The Raw Edge

New York: Random House, 1958. First Edition. Octavo. Cloth-backed boards; dustjacket; 384pp. Inscribed to Ben Shahn and family on front endpaper: "On the edge of the Assinpunk [sic] 1958 - to a fellow author; Bernarda; and kids / Ben Appel." Endpapers slightly browned, light wear to board edges; Very Good or better in the original pictorial dustwrapper, lightly rubbed and edgeworn, Very Good. A hard-boiled novel of the New York waterfront, in the vein of Appel's 1930s proletarian crime novels such as Brain Guy and Powerhouse. Like the Shahns, Appel and his wife were charter residents of Jersey Homesteads (later Roosevelt), New Jersey and the four remained lifelong friends. Assunpink Creek is a small tributary of the Delaware River.