Film & TV source books
THE GIRL IN A SWING (Two copies).
[London]: Allen Lane, [1980]. Octavo, boards. First edition. First printing with "Allen Lane" on the title page and with the main female character named Käthe. After they are married a couple have haunting and supernatural experiences related to the wife's past. "... the story is sustained by a rich backdrop of art, culture, and religion in which hints of the couple's impending tragedy are continually glimpsed. A surprising mature horror tale from an author best known for his animal fantasy epics..." - Barron (ed), Fantasy and Horror 6-2. - Barron (ed), Fantasy and Horror 6-2. Filmed in 1988 with Meg Tilly.
BACKGROUND TO DANGER.
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1937. Octavo, cloth. First U.S. edition. Espionage thriller involving military secrets, Soviet agents, German agents and Rumanian oil. Filmed in 1943, directed by Raoul Walsh with George Raft, Sidney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre and Turhan Bey from a script by W.R. Burnett.
THE MASK OF DIMITRIOS.
London: Hodder and Stoughton Limited, [1939]. Octavo, pp. [1-8] 9-319 [320]. cloth. First edition. Published in the U.K. as The Mask of Dimitrios. A Haycraft-Queen cornerstone volume. Made into a 1944 film featuring Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre, screenplay credit to Frank Gruber.
THE EGYPTOLOGISTS.
London: Jonathan Cape, [1965]. Octavo, boards. First edition. Farcical novel of a secret society. "The Egyptologists are the members of the Metropolitan Egyptological Society housed in London, and just what goes on or comes off in the Isis Room is not revealed until the end of this long legpull. It is also withheld from their wives who, in boredom, form a solid bloc; but when they are summoned by the Yard (the Superintendent insists on admission), threatened with the visitation of an outsider and a public viewing on television, it all becomes sufficiently Pharanoid to result in their dissolution. "We're twee; you see. We know so well that what we're up to is the least twee of human activities..." Well, you can skip the hieroglyphic twee and settle down to being twitted with some aimless nonsense. Most of the characters are faceless but one of them could be Peter Sellers." - Kirkus Review, February, 1965. Filmed as a made for TV Czech movie.
TOTAL RECALL.
New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., [1989]. Octavo, cloth backed boards. First edition. Novel based on the story "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale" by Philip K. Dick and screen treatment by Ronald Shusett and others. A recreational memory implant of a vacation on Mars places the hapless protagonist in grave danger as his dreams turn into frightening reality.
FANTASTIC VOYAGE.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1966. Octavo, cloth. First edition. Nebula nominee for 1966. Filmed in 1966 by Richard Fleischer with Stephen Boyd, Raquel Welch, and Donald Pleasance. This is a novelization of the screenplay. Anatomy of Wonder (1981) 3-43.
I, ROBOT.
New York: Gnome Press, Inc., Publishers, [1950]. Octavo, illustrated by Edd Cartier, cloth. First edition. Inscribed, signed and dated in the year of publication by Asimov on the front free end paper. Influential collection of short fiction about robots with first postulation of the "Three Laws of Robotics," a concept used for plots in numerous tales by other writers in subsequent years. Includes "The Evitable Conflict." in which machines that have made the world of the twenty-first century an economic utopia take control of Mankind's future, moving it "toward an unknown and happy destiny." - Berger, Science Fiction and the New Dark Age, pp. 36-7. Loose basis for the recent film of the same title. Anatomy of Wonder (2004) II-49. Survey of Science Fiction Literature II, pp. 995-99.
HANDMAID'S TALE.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1986. Octavo, cloth backed boards. First edition. "Dystopian novel of a world ruled by militaristic fundamentalism in which sexual pleasure is forbidden. Conception and childbirth have become difficult, and the handmaid of the title belongs to a special breeding stock." - Anatomy of Wonder (2004) II-57. Made into a feature film in 1990, recently made into a television series. Winner, 1985 Governor General's Award; 1986 Nebula nominee. First winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award, Broderick and Di Filippo, Science Fiction: The 101 Best Novels, 1985-2010 #1. Sargent, British and American Utopian Literature, 1516-1985, p. 426.
MISS BRACEGIRDLE AND OTHERS.
New York: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1923. Octavo, pp. [1-10] 1-332 [333-334: blank], original brown cloth, front and spine stamped in black. First U. S. edition. Collects thirteen stories, several crime, two of which were used as film sources. Aumonier was a highly regarded short fiction writer, praised by John Galsworthy and James Hilton. Hubin, p. 37. Queen, The Detective Short Story, p. 7.
SEE NO EVIL: THE TRUE STORY OF A GROUND SOLDIER IN THE CIA'S WAR ON TERRORISM.
New York: Crown Publishers, [2002]. Octavo, boards. First edition. Career CIA field officer's memoirs. Basis for the George Clooney film Syriana.
IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT.
New York, Evanston and London: Harper & Row Publishers, [1965]. Octavo, cloth backed boards. First edition. Introduces the character of Virgil Tibbs, and the basis for the feature film. This copy's text has been marked up to block out set ups for the script of the film. Edgar Award winner for best first novel. Hubin, p. 44.
IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT.
New York, Evanston and London: Harper & Row Publishers, [1965]. Octavo, cloth backed boards. First edition. Introduces the character of Virgil Tibbs, and the basis for the feature film. This copy's text has been marked up to block out set ups for the script of the film. Edgar Award winner for best first novel. Hubin, p. 44.
CRASH.
London: Jonathan Cape, [1973]. Octavo, boards. First edition. Signed bookplate by the author laid in. Filmed in 1996 by David Cronenberg with James Spader and Holly Hunter. Barron (ed.): Horror Literature 4-16.
CRASH.
New York: Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, [1973]. Octavo, cloth backed boards. First U. S. edition. "Perhaps Ballard's darkest, most unsettling book". Barron (ed.) Horror Literature, 4-16. Filmed in 1996 by David Cronenberg with James Spader and Holly Hunter. Anatomy of Wonder (2004) II-64. Winter list, p. 268.
AFTER WORLDS COLLIDE.
New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1934. Octavo, pp. [i-vi] vii [viii] ix-xiii [xiv-xvi] 1-341 [342-344: blank] [note: last leaf is a blank], original blue cloth, front and spine stamped in gold, fore edge untrimmed, bottom edge rough trimmed. First edition, first printing. Sequel to WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE. The survivors of the destruction of Earth start a new civilization. Bailey, Pilgrims Through Space and Time, pp. 126-27. Clareson, Science Fiction in America, 1870s-1930s 041. Clarke, Tale of the Future (1978), p. 64. Clute and Nicholls (eds), The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (1993), p. 86. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, p. 27. Sargent, British and American Utopian Literature, 1516-1985, Additions. In 333. Bleiler (1978), p. 14. Reginald 00801.
WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE.
New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1933. Octavo, pp. [i-vi] vii-viii 1-344, original red cloth, front panel stamped in light blue and ruled in blind, spine panel stamped in light blue, fore and bottom edges rough trimmed. First edition. A famous, popular catastrophe novel that was a huge commercial success (over half a million copies sold) and was made into a film that helped spark the SF movie boom of the 1950s. Anatomy of Wonder (1976) 3-3; (1981) 2-130; (1987) 2-146; (1995) 2-156; and (2004) II-70. Bailey, Pilgrims Through Space and Time, pp. 125-26. Clareson, Science Fiction in America, 1870s-1930s 042. Clarke, Tale of the Future (1978), p. 62. Clute and Nicholls (eds), The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (1993), p. 86. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, p. 27. Survey of Science Fiction Literature V, pp. 2463-68. In 333. Bleiler (1978), p. 14. Reginald 00801.
CABAL.
New York, London, Sydney, Toronto, Tokyo: Poseiden Press, [1988]. Octavo, cloth backed boards. First edition, trade issue. Signed inscription by Barker on the title page. Comprises the title novella and four short fictions (these four comprise volume 6 of the Books of Blood). Cabal was filmed as NIGHTBREED. Barron (ed.): Horror Literature 4-21.
THE 25TH HOUR.
New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, Inc., [2000]. Octavo, boards. First edition. Contemporary crime novel, filmed in 2002 by Spike Lee.
SHERLOCK HOLMES IN NEW YORK.
New York: Ballantine Books, 1976. Small octavo, pictorial wrappers. First edition. Paperback original. Sherlockiana. Novelization of the made for television movie starring Roger Moore and Patrick MacNee. Photo cover.
MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL.
New York: Random House, [1994]. Octavo, cloth backed boards. First edition. The author's first book. Made into a feature film in 1997 directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Kevin Spacey and John Cusack.
THIEVES' MARKET.
New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1949. Octavo, cloth. First edition. The novel concerns the world of hauling produce in California and the criminal element that controls the marketplace. Filmed as "Thieve's Highway" a noir film by Jules Dassin. Hubin, p. 70. Johnson, The Dark Page, p. 24.
CHARLIE CHAN CARRIES ON.
New York: Avon Publishing Co., Inc., [1951]. Small octavo, pictorial wrappers. Later edition. Avon #350. First Avon edition, first issued in paperback by Pocket Books. A Charlie Chan mystery novel.
PSYCHO.
London: Robert Hale Limited, 1960. Octavo, boards. First British edition. "Psycho is a genre masterpiece which set the pattern for the psychological suspense-horror novel." - Barron (ed), Horror Literature 4-46. Jones and Newman (eds), Horror: 100 Best Books 57.
EIGHT MILLION WAYS TO DIE.
[New York]: Arbor House, [1982]. Octavo, cloth backed boards. First edition. Signed, with inscription on the title page. A Matt Scudder novel. Edgar award nominee. Made into a feature film.
THE BRIDGE OVER THE RIVER KWAI...translated by Xan Fielding.
New York: The Vanguard Press, Inc., [1954]. Octavo, cloth backed boards. First edition in English. Filmed in 1957 directed by David Lean.