Film & TV source books
THE GREAT PRINCE SHAN.
Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1922. Octavo, pp. [1-4] [1-3] 4-303 [304: blank] [305: ads] [306-308: blank] [note: last leaf is a blank], original decorated blue cloth, front and spine panels stamped in black. First U.S. edition. A tale of political intrigue set in the near future (1934). England has relaxed militarily, seemingly secure with membership in the League of Nations. Germany, Russia, Japan and China plot against them. China has secretly built a fleet of 1000 advanced airships which can be used to conquer any country in the world. The world is on the brink of a new world war and China's brilliant leader, Prince Shan, uses his power and diplomacy to establish a new world order. Filmed in 1924 with Sessue Hayakawa. Bleiler, Science-Fiction: The Early Years 1725. Bleiler (1978), p. 151. Reginald 11016. Hubin (1994), p. 616.
THE STRANGER'S GATE.
Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1939. Octavo, pp. [1-4] [1-3] 4-328 [329-333: ads] [334-336: blank], original black cloth, front and spine stamped in orange, top edge stained orange, fore and bottom edges rough trimmed. First edition. A setting in the Balkans concerning an important bauxite mining operation of which the Germans are interested in. Hubin (1994), p. 618.
THE WRATH TO COME.
Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1924. Octavo, pp. [1-8] [1] 2-355 [356: blank] [357: ads] [358-360: blank], original orange cloth, front and spine panels stamped in black. First edition. Germany, Russian and Japan ally together and plot against the United States in 1950. In this day the United States, while the world's richest country, is mostly is a state of disarmament. Bleiler, Science-Fiction: The Early Years 1726. Clarke, Tale of the Future (1978), p. 52. Clarke, Voices Prophesying War (1992), p. 237. Bleiler (1978), p. 151. Reginald 11022.Hubin (1994), p. 618.
ALL KNEELING.
New York and London: Harper and Brothers Publishers, 1928. Octavo, cloth. First edition. Basis for the Nicholas Ray film noir Born to Be Bad (1950) with Joan Fontaine, Zachary Scott and Robert Ryan.
ALONG CAME A SPIDER.
Boston: Little, Brown, 1993. Octavo, Hardcover. First edition. The first Alex Cross novel. Filmed in 2001 starring Morgan Freeman.
[GORMENGHAST SEQUENCE]: TITUS GROAN; GORMENGHAST; and TITUS ALONE.
London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1946-1959. Octavo, cloth. First editions, three volumes. The first volume, Titus Groan is signed by the Peake on the front free end paper. The three published books of the "Gormenghast" sequence. Comprises Titus Groan (1946), Gormenghast (1950), and Titus Alone (1959). Gormenghast was filmed by the BBC in 2000 as a television mini-series. Barron (ed), Fantasy Literature 3-285. Cawthorn and Moorcock, Fantasy: The 100 Best Books 64. Manlove, Modern Fantasy, pp. 207-57. Pringle, Modern Fantasy: The Hundred Best Novels 1, 10, and 23. Schlobin, The Literature of Fantasy 867-869. Survey of Modern Fantasy Literature IV, pp. 1947-53. Reginald 11248,11244 and 11246.
[GORMENGHAST SEQUENCE]: TITUS GROAN; GORMENGHAST; and TITUS ALONE.
London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1946-1959. Octavo, cloth. First editions. The three published books of the "Gormenghast" sequence. Comprises Titus Groan (1946), Gormenghast (1950), and Titus Alone (1959). Gormenghast was filmed by the BBC in 2000 as a television mini-series. Barron (ed), Fantasy Literature 3-285. Cawthorn and Moorcock, Fantasy: The 100 Best Books 64. Manlove, Modern Fantasy, pp. 207-57. Pringle, Modern Fantasy: The Hundred Best Novels 1, 10, and 23. Schlobin, The Literature of Fantasy 867-869. Survey of Modern Fantasy Literature IV, pp. 1947-53. Reginald 11248,11244 and 11246.
THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES' SMARTER BROTHER.
New York: Ballantine Books, 1975. Small octavo, pictorial wrappers. First edition. Paperback original. Sherlockiana. Based on the screenplay by Gene Wilder. Includes stills from the motion picture.
THE FENCING MASTER.
London: The Harvill Press, [1999]. Octavo, boards. First British edition (first edition in English). Signed by the author on the title page. Translated from the Spanish by Margaret Jull Costa. Filmed in 1992 (El Maestro de esgrima).
THE FENCING MASTER.
New York, San Diego, London: Harcourt Brace & Company, [1999]. Octavo, boards. First U.S. edition. Signed by the author on the title page. Translated from the Spanish by Margaret Jull Costa. Filmed in 1992 (El Maestro de esgrima).
MONEY MEN and ONE-SHOT DEAL.
New York: Harcourt, Brace & Jovanovich, 1981. Octavo, Hardcover. First edition. Author's first book. Basis for the Wesley Snipes film Boiling Point.
THE ICE HARVEST.
