Shaft

Shaft is Ernest Tidyman's hard-boiled crime novel about John Shaft, a tough Black private detective working the streets of New York City. In the opening setup, a Harlem crime boss hires Shaft to find his kidnapped daughter, and the case pulls the detective between very different corners of the city's underworld.

Tidyman was an American novelist and screenwriter. The book introduced a character who went on to appear in further novels and was adapted for the screen more than once, including a remake directed by John Singleton and starring Samuel L. Jackson.

This edition was a limited printing for readers of Sight and Sound, issued to coincide with the release of Singleton's film.