Ed Gorman's Blog, page 169
February 27, 2012
For Lee Marvin fans
From James Wolcott's never less than excellent blog http://www.vanityfair.com/online/wolcott
When Lees Collide
JANUARY 28, 2012
Former U.S. Marine and future Cat Ballou, Lee Marvin recalls his introduction to Method Acting and its founding godfather, whose strictures were seldom countermanded.
"...It's important not to think too much about what you do. Take Strasberg. [Lee Strasberg, director of the Actors Studio and later founder of his own teaching institute.] I went to his joint once, back when I was first hanging out in New York, doing plays. I did a ten-minute scene in his class: the guy who had gangrene in his leg in The Snows of Kilimanjaro. After I did the scene, he starts in with, 'Well, you were going for the pain in your leg, but I didn't see it, so you didn't put it over and thus the scene failed.' I told him that he didn't know anything about gangrene. When it's in the terminal stage, there isn't any pain. What I was going for was that the guy was trying to feel pain, because if he had any pain, it meant he wasn't going to die. But he couldn't feel a damned thing. I know about that shit from the Pacific. Strasberg was furious when I corrected him. He threw me out, so I said 'fuck you' and walked. He's not my kind of guy at all. I didn't dig it when he came in using his acting-school reputation to get the creamy acting jobs that some other old actor who'd paid his dues might have really needed. Nah, you can have him. He's not in my outfit, pal."
When it came to director John Ford, however, Marvin was glad to have him in his outfit, or to be part of Ford's. He describes the scene in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance where a white-aproned Stewart is working in the restaurant kitchen and the steaks and skillets alike are giant-sized. Marvin:
"'Ford,' he says reverentially. "'Fucking Ford. You'll never see skillets and steaks like that in anybody else's picture. He's like Dickens. It's all about bigger than life. That's the what the old guys understood about movies. If it's not bigger than life, put it on television."
--from "Drinks with Liberty Valance: Lee Marvin Shoots from the Hip" in Robert Ward's upcoming journalism collection Renegades (Tyrus Books)
When Lees Collide
JANUARY 28, 2012
Former U.S. Marine and future Cat Ballou, Lee Marvin recalls his introduction to Method Acting and its founding godfather, whose strictures were seldom countermanded.
"...It's important not to think too much about what you do. Take Strasberg. [Lee Strasberg, director of the Actors Studio and later founder of his own teaching institute.] I went to his joint once, back when I was first hanging out in New York, doing plays. I did a ten-minute scene in his class: the guy who had gangrene in his leg in The Snows of Kilimanjaro. After I did the scene, he starts in with, 'Well, you were going for the pain in your leg, but I didn't see it, so you didn't put it over and thus the scene failed.' I told him that he didn't know anything about gangrene. When it's in the terminal stage, there isn't any pain. What I was going for was that the guy was trying to feel pain, because if he had any pain, it meant he wasn't going to die. But he couldn't feel a damned thing. I know about that shit from the Pacific. Strasberg was furious when I corrected him. He threw me out, so I said 'fuck you' and walked. He's not my kind of guy at all. I didn't dig it when he came in using his acting-school reputation to get the creamy acting jobs that some other old actor who'd paid his dues might have really needed. Nah, you can have him. He's not in my outfit, pal."
When it came to director John Ford, however, Marvin was glad to have him in his outfit, or to be part of Ford's. He describes the scene in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance where a white-aproned Stewart is working in the restaurant kitchen and the steaks and skillets alike are giant-sized. Marvin:
"'Ford,' he says reverentially. "'Fucking Ford. You'll never see skillets and steaks like that in anybody else's picture. He's like Dickens. It's all about bigger than life. That's the what the old guys understood about movies. If it's not bigger than life, put it on television."
--from "Drinks with Liberty Valance: Lee Marvin Shoots from the Hip" in Robert Ward's upcoming journalism collection Renegades (Tyrus Books)
February 26, 2012
The Vengeful Virgin by Gil Brewer
FRIDAY, MARCH 30, 2007
The Vengeful Virigin
F. Scott Fitzgerald once noted that Hemingway (then at his peak) wrote with the authority of success while Fitzgerald (then in
the dumps) wrote with the authority of failure.
