[8]+282+[1, blank]+[1, note on type] pages. Small octavo (7 1/2" x 5 1/4") bound in original publisher's light green cloth, spine and front stamped in dark red and green, dark green broken key ornament at front board, dark green publisher's stamp at rear; top edge of text block stained purplish-red; original pictorial, first issue dust jacket with description of the book printed on front flap. First edition.The Glass Key is a novel by American writer Dashiell Hammett. It was first published as a serial in Black Mask magazine in 1930, then was collected in 1931 (in London; the American edition followed 3 months later). It tells the story of a gambler and racketeer, Ned Beaumont, whose devotion to Paul Madvig, a crooked political boss, leads him to investigate the murder of a local senator's son as a potential gang war brews. Hammett dedicated the novel to his onetime lover Nell Martin. There have been two US film adaptations (1935 and 1942) of the novel. A radio adaptation starring…