The Female Of The Species: The Great Women Detectives And Criminals Queen, Ellery [Editor]; Agatha Christie; Fergus Hume; John Kendrick Bangs Mystery & Crime Fiction,Signed

First edition, first printing. Signed by Ellery Queen and inscribed, "To Dick -- to whom I find refreshment -- Best, Ellery Queen per M.B.L." [Manfred Bennington Lee]. xii, [3], 422pp. Bound in publisher's dark brown cloth stamped in yellow; lacking the dust jacket. Very Good with moderate edge wear, scuffing to surface with cup ring to center front board. Top edge of textblock dampstained with trivial tidal mark. Front gutter tender with light tanning to contents. An important anthology as well as an early one that includes stories by Mary Roberts Rinehart, Starrett, H.H. Holmes [Anthony Boucher], Agatha Christie, Baroness Orczy, Fergus Hume, John Kendrick Bangs, Edgar Wallace, et al. The title is a spin on Rudyard Kipling's "The Female of the Species" (1911) where the poet writes that females are far more dangerous than males.