Legend of a Lady: The Story of Rita Martin

New York: Coward-McCann, Inc.. Very Good+ in Very Good+ dj. (c.1949). First Edition. Hardcover. [modest wear to extremities, very light foxing to edges of text block; jacket moderately edgeworn]. Novel about an ambitious businesswoman, the "pretty, fragile Rita Martin, who beneath her charming exterior is hell-bent for personal success and who tramples with small, well-shod feet on all who stand in her way." The story is set against the background of "a high-powered advertising agency specializing in soap operas," a milieu the author knew as well as anybody: he wrote thousands of scripts for radio serials and soap operas from the early 1930s through the mid-1950s, while also finding time somehow to rack up several dozen screenwriting credits as well. He was often credited for his movie work under the name Robert D. Andrews -- possibly a calculated effort to confuse future bibliographers (if so, it worked), but maybe just as a way to keep better track of his multi-media accomplishments. The New York Times reviewer called it a "weird novel," commenting that the author "shows no mercy as he lays his victims on the operating table and exposes their stony hearts." .