The Haunting Hand

W. ADOLPHE ROBERTS

Publication: The Macaulay Company, 1926, New York

First edition. Author's first of three mystery novels. Fine, bright, tight copy in price-clipped, bright dust jacket with minor wear to the spine ends and corners and with a small bruise at the upper third of the spine panel. Frontispiece and dust jacket art by George W. Gage. The author's first novel, and the first of three mystery novels he would go on to write between 1926 and 1935. Roberts, a native Jamaican, is described as an author of mixed racial heritage, whose Haunting Hand is generally credited as being the first mystery novel written by an African American. More of a weird menace novel with many elements of the traditional mystery novel, THE HAUNTING HAND is set in Astoria, New York involving players within the silent film industry. A rarity in dust jacket, particularly such a striking example. OCLC notes fewer than 20 holdings in U. S. institutions. Roberts (1886-1962) was a prolific writer, poet, novelist, journalist, and historian. Among his major accomplishments, in addition to the three mystery novels, was laying the groundwork for Jamaican independence

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