[Tucson, AZ: Dennis McMillan Publications], 2000. Octavo, leather-backed boards. First edition. One of 225 numbered cloth copies signed by Phillips. The author's first novel, a noir crime novel which takes place during the Christmas holiday. Made into a feature film in 2005 with John Cusack and Billy Bob Thornton.
THE ICE HARVEST.
New York: Ballantine Books, [2000]. Octavo, boards. First trade edition. The author's first novel, a noir crime novel which takes place during the Christmas holiday. Made into a feature film in 2005 with John Cusack and Billy Bob Thornton.
MUTE WITNESS.
Garden City, New York: Published For The Crime Club By Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1963. Octavo, cloth. First edition. This book was the source material for the Steve McQueen feature film "Bullitt" The feature character Lt. Clancy appeared in two more novels. This is also the first novel using the Pike pseudonym.
CINDERELLA LIBERTY.
New York, Evanston, San Francisco, London: Harper & Row, Publishers:, [1973]. Octavo, cloth backed boards. First edition. A novel in which a sailor in the hospital becomes nonexistent as his records are lost, he is granted Cinderella liberty, he has to return to the hospital by midnight. While out he meets a bargirl and her children which changes his life. Filmed in 1973 with James Caan and Marsh Mason.
SHIP OF FOOLS.
Boston, Toronto: An Atlantic Monthly Press Book Little, Brown and Company, [1962]. Octavo, cloth. First edition. Porter's best known work. "The voyage of the Vera is a pilgrims' progress without a happy ending, indeed with no ending at all ... Though, as with life itself, its ends are not neatly tied up, her novel is satisfying in its richness, its intelligence, its depth of comic and tragic sensibility." - Clifton Fadiman. Basis for the 1965 Oscar-winning film directed by Stanley Kramer.
THE PRESTIGE.
London, Sydney, New York, Tokyo, Singapore, Toronto: Touchstone, [1995]. Octavo, boards. First edition. Signed on the title page by Priest. Winner of the 1996 World Fantasy Award for best novel. Filmed in 2006 by Christopher Nolan with Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Piper Perabo and Scarlett Johansson.
THE PRESTIGE.
London, Sydney, New York, Tokyo, Singapore, Toronto: Touchstone, [1995]. Octavo, boards. First edition. Winner of the 1996 World Fantasy Award for best novel. Filmed in 2006 by Christopher Nolan with Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Piper Perabo and Scarlett Johansson.
BENIGHTED.
London: William Heinemann Ltd., [1927]. Octavo, pp. [1-8] [1] 2-304 [305: ad] [306-308: blank] [note: first and last leaves are blanks], original blue cloth, spine panel stamped in gold, publisher's windmill device stamped in blind on rear panel. First edition. The later U.S. edition was titled THE OLD DARK HOUSE. The novel was the basis for the 1932 film directed by James Whale with Boris Karloff, Melvyn Douglas, Charles Laughton, Raymond Massey and others. Five travelers seek refuge during a storm in "an eerie old mansion where they must spend the night with the weirdest household imaginable ... playing for laughs as well as chills, [Whale creates] ... a genuine masterpiece of black humor ... The Old Dark House is the definitive haunted house chiller, a horror film for connoisseurs." - Sullivan (ed), The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural. At one point considered a lost film, a print was discovered in the Universal vaults in 1968 and the film was restored. Hubin (1994), pp. 656-7.
EXIT TO EDEN.
New York: Arbor House, 1985. Octavo, cloth backed boards. First edition. First of two novels using this pseudonym.
DOCTORS WEAR SCARLET ...
New York: Simon and Schuster, 1961. Octavo, cloth. First edition. Well-regarded vampire novel. Filmed as "Incense for the Damned" (1970). Barron (ed), Horror Literature 4-248. Carter, The Vampire in Literature, p. 90. Reginald 12048.
INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE.
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1976. Octavo, cloth backed boards. First edition. The author's first book. The first volume in the "Vampire Chronicles." Barron: Horror Literature 4-250.
THE QUEEN OF THE DAMNED.
New York: Knopf, 1988. Octavo, Hardcover. First edition.
HOME SWEET HOMICIDE.
New York: Simon and Schuster, 1944. Octavo, boards. First edition. A Haycraft-Queen cornerstone volume. Filmed under the same title in 1946.
THE BAT: A NOVEL FROM THE PLAY BY MARY ROBERTS RINEHART AND AVERY HOPWOOD.
New York: George H. Doran, [1926]. Octavo, pp. [i-iv] v-vi [vii-viii] 9-319 [320: blank], original decorated orange cloth, front and spine panels stamped in black. First edition. In 1920 Rinehart's 1908 mystery thriller THE CIRCULAR STAIRCASE was adapted into a very popular play, The Bat, by Rinehart and Avery Hopwood. The 1926 silent film, The Bat, directed by Roland West and starring Jack Pickford and Louise Fazenda, was based on Rinehart and Hopwood's play. The play was also the basis for a 1930 film (also done by Roland West), The Bat Whispers, which features a black shrouded arch-criminal. Comic-book creator Bob Kane said in his 1989 autobiography BATMAN AND ME that the villain of the 1930 film The Bat Whispers was an inspiration for his character Batman.