Big Story Confidence Man by Maurer David (52 results)

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. No Jacket. Missing dust jacket; May have limited writing in cover pages. Pages are unmarked. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less 0.96.

Condition: As New. Used book that is in almost brand-new condition.

Condition: Good. Pocket Books New York 1949.

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. 1st Edition. 1st printing (1999). 280pp. VG+/VG+ copy, now preserved in archival jacket protector.

Mass Market Paperback. Condition: Good. 1st Printing: August 1949. 316 pp. Solidly bound copy with moderate use. Damage to top and bottom of spine. Light foxing on page edges.

2nd prtg. #618.PB. Unabridged. 316pp. VG. A few leaves toward front reglued wi/very small offsets in bright; unread cv. Leaves light-mod. edge browned. Nonfiction. No marks; square; tight; clean.

Paperback. Condition: Fair. Reprint. xiv, 316 [6 ads] pages. "Would you be able to recognize this nimble-witted criminal? How does he operate? Who are his victims? How does he evade the law? What is his status in the underworld? how does he live? You will find the answers to these questions - based solidly upon fact - in this book." - back cover. 3" x 2.5" piece missing from upper corner of front cover. Unmarked with above-average wear. Binding tender but intact. A worthy vintage reading copy of this fascinating work.

Cloth. Condition: Very Good. No Jacket. First Edition. First Edition stated, Very Good, small tear to cloth at head of spine, spine a bit dulled. 300 pages with a slang glossary pp. 275-296. Basis for the 1970 Academy Award winning film "The Sting" starring Robert Redford and Paul Newman, which won 7 Oscars in all. Size: 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. Book.

First edition. First edition. Author's first published book. Some light offsetting to the front and rear free fly leaf, lightly foxed on page top edges, else cloth and text are clean and fresh, and in near fine condition. Dust jacket is bright and unfaded with some minor restoration to the spine ends. There is nothing about the confidence man to suggest the criminal, if there were, he would never succeed as a confidence man. Armed only with a superb knowledge of human psychology and a set of keen wits, he plays upon the cupidity of mankind. This is one of the important source books for the 1973 Oscar-winning film "The Sting." The rear cover panel contains jargon from the Con Man's Lingo.

First edition of this classic study of con men, basis for the film The Sting directed by George Roy Hill starring Paul NewmanÂandÂRobert Redford and Robert Shaw. Octavo, original cloth. Review copy, with the letter and notes from the publisher, near fine in a near fine dust jacket with the rare wrap around band. âOf all the grifters, the confidence man is the aristocrat,â wrote David Maurer, a proposition he definitely proved in The Big Con, one of the most colorful, well-researched, and entertaining works of criminology ever written. A professor of linguistics who specialized in underworld argot, Maurer won the trust of hundreds of swindlers, who let him in on not simply their language but their folkways and the astonishingly complex and elaborate schemes whereby unsuspecting marks, hooked by their own greed and dishonesty, were âtaken offâ â" i.e. cheatedâ"of thousands upon thousands of dollars. The Big Con is a treasure trove of American lingo (the write, the rag, the payoff, ropers, shills, the cold poke, the convincer, to put on the send) and indelible characters (Yellow Kid Weil, Barney the Patch, the Seldom Seen Kid, Limehouse Chappie, Larry the Lug). It served as the source for the Oscar-winning film The Sting.

Hardcover. First Edition. First edition, first printing. 300 pp. Bound in publisher's red cloth with gilt lettering. Fine with a little offsetting to endpapers, contents clean and bright, in an excellent unclipped dust jacket with hardly any sunning, light wear at tips and a little rubbing along spine folds, very Near Fine. An uncommonly attractive, sharp copy of a work often found in rough shape with sunned jackets. The well-written, engaging sociology work about con artists-- emphasis on the "artist"-- that was the basis for the multiple award-winning film The Sting featuring Paul Newman and Robert Redford.