The authority of failure is what animates virtually all of Gil Brewer's work and certainly The Vengeful Virgin (now out from Hard Case Crime) is no exception. In outline it's nothing new--a very James M. Cainian scenario in which a TV repairman gets involved with an eighteen year old temptress who is taking care of a dying old man (and one we don't take to at all). He's promised to leave her a fortune when he dies. The trouble is he's dying very slowly. It won't surprise you that the temptress has thoughts of inviting the Reaper in a little ahead of schedule.
What makes this one of Gil Brewer's most successful novels is that a couple of the plot turns are truly shocking and that he is in complete control of his material. He paces this one well right up to the end. And the end is a powerhouse.
I mentioned the authority of failure. In Brewer's case it's usually because his protagonists let their dissatisfaction with their lot become a kind of self-pity that let's them justify whatever they need to do to improve that lot. They generally learn too late that maybe the old TV repair gig wasn't so bad at all.
Contrast this attitude with the reckless but doomed romantics of Charles Williams (whom I prefer). They're smarter than Brewer's men and there's rarely any self-pity. They seem to be on some kind of quest, which is a twist on the Cain-style tale. Yes they meet a bad girl. Yes they do something stupid. But what gets them through is enormous energy and a sense of mission and an undertow of anger. They're like Brewer's men, too, failures. But they are the tarnished knights that Phillip Marlowe and all his imitators only pretended to be.
The Vengeful Virigin
F. Scott Fitzgerald once noted that Hemingway (then at his peak) wrote with the authority of success while Fitzgerald (then in
the dumps) wrote with the authority of failure.
The authority of failure is what animates virtually all of Gil Brewer's work and certainly The Vengeful Virgin (now out from Hard Case Crime) is no exception. In outline it's nothing new--a very James M. Cainian scenario in which a TV repairman gets involved with an eighteen year old temptress who is taking care of a dying old man (and one we don't take to at all). He's promised to leave her a fortune when he dies. The trouble is he's dying very slowly. It won't surprise you that the temptress has thoughts of inviting the Reaper in a little ahead of schedule.
What makes this one of Gil Brewer's most successful novels is that a couple of the plot turns are truly shocking and that he is in complete control of his material. He paces this one well right up to the end. And the end is a powerhouse.
I mentioned the authority of failure. In Brewer's case it's usually because his protagonists let their dissatisfaction with their lot become a kind of self-pity that let's them justify whatever they need to do to improve that lot. They generally learn too late that maybe the old TV repair gig wasn't so bad at all.
Contrast this attitude with the reckless but doomed romantics of Charles Williams (whom I prefer). They're smarter than Brewer's men and there's rarely any self-pity. They seem to be on some kind of quest, which is a twist on the Cain-style tale. Yes they meet a bad girl. Yes they do something stupid. But what gets them through is enormous energy and a sense of mission and an undertow of anger. They're like Brewer's men, too, failures. But they are the tarnished knights that Phillip Marlowe and all his imitators only pretended to be.
February 25, 2012
Favorite Movies
This week Max Allan Colins posted a list of his favorite movies on his blog. Read it. Enlightening and fun. http://www.maxallancollins.com/blog/ I like all his selections. Here are a few I'd add of my own. I'm not claiming that any of these ten are masterpieces, though a few probably are I think--only that I can watch them over and over. No special order here.
The Sweet Smell of Success
Diabolique
Dodsworth
On Dangerous Ground
The Naked Spur
Singing In The Rain
In A Lonely Place
The Apartment
Odds Against Tomorrow
Sorcerer (French & American)
The Sweet Smell of Success
Diabolique
Dodsworth
On Dangerous Ground
The Naked Spur
Singing In The Rain
In A Lonely Place
The Apartment
Odds Against Tomorrow
Sorcerer (French & American)
February 24, 2012
FREDRIC BROWN — LOADED! HAFFNER PRESS
FREDRIC BROWN — LOADED!
