginia; she later wrote her own account of her case (Phantom Spies, Phantom Justice, 2010). (Inventory #: 85211)