First edition thus “Halfway House” Ellery Queen mystery Vintage 1944 Pocket Book paperback

This is a "very good-" antique cloth wrapped hardcover with black-and-white illustrated glossy frontispiece and 3 more plates internally, published by Grosset & Dunlap circa 1924. Solid binding, original owner name (Florence M. Tibbits) neatly quilled onto front free end-paper, otherwise no writing or marks aside, hinges and gutters crisp, intact. Rear cover spine joint has loss in the depression, see images. No torn, folded or loose pages. Board corners are crisp, back upper has a few tiny chips in the cloth; cloth on tips barely worn, if at all. Spine head and tail bumped, but cloth is not frayed. All black and white illustrations are present. Text block edges mildly tanned, no spotting, block closes flat and square. Cloth wrapping color fairly uniform front, back and spine, no significant tanning or sunning. Matching original dust wrapper has large losses at the spine head and across to upper back cover and tail. Wear at the flap folds and corners. Relatively uniform color all around, outer surfaces tanned, inner flap folds brighter. Not pristine, but front cover is still quite nice with lush, colorful, dramatic illustrations. Now protected in a removable archival sleeve. See accompanying images for full condition details. Wikipedia says this about the film the images are from: The Iron Horse is a 1924 American silent Western film directed by John Ford and produced by Fox Film. It was a major milestone in Ford's career, and his lifelong connection to the western film genre. It was Ford's first major film, in part because the hastily planned production went over budget, as Fox was making a hurried response to the success of another studio's western. In 2011, this film was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. Will make for a great gift for that special collector or perhaps an upgrade for your collection! Will ship promptly, carefully packaged.