If you've been reading our newsletters for the past few months, you know that we've announced an effort to publish the mystery/detective fiction of Fredric Brown.
We're still finalizing the contents of the first two volumes, but above is a peek at our approach.
Next month we'll launch a new page with more details and plan to share the finalized contents.
Haffner Press and Classic Pulp Literature
From Diamond Galleries:
Columnist Mark Squirek delves deeper into the world of pulp revivals and talks with Haffner Press's Stephen Haffner.
Classic pulp literature is undergoing a renaissance of public awareness. Many who come to pulps for the first time are struck by the vivid imagery and wild imagination behind science fiction stories that date back to a hundred years ago. Others love discovering heroes such as The Spider, Doc Savage or The Green Lama for the first time. One of the biggest reasons for this upsurge in awareness is the ability of small presses to reprint the best that the genre had to offer.
Over the last decade Haffner Press has emerged as one of the most important reprint houses in the field of pulp literature. Since 1998 the publishing company has been printing archival, high-quality editions of classic pulp fiction as well as helping new fans discover some of pulp's best writers. Today their compilations and hardcover editions are among the most celebrated reprints in the genre.
This year Haffner Press has one of their most ambitious publishing schedules yet. There are at least eight new titles on the docket including Volumes Four and Five of their Collected Works of Edmond Hamilton and The Collected Captain Future Volume Three.
This spring will see several other titles including Thunder in the Void, a collection of Henry Kuttner's best work in science fiction. The stories are being reprinted from such classic pulp titles as Weird Tales, Astonishing Stories, Planet Stories and Super Science Fiction.
Stephen Haffner, the publisher of Haffner Press, took a few minutes out of his packed day to talk about some of the upcoming titles with Scoop. "2010 saw the publication of one of our fastest selling books yet, Terror in the House, The Early Kuttner Volume One. This collection of the author's early forays into the supernatural, horror and science fiction is already close to selling out in its first printing." Kuttner is a favorite of Haffner's and his enthusiasm for the writer shows as he speaks of the upcoming Kuttner science fiction compilation, Thunder in the Void.
"These are Kuttner's early space opera stories, including a never-before-published story Kuttner wrote as a teenager. The themes are a bit more 'adult' than, let's say, Captain Future. Two of the most fun and crazy stories come from the pulp Marvel Science Stories. This was owned by the man who eventually published Marvel Comics, Martin Goodman."
"One of my favorites in this volume is The Time Trap. I call this a 'kitchen sink' novel. Absolutely everything that you could imagine is in this story. You have, of course, time travel. But there is also space travel, an alien invasion and brain-swapping. To tell you more would ruin the surprise!"
FOR THE REST GO HERE:
http://scoop.diamondgalleries.com/Hom...
Adam Sandler, Cameron Diaz and Rosie O'Donnell in remake of Hitchcock classic
From Cinema Retro:
BAD REMAKE IDEA OF THE WEEK: HITCHCOCK'S "REBECCA"
Classic movie lovers should try to restrain themselves as the remake train keeps rolling along. The latest idea is to have a redo of Alfred Hitchcock's 1940 classic Rebecca, the esteemed director's only film to be awarded a Best Picture Oscar. Joan Fontaine, Laurence Olivier and Judith Anderson starred in the screen adaptation of Daphne DuMaurier's 1938 gothic mystery novel. We suppose we can look forward to that stalwart cast being replaced by Adam Sandler, Cameron Diaz and Rosie O'Donnell
February 23, 2012
Forgotten Books: The Honest Dealer by Frank Gruber
The Honest Dealer
Dick Lochte wrote a guest piece for the Rap Sheet awhile back that I found mighty pleasing in my dotage. Here are some quotes from his choice for a Forgotten Book.
"OK, I'm not sure you have to read The Honest Dealer. If Frank Gruber were still alive, I doubt that even he would consider his 1947 book a necessity. But every now and then, after working my way through a couple of dozen contemporary crime novels, with their elaborate back stories and casts of thousands and plots that call attention to social and/or political ills, I like to treat myself to the kind of mystery that initially lured me to this genre--a yarn written for the sole purpose of providing sheer, unpretentious reading pleasure.
