East River

New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company. Very Good+ in Very Good+ dj. (c.1935). First Edition. Hardcover. [quite a decent copy, moderately shelfworn and with some smudging and marking to the cloth (mostly on the back cover), but nice enough that's it a bit of a shock to discover (from the rear endpaper) that it was once a lending library book (see notes); jacket is lightly soiled, some wear at edges and corners, neat internal tape-reinforcement at top of spine, all in all very well-preserved and quite attractive]. First novel by this New York-born writer, who went on to a long and successful career as a Hollywood screenwriter. Derived from his personal experience as a "sandhog" working on the construction of the Holland Tunnel, the book was sold to the movies prior to its publication and adapted for the 1935 film "Under Pressure," directed by Raoul Walsh for Fox. Chase himself had a hand in the screenplay, which also had some (uncredited) additional dialogue supplied by Billy Wilder, (It's often stated, erroneously, that Chase's book "Sandhog" was the basis for that film -- apparently by people with a tenuous grasp of chronological principles, since that book, although it does trod the same thematic ground, wasn't published until several years after the release of the film. The confusion no doubt arises from the fact that "East River" was itself actually entitled "Sand Hog" prior to its publication, although by the time it was serialized in Argosy in October/November 1934 it already bore its final title. Interestingly, the Argosy version was presented as having been co-authored by Chase and Edward Doherty. No doubt there's a story there; Doherty, an established journalist and newspaperman, occasionally served as a ghostwriter for.) .