ASBURY, Herbert.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Gem of the Prairie: An Informal History of the Chicago Underworld. First edition, presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, "To Henry La Cossitt, with highest regards Herbert Asbury. N.Y. June 15-'44". La Cossitt (1899-1962) was a journalist, scriptwriter for Universal Pictures, and editor of Collier's magazine from 1944 to 1946 - Asbury was associate editor at Collier's from 1942 to 1948.Asbury was the leading profiler of America's criminal world. This work on Chicago, tracing crime and vice in the city from 1833 to reign of Al Capone, followed his The French Quarter on New Orleans, The Barbary Coast on San Francisco, and The Gangs of New York (loosely the basis for the Martin Scorsese film). "By 1850, [Chicago] was known throughout the country as the wickedest city in the United States. It has never relinquished that distinction nor lost its leadership in virtually every form of organized vice and depravity. In this informal history of Chicago's underworld, against a background of political corruption second to none, Herbert Asbury traces the lurid story of prostitution and gambling, of footpads and hoodlums, of murder and bootlegging, of racketeering and the golden age of crime in the time of Al Capone" (jacket).

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