"The Honest Dealer does that in spades. The literary equivalent of a classic B-movie of the 1940s, it immediately draws you in, moves at a breathless pace, has the requisite moments of suspense and humor, and ends with a surprise villain, neatly thwarted. There are a lot of books from the '30s and '40s that meet those requirements, but, for my money, Dealer is one that does it best.
(more)
"I wonder what Gruber would think of some of today's most popular series heroes--sociopaths, alcoholics, whiners, bitter loners, paranoiacs, and worse. Would he go with the market flow and come up with his version of the depressed detective? I'd like to think he'd pawn his typewriter and buy a horse."
Ed here: The horse reference is to a plot element.
I happened to read this book awhile back myself and I think Dick does a fine job of ennumerating its many fine if slight virtues, the biggest of which being that it's just a hell of a lot of fun to read.
As somebody who receives a moderate share of review copies I know what Dick means by the all-too-modern novel. I not only read them, I also write them. But there is so much hype attendant on the Serious ones--publicists and reviewers vying for the grandest superilative--that I often pick up a simple well-told story for a respite from all the Seriousness.
Thank God there are among the younger writers people who are serious about their writing but are a true unpretentious pleasure to read. To name a few Megan Abbott, Jason Starr, Duane Swierczynski, Tom Piccirilli, Allan Guthrie. They speak in their own voices, share their observations of our sometimes forlorn luckless species and yet never forget to amuse, bemuse, shock, outrage and comfort while demanding that we keep flipping those pages.
Damned good storytellers.
As was, in a less ambitious way, Frank Gruber.
Dick Lochte wrote a guest piece for the Rap Sheet awhile back that I found mighty pleasing in my dotage. Here are some quotes from his choice for a Forgotten Book.
"OK, I'm not sure you have to read The Honest Dealer. If Frank Gruber were still alive, I doubt that even he would consider his 1947 book a necessity. But every now and then, after working my way through a couple of dozen contemporary crime novels, with their elaborate back stories and casts of thousands and plots that call attention to social and/or political ills, I like to treat myself to the kind of mystery that initially lured me to this genre--a yarn written for the sole purpose of providing sheer, unpretentious reading pleasure.
"The Honest Dealer does that in spades. The literary equivalent of a classic B-movie of the 1940s, it immediately draws you in, moves at a breathless pace, has the requisite moments of suspense and humor, and ends with a surprise villain, neatly thwarted. There are a lot of books from the '30s and '40s that meet those requirements, but, for my money, Dealer is one that does it best.
(more)
"I wonder what Gruber would think of some of today's most popular series heroes--sociopaths, alcoholics, whiners, bitter loners, paranoiacs, and worse. Would he go with the market flow and come up with his version of the depressed detective? I'd like to think he'd pawn his typewriter and buy a horse."
Ed here: The horse reference is to a plot element.
I happened to read this book awhile back myself and I think Dick does a fine job of ennumerating its many fine if slight virtues, the biggest of which being that it's just a hell of a lot of fun to read.
As somebody who receives a moderate share of review copies I know what Dick means by the all-too-modern novel. I not only read them, I also write them. But there is so much hype attendant on the Serious ones--publicists and reviewers vying for the grandest superilative--that I often pick up a simple well-told story for a respite from all the Seriousness.
Thank God there are among the younger writers people who are serious about their writing but are a true unpretentious pleasure to read. To name a few Megan Abbott, Jason Starr, Duane Swierczynski, Tom Piccirilli, Allan Guthrie. They speak in their own voices, share their observations of our sometimes forlorn luckless species and yet never forget to amuse, bemuse, shock, outrage and comfort while demanding that we keep flipping those pages.
Damned good storytellers.
As was, in a less ambitious way, Frank Gruber.
February 22, 2012
Hollywood Called
I'm rereading Frank Gruber's fascinating book about his career as a writer THE PULP JUNGLE. One of the most amusing sections is about his relationship with Hollywood.
