Put on the Spot

New York: Grosset & Dunlap. Very Good+. (c.1930). First Edition. Hardcover. (no dust jacket) [spine moderately turned, but otherwise only lightly worn, with couple of vertical puckers in the spine cloth and a touch of dust-soiling to the top of the text block; old gift inscription (non-authorial) on front endpaper]]. Could one make a case, I wonder, for Jack Lait (1883-1954) as the "forgotten man" among hard-boiled writers of the 1920s and 1930s? Best-known for his co-authorship with Lee Mortimer of the "Confidential" volumes ("Chicago Confidential," "Washington Confidential," "New York Confidential" and of course "U.S.A. Confidential"), he had a Ben Hecht-ish background as a journalist, playwright and short-story writer, and made several notable contributions to the "gangster lit" genre of his era. He published a couple of books of short stories (with evocative titles like "Beef, Iron and Wine" and "Gus the Bus and Evelyn, the Exquisite Checker") prior to 1920, and in the early talkies era penned the novelizations of the screenplays for THE BROADWAY MELODY, THE BIG HOUSE and BEAST OF THE CITY. He also turned out a number of original novels (including this one) published by Grosset & Dunlap, which have always been more or less overlooked as literary works. "Put on the Spot," a tale about a high-living gangster named Goldie Gorio, has the additional distinction of being the only one of his novels to actually be adapted for the screen -- as BAD COMPANY, by RKO in 1931. Includes a quite extensive 17-page "Underworld Glossary" at the back of the book. .