CHARLIE CHAN

1928 First Edition; Quill & Brush Booksellers, priced at $750.00.

The Chinese-American detective who works for the Honolulu Police Department was the creation of novelist and playwright Earl Derr Biggers in the 1925 novel The House Without a Key. The novel is progressive for its time, in that, though the Bostonians (living in Hawaii) display prejudice toward a Chinese detective, the locals, aware of his reputation, confer upon him much respect. The inspiration for Chan was a real Chinese-Hawaiian police officer in Honolulu named Chang Apana. Born Ah Ping Chang in 1871, Apana used a horsewhip instead of a gun, was fluent in several languages, and famous for a scrupulous method of detection.