In the 30s a good sale to Hwood was $500 for book rights. He was doing well writing pulp stories but he kept hearing about all these people making Hwood dough. It finally happened to him. He got a call about one of his characters maybe being optioned by Darrel Zanuck no less. He was thunderstruck. The Zanuck deal went away but he immediately got himself a hot shot movie agent who started calling him every day with possible deals. He was talking fifty thou and even a hundred thou,
Gruber couldn't think straight. In fact he couldn't think at all straight or otherwise. He was so caught up in the frenzy of maybe this and maybe that he couldn't write. He owed stories, he needed money but he couldn't write. All he could think about was that Hwood moolah that was BOUND to come through. It didn't of course. He dumped the hot shot and got back to work. Later Gruber went on to become a successful movie and tv writer but not at that time.
Many mid-listers have been through this (stars have better results) . Early in 80s I got my first Hwood calls and they were all I could think of for days. I kept writing my stories and books of course but I had drunk the poison wine of HOLLYWOOD. Everything fell through. And I heard all the cliches my favorite being "You know everybody in Hollywood is talking about Ed Gorman." Uh-huh. A respectable director said that. Another respectable director said something else to me. He'd optioned my book and written the screenplay himself. He wanted to reoption it after I read the screenplay. The problem was that I hated what he'd done so much I wouldn't let him have the option again. He actually screamed into the phone "I'm going to flood the studios with this and nobody'll be interested anymore. And yoi'll never work out here again!" On my honor he screamed that.
I've made decent money with options but over the years I've learned to never get excited about any Hwood deal. I've mentioned before that ABC had optioned my novel Black River Falls, cast it, announced it and just as it was about to be green lighted canceled The Sunday Night Movie when a new Programming dude came in. I've had four movies announced that never got past the script stage; and one that even warranted a press conference went painfully away.
I knew a writer who got a very nice option then decided to quit his job and write the screenplay with the director. He had a very good job and of course the movie never got made. He found himself heavily in hock with a second mortgage on the house and a wife and kiddies paying the price for his folly.
Reading Gruber you realize as Ike said the more things change the more they stay the same.
--------------Thanks to Tom Piccirilli for letting me know that Amazon is now offering our annual year's finest collection
Between the Dark and the Daylight: And 27 More of the Best Crime and Mystery Stories of the Year (Best Crime & Mystery) for only $5.49. I can't be objective of course but this looks to me like a great deal.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_nos....
Amazon.com: Between the Dark and the Daylight: And 27 More of the Best Crime and Mystery Stories of the Year (Best Crime & My..
In the 30s a good sale to Hwood was $500 for book rights. He was doing well writing pulp stories but he kept hearing about all these people making Hwood dough. It finally happened to him. He got a call about one of his characters maybe being optioned by Darrel Zanuck no less. He was thunderstruck. The Zanuck deal went away but he immediately got himself a hot shot movie agent who started calling him every day with possible deals. He was talking fifty thou and even a hundred thou,
Gruber couldn't think straight. In fact he couldn't think at all straight or otherwise. He was so caught up in the frenzy of maybe this and maybe that he couldn't write. He owed stories, he needed money but he couldn't write. All he could think about was that Hwood moolah that was BOUND to come through. It didn't of course. He dumped the hot shot and got back to work. Later Gruber went on to become a successful movie and tv writer but not at that time.
Many mid-listers have been through this (stars have better results) . Early in 80s I got my first Hwood calls and they were all I could think of for days. I kept writing my stories and books of course but I had drunk the poison wine of HOLLYWOOD. Everything fell through. And I heard all the cliches my favorite being "You know everybody in Hollywood is talking about Ed Gorman." Uh-huh. A respectable director said that. Another respectable director said something else to me. He'd optioned my book and written the screenplay himself. He wanted to reoption it after I read the screenplay. The problem was that I hated what he'd done so much I wouldn't let him have the option again. He actually screamed into the phone "I'm going to flood the studios with this and nobody'll be interested anymore. And yoi'll never work out here again!" On my honor he screamed that.
