Wives and Lovers

New York: Random House, 1954. First Edition. Signed presentation copy inscribed by the author Margaret Millar to her sister, Dorothy (nicknamed ‘Doagie’), Dorothy’s husband Clarence, and their daughter Jane. Inscribed: “For Doagie, Jane & Clarence, With all my love, Margaret Millar, Santa Barbara.” Very good bright copy with a trace of edge wear in a worn dust jacket with some fading to the spine, a bit of dampstaining, and some chips and tears. Margaret Millar (1915 - 1994) was the wife of fellow detective fiction writer Kenneth Millar / Ross Macdonald. In 1956 she won the Edgar Allan Poe Award, Best Novel for ‘Beast in View’ and in 1983 she was awarded the Grand Master Award by the Mystery Writers of America in recognition of her lifetime achievements. H.R.F. Keating included Millar's ‘Beast In View’ in his collection ‘Crime & Mystery. The 100 Best Books,’ with the following critical praise: "Margaret Millar is surely one of late twentieth-century crime fiction's best writers, in the sense that the actual writing in her books, the prose, is of superb quality. On almost every page of this one there is some description, whether of a physical thing or a mental state, that sends a sharp ray of extra meaning into the reader's mind." She is also the author of such noted works as ‘The Devil Loves Me,’ ‘Fire Will Freeze,’ ‘The Invisible Worm,’ ‘How Like an Angel,’ ‘Do Evil in Return,’ etc.