W. R. Burnett was one of the great innovators of American popular fiction, a writer whose sharp realism and unsentimental storytelling reshaped both crime and social novels of the twentieth century. The Classic Collection of W. R. Burnett. Illustrated brings together three of his most powerful works—Little Caesar, Iron Man, and The Silver Eagle—in a single volume, enhanced with evocative illustrations that highlight their atmosphere of grit, ambition, and moral conflict. Little Caesar (1929) is Burnett's most famous novel, a groundbreaking portrait of Cesare "Rico" Bandello, the small-time gangster whose ruthless rise and inevitable fall established the template for the modern gangster story. With its clipped dialogue and relentless pace, the novel strips away any glamour from the underworld, exposing the emptiness behind ambition built on violence. In Iron Man (1930), Burnett turned his focus from organized crime to the brutal world of boxing. The story of Coke Mason, a working-class fighter navigating the corrupt pressures of the sport, is both an electrifying sports novel and a searing study of loyalty, betrayal, and the cost of success. Through Mason's struggles, Burnett captured the tension between personal integrity and the lure of fame. The Silver Eagle (1931) reveals another side of Burnett's talent—a drama of social ambition and duplicity. Frank Harworth, a man trying to climb into high society after sudden fortune, becomes entangled in a web of appearances, hidden motives, and moral compromise. It is a novel about the fragile boundaries between respectability and corruption. Together, these three novels showcase Burnett's extraordinary range: crime, sport, and social drama, all told with the same sharp eye for character and the same uncompromising honesty. The Classic Collection of W. R. Burnett. Illustrated is an essential volume for lovers of noir, hardboiled fiction, and American literary history. Contents: Little Caesar Iron Man The Silver Eagle