I've made decent money with options but over the years I've learned to never get excited about any Hwood deal. I've mentioned before that ABC had optioned my novel Black River Falls, cast it, announced it and just as it was about to be green lighted canceled The Sunday Night Movie when a new Programming dude came in. I've had four movies announced that never got past the script stage; and one that even warranted a press conference went painfully away.
I knew a writer who got a very nice option then decided to quit his job and write the screenplay with the director. He had a very good job and of course the movie never got made. He found himself heavily in hock with a second mortgage on the house and a wife and kiddies paying the price for his folly.
Reading Gruber you realize as Ike said the more things change the more they stay the same.
--------------Thanks to Tom Piccirilli for letting me know that Amazon is now offering our annual year's finest collection
Between the Dark and the Daylight: And 27 More of the Best Crime and Mystery Stories of the Year (Best Crime & Mystery) for only $5.49. I can't be objective of course but this looks to me like a great deal.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_nos....
Amazon.com: Between the Dark and the Daylight: And 27 More of the Best Crime and Mystery Stories of the Year (Best Crime & My..
February 20, 2012
KINDS OF LOVE, KINDS OF DEATH (1966) by Donald Westlake
Ed Gorman Thought I'd share the link to Tipping My My Fedora's interesting take on the first of Donald Westlake Tucker Coe novels. Patti Abbott ran it last Friday; thought it was good enough to repeat here.
KINDS OF LOVE, KINDS OF DEATH (1966) by Donald Westlake
Posted on 16 February 2012
Donald Edwin Edward Westlake (1933-2008) was a prolific writer and over the decades published all kinds of crime and mystery books – and other types of fiction too – under a great many pseudonyms. Of the dozen or so names he adopted the best-known, other than his own, is probably 'Richard Stark', which he used for his series of tough thrillers starring the merciless Parker, the first of which I reviewed here. But I have always had a real soft spot for the lesser-known quintet of novels he wrote as "Tucker Coe' featuring disgraced former New York cop, Mitchell Tobin.
The following review is offered as part of Patti Abbott's Friday's Forgotten Books meme, which this week is devoted to Westlake's work. For more of the tributes to the late, great man's work, visit her blog at: http://pattinase.blogspot.com/
"You were stopped," she said. "Six months ago you just came to a stop, as though somebody turned a switch. Maybe this will get your started again."
In his salad days Westlake collaborated a number of times with his friend Lawrence Block under various guises, mainly on long-forgotten paperback excitements as No Longer a Virgin (1960), originally issued under the 'John Dexter' house name. I mention this because Tobin has quite a lot in common with Block's Matt Scudder, a much better-known creation in crime writing annals but who actually appeared ten years after Westlake published the first Tucker Coe mystery, Kinds of Love, Kinds of Death. Both characters were once able New York policemen who, following a spectacular fall from grace, have left the force and end up working as un-licensed private investigators, haunted by the guilt over a death for which they feel responsible. In Tobin's case he was conducting an extra-marital affair which left his partner working alone one fateful evening. While Tobin was visiting his mistress (the wife of a crook he put away), his partner as usual covered up for him and went alone to make an arrest, getting killed in the process.
Six months later, Tobin is still living in Queens with his wife and 13-year-old son but has otherwise retreated from real life. Instead he has begun to put all his energy into building a large wall in his back yard, one which will eventually envelope his house and, presumably, permanently cut him off from the society he feels he has offended. Then one day one of Ernie Rembek's men comes to call … Rembek is a senior member of the Outfit (aka The Syndicate aka the mob), which features heavily in many of the Stark novels, and has a big problem on his hands. His mistress, Rita, had gone missing with $80,000 of the organisation's money but now her body has turned up in a motel. She has been beaten to death and the cash is missing. And he think it was one of his own men who did it, so he can't go to the police …
"Failure is your way of life," I said. "Don't try to change it."
FOR THE REST GO HERE:
http://bloodymurder.wordpress.com/201...
February 19, 2012
BREAKING NEWS-PROLOGUE
On Wednesday, February 22, 2012, F&W and Adams Media announce the premier of their new ebook website, Prologue, which will feature many of the vintage mystery and genre fiction authors of the past 100 years. Created by Ben LeRoy, the editor of Tyrus Books, it's a great list of the known and the not-so-known.
They've got authors like Gil Brewer, Andrew Coburn, Robert Colby, Richard Deming, Fletcher Flora, William Gault, Orrie Hitt, Frank Kane, Henry Kane, Ed Lacy, Dan J. Marlowe, Wade Miller, Helen Nielsen, Vin Packer, Kin Platt, Peter Rabe, Charles Runyon, Louis Trimble, Jack Webb, Harry Whittington….and that's just for starters.
There's lots more to come: science fiction, romance, westerns, young adult, horror, and more mysteries.
Visit the Prologue website at www.prologuebooks.com, or check out online booksellers like Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble. We think you'll be nicely surprised at the number of books being made available. As the site says, this is a "living record" of genre fiction. And this is just the beginning.
They've got authors like Gil Brewer, Andrew Coburn, Robert Colby, Richard Deming, Fletcher Flora, William Gault, Orrie Hitt, Frank Kane, Henry Kane, Ed Lacy, Dan J. Marlowe, Wade Miller, Helen Nielsen, Vin Packer, Kin Platt, Peter Rabe, Charles Runyon, Louis Trimble, Jack Webb, Harry Whittington….and that's just for starters.
There's lots more to come: science fiction, romance, westerns, young adult, horror, and more mysteries.
Visit the Prologue website at www.prologuebooks.com, or check out online booksellers like Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble. We think you'll be nicely surprised at the number of books being made available. As the site says, this is a "living record" of genre fiction. And this is just the beginning.
PAUL CAIN'S THE COMPLETE SLAYERS SHIPPING THIS WEEK!
Ed here: Cain was an amazing writer. I read this in two sittings and wanted many more stories. The biographical introduction by Max Collins and Lynn F. Meyers is the single most informed and informative piece I've ever read on the elusive Cain. As for the book itself, a beautiful collector's edition that will quickly increase in value..
CENTIPEDE PRESS
PAUL CAIN'S
THE COMPLETE SLAYERS
SHIPPING THIS WEEK!
PAUL CAIN
THE COMPLETE SLAYERS
EDITED AND WITH A BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAY BY MAX ALLAN COLLINS AND LYNN F. MYERS, JR.
Paul Cain was the hardest boiled of all the Black Mask writers. And other than Hammett and Chandler, the one who best epitomizes the hard, brittle style that represented the magazine. Short staccato sentences void of introspection, conjunctions, and all but the most necessary exposition. Stark, violent, and occasionally brutal storylines. And prose so provocative and compelling that the reader finds himself gulping it down whole instead of in the usual bite-size pieces.
This massive collection features the novel Fast One (in its original serial form) and the complete 13 slayersÑbrilliant works of noir fictionÑwritten by Paul Cain for Black Mask and other crime pulps. For six of the slayers, this is the first time ever that they have been collected in book format, and also marks the first time that all of Cain's fiction has been collected in book form.
This new edition includes a stunning biographical introduction by Max Allan Collins and Lynn F. Myers, Jr., which incorporates years of research into the life of Paul Cain, about whom little is known. Along with the stories, this edition features a cover gallery of old issues of Black Mask as well as old covers of the Fast One and Seven Slayers collections. This hardcover book is signed by Max Allan Collins, Lynn F. Myers, Jr., and Ron Lesser, the cover artist.
The 500-copy, limited hardcover edition is signed by Max Allan Collins, Lynn F. Myers, Jr., and cover and inteior artist Ron Lesser. Our distributor, Consortium Book Sales & Distribution, is showing 300 pre-orders for this book, and with some good reviews appearing, it should be an item that sells out quickly. Sample page spreads appear below. More appear on the website.
Five hundred signed and numbered cloth copies, $75. Click here to order.
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